Kia, which entered the Indian market in 2019, has so far sold more than 2 lakh units in the domestic market.
A senior company executive said that South Korean auto major Kia is aiming to increase production in India to around 2.5 lakh units per year in 2021.
“To meet the increasing demand for Kia cars in both domestic and global markets, we are operating three shifts at our Anantapur plant, which is capable of producing 3 lakh units per year,” Tai-Jin Park, Kia Motors India, executive director and chief sales and business strategy officer, said. “We are aiming to produce 2.30 lakh to 2.50 lakh vehicles with an export target of 20% in 2021,” he said. ”
While Mr. Park did not share the current production figures, the company, which entered the Indian market in 2019, has so far sold over 2 lakh units in the domestic market.
He said that while the epidemic had started a new world of challenges by shaping new customer behavior and trends in businesses globally, the company was seeing an upward trend in demand over the past few months, including for safe travel An increasing preference was given to personal mobility. More customers accessing digital methods as demand and purchasing and inquiry mechanisms during the festive season.
“The introduction of scrap policy and the new PLI scheme is a very strong foundation for boosting the overall demand for new vehicles with a focus on manufacturing and exports,” Mr Park said. “It gives us confidence that 2021 will be a year of rapid recovery for the industry,” he said. However, he said the recovery was still a work in progress given the overall industry potential.
When asked about the company’s plans to introduce electric vehicles in India, Mr. Park said that Kia aims to establish a full EV line-up of 11 models and reach 6.6% global EV market share by 2025. The company’s Anantapur manufacturing plant was capable of production. Electric vehicles, he said. “We believe the success of EVs in India mainly depends on developing infrastructure capabilities; supported by stable and streamlined policies to evaluate its feasibility,” he said.
On the product roadmap for India, he said at present, the company was focused on meeting the huge demand for three existing products – Celtos, Carnival and Sonnet. “Celtos and Sonat are facing strong demand not only in India but also in global markets … We are ambitious and continuously evaluate consumer and market trends … Our product strategy will be in India in the times to come. Years and we will introduce more products accordingly and upgrade our successful products to suit customer needs.
Mr Park said the company was seeing good demand from the Tier III and Tier IV markets and was looking to expand its reach to smaller towns and cities. “Network expansion is one of our primary strategies to sustain growth. We are entering Tier IV and the cities / towns of the country.
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