Kia plans to introduce new models and ramp up production capacity

Bullish on the long-term growth prospects of the Indian car market, South Korean auto maker Kia plans to introduce new models and enhance sales network. It will also ramp up production capacity to reduce the waiting period on the existing product range.

The carmaker, which currently sells three products – Seltos, Sonet and Carnival, is preparing to drive in a mid-sized multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) in the country early next year as it expects the market to start recovering from COVID-19 impact from the festive season this year.

Tae-Jin Park, Kia India Executive Director and Chief Sales and Business Strategy Officer, told PTI that the company is focusing on SUV and MPV segments and as part of that they are looking at the feasibility of some kind of a MPV. The company already sells a premium MPV, Carnival and is now looking to bring in a mid-sized product to garner volumes. When asked if the company is also considering launching an electric vehicle in the country, Park said that with the government focusing on the segment, the company is also looking at the market situation intently.

“What can I say right now is that we are analysing what kind of an EV can be launched in the market. We have not finalized it yet but we are looking at it,” he said. With the COVID-19 situation deteriorating and impacting auto sales, Park hoped for an improvement in the situation by festive season. “The current situation is impacting sales but we already have some experience from last year so it will not take a very long time. We will overcome this difficult time. I think maybe before the festive season, the market will recover again.”

Hardeep Singh Brar, Kia India National Head of Sales and Marketing, said the market has been very resilient so far. “One thing which is different is that last year there was a complete lockdown and now there are partial lockdowns so the overall impact on business is less as compared with last year.” Brar cautioned that if things remain the same then there is definitely going to be an impact on the industry volumes.

“From our perspective we are purely dependent on how much we are able to produce and whatever we are producing we are able to sell because of the long waiting period on products,” he said. The company is now looking to ramp up production further as well as enhance penetration in smaller towns. “We are looking at how we can ramp up our production further to reduce the waiting period so that we can offer cars to customers at the earliest. We are planning to do it over the next couple of months so it requires few things like increase in manpower, increase in logistics capability etc.”

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Brar noted that everything seems to be under control and the company seems to be headed towards that but one thing which is not certain is the global supply chain. “Semiconductor supply is a question mark so if that is solved in next couple of months, we will be able to increase the production by July. We are ready to go ahead in the next few months.”