South Korean auto major Kia is aiming to increase production in India to about 2.5 lakh units per annum in 2021, anticipating an increase in sales driven by ‘overwhelming’ domestic as well as growing exports demand, a senior company executive said.
“To meet the increasing demand for Kia cars in both domestic and global markets, we are looking at operating three shifts at our Anantapur plant, which is capable of producing 3 lakh units per year,” Tae-Jin Park, executive director and chief sales and business strategy officer Kia Motors India, said. “We are targeting to produce 2.30 lakh to 2.50 lakh vehicles, including the export target of 20%, in 2021,” he added.
While Mr. Park did not share the current production figures, the company, which entered in the India market in 2019, has sold more than 2 lakh units in the domestic market till now.
He added that while the pandemic had unleashed a new world of challenges by shaping new customer behaviours and trends across businesses globally, the company was seeing an upward trend in demand in the last few months given the increasing preference for personal mobility for safe travel, pent up demand during the festive season, and more customers accessing digital methods as a purchase and enquiry mechanism.
“Introduction of scrappage policy and the new PLI scheme has set a very strong foundation for boosting the overall demand for newer vehicles with focus on manufacturing and exports,” Mr. Park said. “This gives us the confidence that 2021 will be a year of fast recovery for the industry,” he said. He, however, added that recovery was still a work in progress given the overall industry potential.
Asked about the company’s plans for introducing electric vehicles in India, Mr. Park said Kia aimed to establish a full EV line-up of 11 models and reach a 6.6% global EV market share by 2025. The company’s Anantapur manufacturing plant was capable of producing electric vehicles, he said. “We believe the success of EV in India primarily relies on developing infrastructure capabilities; supported by steady and streamlined policies to evaluate its viability,” he added.
On the product roadmap for India, he said currently, the company was focusing on meeting the overwhelming demand for the three existing products — the Seltos, Carnival and Sonet. “The Seltos and the Sonet are experiencing strong demand not only in India but in global markets as well...we are ambitious and constantly evaluate consumer and market trends...Our product strategy relies on what will be relevant to India in the coming years and we will accordingly introduce more products and upgrade our successful products to suit the needs of customers,” he said.
Mr. Park added that the company was witnessing good demand from the Tier III and Tier IV markets and is looking to enhance their reach in smaller towns and cities. “Network expansion remains to be one of our primary strategies for sustaining growth. We are foraying in Tier IV and up-country cities/towns,” he added.
