Just a few days ago, Kia announced the prices of the 2021 versions of the Kia Seltos and Sonet which wear Kia’s new brand identity. The 2021 versions of both these blockbuster offerings get some new features and their variant-feature mix has been revised. Kia dealers have been advised to communicate waiting periods extending to several weeks to customers on both these models.

• Kia Seltos and Sonet have been updated recently
• Variant and feature mix has been revised
• Waiting periods up to 20 weeks for some variants

Kia has communicated waiting periods of as long as 20 weeks on most of the 2021 Kia Sonet and Seltos range. The soonest one can expect the delivery of their 2021 Sonet is 11-13 weeks for certain turbo-petrol iMT and DCT variants. In the 2021 Seltos’ case, the least waiting time is 16-17 weeks for the HTK+ 1.5-litre petrol manual variant; all other variants command a waiting period ranging between 17 and 20 weeks. These waiting periods may further vary based on colour availability as well as the place of purchase.

Recently, while speaking to our sister publication, Autocar Professional, Harpreet Singh Brar, VP and Head of Sales and Marketing, Kia India, commented, “Currently, we have a waiting period of 3-4 months on our products. Despite all the tough times and lockdowns in five states, we still have a lot of demand from the rest of the markets, so we are trying to supply cars to these cities.”

Lockdowns as well as certain restrictions imposed in several states to curtail the second wave of the Covid-19 virus have given birth to several logistical challenges across the automotive industry as a result manufacturing schedules have gone for a toss.

“We hope to ramp up production by June-July and start the third shift at the plant, as we hope that the pandemic-related supply-chain issues should be resolved by that time,” added Singh.

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