With the 7-seat Hyundai Creta making headlines now, rumours about a 7-seat Kia Seltos have started surfacing again. However, IndianAutosBlog.com understands that a Kia Seltos seven-seater is not in the pipeline.
Kia is trying to distance itself from Hyundai as much as it can. Two of the simplest ways to differentiate is to play in different segments and go for different body styles. While Hyundai will pay equal attention to cars and RVs, Kia will focus only on RVs in India for the foreseeable future.
The Kia Seltos and the second-gen Hyundai Creta sit on the same platform, which can support a seven-seater SUV. However, while Hyundai has decided to stretch its SUV and add two seats, Kia wants to leverage the platform’s capability in another way. Kia will use this platform to launch an “India Strategic” three-row compact MPV instead.
For the near future, there’s only one derivative of the Kia Seltos in the making - the Kia Seltos EV (codename: Kia SP2 EV). However, it will be a China-only model. It will be introduced in the second half of the year.
With the launch of the Sonet in India in August, Kia aims to sell more than 1,80,000 vehicles (wholesale) in India in 2020. It expects to start generating profit from the second half of the year. There’s no precise Kia compact MPV launch date at the moment, but we know it for sure that 2021 will be the year when you’ll see the fourth Kia model in Indian showrooms.
Also See: Top-end Kia Sonet flaunts its crystal cut alloy wheels while on test
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