TeaIn the early 2010s, gossip among automotive journalists often involved ‘will they, will they not’ about Korean carmaker Kia Motors. It was the second brand under the umbrella of the Hyundai Motor Company with their namesake brand and was making waves in Europe. This was also the time when Kia’s global brand ambassador Rafael Nadal was patting his back in all corners of the tennis courts around the world. Kia Motors recognized the talent of the man from the Spanish island of Majorca before any other major sponsor except Nike. But when they finally decided to invest in a new factory in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh in 2017, talk swirled about what cars they would come with in India and whether they would match the success of their brand ambassador.
When Kia Motors finally took the wraps off its first vehicle in India, the Seltos, the big question was will it be a success? After all, India was fast becoming the graveyard of many global giants. In mid-August 2019, during the media campaign of the Celtos—named ‘Celtus’, believed to be one of the many sons of Hercules whose blood gave rise to the Celtic people—there was a washout. But by the time I drove a sports utility vehicle (SUV), the heavy rain had stopped, and it was clear that Kia had studied the Indian market thoroughly.
They observed that Indian car buyers wanted their cars to be packed with features and the Seltos came with the Bose audio system, which was the first vehicle from a mass-market manufacturer to feature a branded audio system and heads-up display. And it was not that the car was lacking in terms of performance, the Seltos had a turbocharged engine and dual-clutch gearbox. There aren’t exactly ‘new’ features in the mass-market segment – Ford did the same with the EcoSport – but Kia really made it work.
So, when a few weeks ago, Kia’s public relations team released a release Talking about how the carmaker sold more than five lakh vehicles in just three years in India, it didn’t blink most of us. But that didn’t make it any less remarkable, because just six months after Kia began sales operations, a virus affected every single human life on Earth. Manufacturing stopped, sales stopped, and unless you were a first responder or worked in government or the media, life was like that. So while Kia’s success is no surprise, the fact that they achieved it despite the pandemic and the exits of global majors like Ford and General Motors from India, makes it a doubly remarkable success story. Is.
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prepared for pandemic and lightning
Myungsik Sohan, Chief Sales Officer, Kia India, told me that a key reason for the carmaker’s success in India is that it had established 265 customer touch-points (sales, service and support) across India, before any Didn’t even take delivery. Kia vehicle in the country. This is the highest for any new entrant and while giants like Maruti-Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata Motors and Mahindra have over a thousand touch-points, Kia India already has over 339 such points across the country. Huh. It is no surprise that Kia pushed 22,000 vehicles in July 2022, an increase of 46 per cent over the previous year and currently stands as the fifth largest carmaker in India behind the four above-mentioned companies. This is already ahead of the likes of Toyota, Renault, Honda and Volkswagen, all of whom have been selling cars in India for over two decades.
Being a new player in the market, Sohan says that at the time of launch, Kia India had already taken the initiative to build an end-to-end digital sales platform. And when everything went haywire in March 2020, while others were scrambling to build out their digital platform, Kia was prepared by chance. Rather better prepared than others, Sohan says. In fact, he said ‘digital support’ was also necessary for warranty claims and dealers, Kia was offering inventory support to its dealer partners.
While most carmakers digitize many aspects of it, a Kia dealer, who wished not to be identified, said that Kia’s digital user experience (UX) is superior to that of most other brands, “possibly because they later Started and didn’t have legacy issues.”
But the success so far doesn’t mean it will continue to do so. While Kia’s Seltos, Sonet and Cars have sold well, the future for the Korean company, like other carmakers, is clearly electric. The new EV6 that the carmaker is bringing to India will be a major one for the brand. Despite initially saying that only 100 units of the car will arrive in India, demand has exceeded expectations, with close to 500 bookings so far, all of which the carmaker has said they will honor. With the first deliveries of the EV6 starting in September, Kia’s next few years in India could be as electric as the first three. If their ace brand ambassadors are any indication, they’ll just keep going.
@kushanmitra is an automotive journalist based in New Delhi. Thoughts are personal.
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