Seltos SUV Waiting Period Rises, Kia To Increase Production At Anantapur Plant

• Published On: 27 August 2019
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Seltos Waiting Period Rises, Kia To Increase Production

Kia has launched their first vehicle in the Indian market in the form of Seltos compact SUV. The SUV has been a smash hit right from the beginning and has gone on to amass more than 30,000 bookings in the Indian market. Given that the price of the entry level variant of the SUV has been set at Rs. 9.69 lakhs, ex-showroom Delhi and it has been launched in a total of 16 variants, the demand for the SUV is only expected to go up. The company has already stated that the waiting period on the Seltos SUV has gone up to 4 months for top-end GT Line trims and the HT Line trims are now seeing a waiting period between 6 weeks to 3 months. Therefore, in order to plug the high demand, the South Korean maker Kia Motors is planning to bump up the production of Seltos SUV at its Anantapur factory in Andhra Pradesh. However, the massive slowdown that the auto industry is going through has set the expectations of the SUV to settle around a monthly sales of 5,000 units.

Kia has taken a very aggressive pricing strategy here and has launched the Seltos SUV at a price point that is lower than its sister company Hyundai's Creta SUV. Kia Seltos will lock horns with the likes of Hyundai Creta, Nissan Kicks, Tata Harrier, and MG Hector with the latter two being from a segment above. The SUV will come in a total of 13 shades wherein 8 shades will be unicolor and the remaining 5 will be dual tone options. While the unicolor shades will be available with all the variants of the SUV, the dual tone options will only be offered with HTX, GTK and GTX variants. The alloy wheel options will also depend on the variant one chooses as the 17-inch crystal cut alloy wheels, 17-inch hyper metallic alloy wheels, 16-inch hyper metallic alloy wheels, and the 16-inch steel wheels are all available with different variants.

Talking of the features on offer on the Kia Seltos, the SUV comes with several segment firsts including a BOSE audio system with 8 speakers, 8 hue ambient lighting, 8-inch HUD, 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, UVO smart connect, and smart air purifier. Other features of the car include reclining rear seats, four-wheel disc brakes, blind-spot monitor, electric sunroof, power-adjustable driver seat with ventilation, leather interiors, and a 360-degree camera among others. Just like the BlueLink system seen on the Hyundai Venue, Kia's proprietary UVO smart connectivity comes with 37 smart features which include remote engine and AC start, checking tyre pressure, service period status, vehicle tracking, and geo-fencing among others.

Coming to the engine and transmission offerings of the SUV, the first petrol unit will be a 1.5L naturally aspirated unit rated to deliver 113 Bhp and 138 Nm. The next option in the petrol line-up will be a 1.4L turbo petrol unit rated to deliver 138 Bhp and 242 Nm. Moving on to the diesel option, the diesel unit will be a 1.5L turbo unit rated to deliver 113 Bhp and 250 Nm.