Kia India has driven past the million-unit wholesale milestone in the domestic market. The Korean SUV and MPV manufacturer achieved this milestone in June 2024. The company’s cumulative sales from August 2019 through to June 2024 were 1,00,30,008 units or 3,008 units above the big number. Add July 2024 numbers (20,507 units) and you get Kia India’s total domestic sales of 10,23,515 units (see data table below).
| Kia India wholesale breakdown | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Year | Seltos | Sonet | Carnival | Carens | EV6 | Total |
| 2020 | 81,717 | – | 3,187 | – | – | 84,904 |
| 2021 | 89,173 | 63,717 | 2,796 | – | – | 1,55,686 |
| 2022 | 95,929 | 73,864 | 4,302 | 12,692 | – | 1,86,787 |
| 2023 | 1,00,132 | 94,096 | 4,257 | 70,314 | 430 | 2,69,229 |
| 2024 | 1,00,423 | 81,384 | – | 63,167 | 660 | 2,45,634 |
| 2025* | 25,123 | 34,609 | – | 21,477 | 66 | 81,275 |
| Total | 4,92,497 | 3,47,670 | 14,542 | 1,67,650 | 1,156 | 10,23,515 |
Kia India, which began retailing its manufactured-in-Anantapur models in August 2019, has taken just under six years to record a million wholesales in the country. The company broke through the 6,00,000 sales mark in November 2022 and barely five months later, in April 2023, the 700,000 domestic market sales milestone was surpassed. The run from 7,00,000 to a million units has taken 13 months.
Model wise contribution
Kia India currently retails four products – three SUVs (Seltos, Sonet, all-electric EV6) and one MPV (Carens). The Seltos was Kia India’s first product launched in August 2019 and it remains the highest-selling product to date with cumulative sales of 4,92,497 units, accounting for 48 percent of the company’s dispatches (as of August 2024). In Kia’s sales-wise table of top contributors, the Seltos is followed by the Sonet compact SUV which has sold a total of 3,47,670 units, which gives it a 34 percent share of the company’s wholesales.
Data analytics reveal that the Sonet has outsold the Seltos for seven straight months in 2024 (see data table below). The Sonet’s cumulative January-July 2024 sales at 63,991 units are 40 percent more than the Seltos’ 45,691 units in the same period.
Launched on February 15, 2022, the Carens is the third-highest contributor to Kia India’s sales. With 167,650 units sold in 29 months accounting for a 16 percent share of the company’s sales to date.
Kia India’s first EV for India is the EV6 introduced in June 2022 as an import and CBU. As per SIAM and Kia India data, the EV6 has sold a total of 1,156 units.
The EV6 will be joined later this year by the all-electric EV9 SUV. The company’s top-down strategy with its EVs in India will see the new EV9 and EV6 slotted at the premium end of the EV market, while an all-new, made-in-India mass-market EV will be introduced in 2025.
Kia India exports and future launches
On July 13, 2023, Kia India had rolled out its millionth made-in-India car. Since then, till end-June 2024, the company has manufactured another 63,507 units from its Anantapur plant for a total cumulative production of 1.26 million units. Along with domestic market sales of a million units, Kia India has also shipped 258,339 units overseas.
Since its market entry, Kia India has expanded its dealership network to 5885 touchpoints across 265 cities. The company has previously announced that its two global models – the EV9 and the new Carnival MPV – will be launched in India in the second half of this year. At launch, the Carnival will be brought in as a full import while local assembly will commence at a later date.
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