Kia India has driven past the million-unit wholesale milestone in the domestic market. The Korean carmaker achieved this milestone in June 2024. The company’s cumulative sales from August 2019 through to July 2024 adds up to 10,23,515 units (see data table below).
Kia India, which began selling its models in August 2019, has taken just under six years to record a million units wholesales. The company broke through the 6 lakh-unit mark in November 2022 and crossed the 7 lakh-unit milestone barely five months later, in April 2023. The run from 7 lakh to a million units (10 lakh) has taken 13 months.
Model-wise contribution
Kia India currently retails four products in India – Seltos, Sonet, EV6 and Carens. The Seltos was its first product launched in August 2019, and it remains the highest-selling product to date with cumulative sales of 4,92,497 units, accounting for 48 percent of the company’s total despatches (as of August 2024). In Kia’s sales-wise table of top contributors, the Seltos is followed by the Sonet, which has sold a total of 3,47,670 units, which is a 34 percent share of its wholesales.
Data analytics reveal that the Sonet has outsold the Seltos for seven straight months in 2024. The Sonet’s cumulative January-July 2024 sales are 63,991 units; 40 percent more than the Seltos’ 45,691 units in the same period.
Launched on February 15, 2022, the Carens is the third-highest contributor to Kia India’s sales. With 1,67,650 units sold in 29 months, it accounted for a 16 percent share of the company’s sales.
Kia's first EV in India, the EV6, was introduced in June 2022 as a CBU. As per SIAM and Kia India data, the EV6 has sold a total of 1,156 units.
What community is saying on the Sonet?
The EV6 will be joined later this year by the all-electric EV9 SUV. The company’s top-down strategy with its EVs in India will see the new EV9 and EV6 slotted at the premium end of the EV market, while an all-new, made-in-India mass market EV will be introduced in 2025.
Kia India exports and future launches
Kia India had rolled out its millionth made-in-India car on July 13, 2023. Since then, the company has manufactured another 63,507 units for a total cumulative production of 1.26 million units. Along with domestic market sales of a million units, Kia India has also shipped 2,58,339 units overseas.
Since its market entry, Kia India has expanded its dealership network to 5,885 touchpoints across 265 cities. The company has previously announced that its two global models – the EV9 and the new Carnival MPV – will be launched in India in the second half of this year. The Carnival will be brought in as a full import initially, and local assembly will commence later.
Dipan Sur
Viraaj Bhatnagar
