Following the launch of the new Sonet in January 2024, Kia India’s first compact SUV is currently its best-selling model. While the 84,502 units sold in the first 10 months of FY2025 make for strong 41% YoY growth, cumulative domestic and export market sales at 495,954 units are just 4,046 units shy of the half-a-million mark, which will have been achieved in the first week of February.
15 Feb 2025 | 7056 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
February 2025 is turning out to be a milestone month for Kia India, particularly for its domestic market sales. While the Carens MPV has turned three years old today and crossed 200,000 sales, the Sonet compact SUV has driven past the 400,000 wholesales mark 53 months or a little over ...
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February 2025 is turning out to be a milestone month for Kia India, particularly for its domestic market sales. While the Carens MPV has turned three years old today and crossed 200,000 sales, the Sonet compact SUV has driven past the 400,000 wholesales mark 53 months or a little over four years after it was launched in September 2020.
As per the latest wholesales data released by apex industry body SIAM, the Sonet’s total cumulative sales are 397,563 units till end-January 2025 . . . just 2,437 units shy of the 400,000 milestone. Considering that the Sonet has averaged monthly sales of 845 units per day in the first 10 months of FY2025, this gap to 400,000 units would have been bridged in the first three to four days of this month.
Add exports of 98,391 units and combined domestic and export sales of 495,954 units are just 4,046 units shy of the half-a-million mark, which will already have been achieved in the first week of February. Clearly, February is a red-letter month for the Sonet, which is currently Kia India’s best-selling model.
The Sonet, along with the Seltos midsize SUV and the Carens MPV, has played a key role in Kia India’s strong ranking in the Indian utility vehicle industry – the Korean SUV and MPV maker is currently the sixth-ranked UV OEM and has dispatched 204,656 UVs between April 2024-January 2025 to get a 9% market share of the 2.26 UVs sold in India.
The Sonet’s total numbers to date reflect its strong contribution to Kia India’s overall sales in the domestic market. Between September 2020 (when the Sonet was launched) and January 2025, the company has sold a total of 832,364 units, which means the Sonet accounts for a 48% share. If total Kia India domestic sales of 11,46,896 vehicles are factored in, then the Sonet share reduces to 35 percent.
In terms of total sales, the Sonet is Kia India’s second highest selling model after the Seltos midsize SUV (527,021 units). The Carens MPV, with 199,952 units, is the third highest-selling model.
What is creditable about the Sonet is that despite being launched when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak in India, it went on to cross the 100,000-unit sales milestone on September 14, 2021, 261 days or less than a year after its launch. The 150,000-unit sales milestone came up in June 2022. The 250,000-units mark came up in May 2023, 33 months since launch. While the run from 250,000 to 350,000 units took 15 months, the last 50,000 units have been sold in just a little over 6 months.
NEW SONET PUMPS UP THE VOLUME
If the Sonet has registered strong 41% YoY growth in the current fiscal (84,502 units till end-January 2025), it is thanks to the new model launched in January 2024. Updated, facelifted and bristling with plenty of new tech, the new Sonet has gone on to consistently outsell the Seltos, Kia’s longstanding No. 1 model for 12 months in a row.
The Sonet is currently available in 23 variants – 13 petrol and 9 diesel – with pricing starting at Rs 909,000 for the base 1.2 HTE petrol and going upwards to Rs 18.48 lakh for the top-end diesel 1.5 CRDi GTX+ AT (on-road Delhi prices). The ex-showroom pricing for the Sonet starts at Rs 799,000.
The refreshed SUV gets exterior changes such as connected LED tail-lamps, reworked front and rear bumpers, restyled all-LED headlamps and fog lamps, as well as newly-styled 16-inch wheels. On the inside, the new Sonet gets refreshed upholstery, and more features including a larger infotainment screen and a fully-digital 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster. The car is replete with modern-day connectivity options, including remote engine start and geofencing, bundled with the Kia Connect suite. The infotainment system offers both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity functionalities, along with a highly fluid user experience.
One of the key highlights of the updated Sonet is the inclusion of 10 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems or Level-1 ADAS features such as lane-keep assist, forward-collision warning, and driver attention warning. The Sonet continues to have three engine options – 1.2-litre, 83hp naturally-aspirated petrol, 1.0-litre, 120hp turbo-charged petrol, and a 1.5-litre, 116hp turbocharged diesel engine. There are three transmission options – MT, AT, and clutchless manual transmission or iMT – in different combinations depending upon the powertrain.
The Sonet, which has received a new sibling in the form of the Kia Syros, is part of the highly competitive compact SUV segment which includes the Tata Nexon, Tata Punch, Hyundai Venue, Hyundai Exter, Mahindra 3XO, Maruti Brezza, Maruti Fronx, Toyota Taisor, Nissan Magnite, Renault Kiger and most recently the Skoda Kylaq.
The Sonet remains a show-stopper for Kia and considering the price advantage it has over new sibling Syros which has starting price of Rs 899,000, it will continue to remain the best-selling Kia in the coming months as well. What also helps is the sustained wave of demand for compact SUVs.
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