Kia Motors India, which is part of the Hyundai Motor Group, is set to end FY20 with record production and an impressive performance in an intensely competitive Indian automotive market.

The company will end this fiscal year with a production milestone of more than 1 lakh units, which is a record number for an entrant to achieve in a year, especially in the midst of an unprecedented demand slowdown.

With its current monthly sales rate, Kia’s domestic PV sales alone for this fiscal year are expected to touch 90,000 units, which many PV makers already in India took many years to achieve.

While its SUV Seltos, which was launched last year, has been a big hit in the Indian market and continues to fetch good volumes, the recently launched premium MPV Carnival, (priced between ₹24.905 lakh and ₹33.95 lakh), has also attracted a good number of customers.

“Both Seltos and Carnival finely address the gap in the Indian automobile industry with regards to consumer’s preferences. We will cross the production of 1 lakh cars in March, 2020,” Tae-Jin Park, Executive Director & Chief Sales Officer at Kia Motors India, told BusinessLine.

In February, the Seltos sold 14,024 units, while Carnival, which was launched at the AutoExpo, reported sales of 1,620 units. For Carnival, the order book continues to swell and is more than 5,000 units as of now. The overall passenger vehicle sales fell 4.4 per cent in February when compared with January volumes, whereas Kia Motors reported margianl growth of 1.3 per cent. This month, too, the company hopes to report good sales amid Covid-19 related challenges.

“Currently we have not been impacted by the Coronavirus outbreak. However, it is still a developing situation and we are closely monitoring it. We are taking every possible measure to minimise the impact,” said Park,

During the 11-month period of this fiscal year, Kia Motors’ total production and domestic volumes stood at 88,671 units and 76,320 units, respectively.

In February, Kia emerged as the Number three player after Maruti and Hyundai in the Indian passenger vehicle (PV) market.

For the full year, the company is expected to emerge as the 4th biggest player in the UV market after Maruti, Hyundai and Mahindra and its market share is likely to touch double digits in this segment, which is again a record.

With its new compact SUV Sonet launch slated for the second half of the year, the company is confident of maintaining the momentum throughout 2020.

Kia’s SUV concept ‘Sonet’ was unveiled at the Auto Expo 2020 and the company said Sonet with many first-in-class features will hit the market later this year. Sonet will compete with models such as Maruti’s Vitara Brezza, Hyundai Venue and Ford Ecosport.

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