The Seltos, which helped make a relatively unknown Korean brand in the country in 2019 a household name, has a lot going for it. The midsize SUV, which comes with refined petrol and diesel engines, has a premium and feature-laden cabin and accounts for 48% of the company’s over one-million sales to date. It is now just 7,503 units shy of the 500,000 milestone.
22 Aug 2024 | 7359 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
The Kia Seltos, the first product from Korean car and SUV manufacturer to be launched in India in August 2019, is five years old today. Launched on August 22, 2019, the midsize SUV has, till end-July 2024, sold a total of 492,497 units in India and is just 7,503 ...
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The Kia Seltos, the first product from Korean car and SUV manufacturer to be launched in India in August 2019, is five years old today. Launched on August 22, 2019, the midsize SUV has, till end-July 2024, sold a total of 492,497 units in India and is just 7,503 units shy of the half-a-million milestone in the domestic market.
Given the Seltos’ average monthly sales of 6,275 units in the first four months of FY2025, expect Kia India’s highest-selling model from its portfolio to surpass 500,000 units in early September 2024. It is also Kia India’s top-selling export model with 149,747 units shipped overseas till end-July 2024. Combined domestic and export sales for the midsize SUV make for a total of 642,244 units.
The Seltos has a lot going for it and is all that a midsize SUV is meant to be, including a premum and feature-laden cabin. As per Autocar India’s buyer’s guide commentary, “The Seltos is one of the most complete midsize SUVs in the market. It is packed with features like ADAS, a panoramic sunroof, dual curved screens, and it’s stylish too. There is a wide range of powertrain options: a 1.5 diesel, a 1.5 petrol and a punch 1.5 turbo, each available with manual, IMT or automatic gearboxes.”
Powering brand Kia into the mainstream
The Seltos, whose name is derived from ‘Celtos’, the son of Hercules in Greek mythology, has been instrumental making Kia, a brand which was relatively unknown in India five years ago, into a household name. The Seltos, which like other Kia India models, rolls out of the state-of-the-art plant in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, is currently available in 28 variants comprising 14 diesel and 14 petrol, with pricing starting at Rs 12.90 lakh for the base 1.5HTE petrol variant through to Rs 23.92 lakh for the top-end 1.5 CRDi X-Line AT (on-road Mumbai).
Squarely targeted at millennials and tech-savvy buyers scouting for an SUV that stood out from the crowd, Kia’s strategy to offer multiple variants at different price-points at launch appealed to buyers and caught the competition off-guard. Not surprisingly, Seltos wholesales in the last eight months of FY2020 were 81,707 units, averaging 8,180 units a month. Importantly, it helped the Kia brand cement itself in the Top 5 passenger vehicle OEMs within a few months of launch. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought the world to its knees, the Seltos maintained its sales momentum in both FY2021 (89,173 units) and FY2022 (95,929 units) and then crossed the 100,000 milestone for the first time in FY2023 (100,132 units).
Since then, sales have slowed down and FY2024’s 100,423 units were just 291 units more than in FY2023. In the current fiscal year, dispatches in April-July 2024 have totalled 25,123 units, 2% and just 527 units more than a year ago (April-July 2023: 24,596 units). In fact, the Kia Sonet compact SUV has outsold the Seltos in the same period with 34,609 units and is currently the company’s best-selling product.
Seltos accounts for 48% of Kia’s domestic sales and 74% of exports
As the domestic market wholesales data table above depicts, the Seltos with 492,497 units accounts for 48% of Kia India’s total sales of 10,23,515 passenger vehicles in the country since August 2019. In FY2024, when the Seltos registered its best 12-month sales of 100,423 units, it was ranked third in the fast-growing midsize SUV market, behind the Hyundai Creta (162,773 units) and the Maruti Grand Vitara (121,169 units)
The Seltos is also the top-selling export model for Kia India. A total of 149,747 made-in-India Seltos SUVs have been shipped overseas over the past 60 months, which accounts for 74% of the company’s total exports of 260,844 units to date.
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