Along with the Seltos, Kia India's first compact SUV has given the company a strong footprint in the UV market.
20 Sep 2022 | 10249 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
On September 18 this year, the Kia Sonet turned two years old. September 18, 2020 saw Kia launch its first compact SUV in India at an introductory price-tag of Rs 671,000, ex-showroom in six trim levels, spread across Tech Line and GT Line variants.
What is creditable is that ...
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On September 18 this year, the Kia Sonet turned two years old. September 18, 2020 saw Kia launch its first compact SUV in India at an introductory price-tag of Rs 671,000, ex-showroom in six trim levels, spread across Tech Line and GT Line variants.
What is creditable is that despite being launched when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak in India, the Sonet 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.
Sonet’s contribution to Kia India’s sales
As per Autocar Professonal’s data analytics, between September 2020 and end-August 2022, Kia India has sold a total of 173,392 Sonets. In the first five months of FY2023 (April-August 2022), the Sonet has gone home to 35,811 buyers, averaging monthly sales of 7,162 units or 238 units a day. This means the 175,000-units mark would have been crossed in the first week of September 2022.
From launch to end-August 2022, the Sonet has with its 173,392 units, contributed 32.50% to Kia India’s cumulative domestic sales of 533,482 units since the Korean carmaker entered the Indian market in August 2019.
The Sonet’s sales of 35,811 units between April-August 2022 account for 33.75% of Kia India’s cumulative sales of 106,105 units. It is the No. 2 contributor after the Seltos which has sold 39,040 units and accounts for 37% of total company sales. The recently launched Carens MPV, with 29,797 units, has already contributed 28% while the Carnival MPV with 1,441 units has a 1.35% share. The Kia EV6, launched in June 2022, has sold 16 units till end-August 2022.
Sixteen variants on offer
Available in 16 variants comprising nine petrol and seven diesel variants, the Sonet is the only compact SUV to offer a 1.5-litre diesel engine with automatic transmission. The two most preferred colours for the Sonet are Glacier White Pearl and Aurora Black Pearl, and account for a 44% contribution in the overall despatches.
At over 32%, the Sonet is the second-best contributor, after the Seltos, to Kia India’s sales. It led the adoption of iMT technology in India and 25% of Sonet buyers prefer their SUV to be equipped with iMT. In April this year, the carmaker added four airbags as standard across even the lower variants.
Kia India, in an effort to keep the sales momentum going, has consistently refreshed the Sonet. In May 2021, the Korean carmaker rolled out the refreshed Sonet, with the most popular HTX trim available with Automatic options – HTX 7DCT (1.0T-GDI Petrol) and HTX 6AT (1.5 Diesel). On September 1, 2022, the company launched the Sonet X Line in India with prices starting from Rs 13.39 lakh for the 1.0 turbo-petrol DCT variant, going up to Rs 13.99 lakh for the 1.5 diesel-AT variant (both prices ex-showroom, India). The Kia Sonet X Line is based on the top-spec Sonet GTX+ and becomes the new range topping model in the line-up.
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