Kia India aims to sell 2 lakh units in domestic market in FY22; eyes 4 lakh cumulative sales by Jan 2022

Undeterred by Covid-led disruptions, Kia India aims to sell around 2 lakh units in the domestic market this fiscal, as it expects demand to remain strong with consumers opting for personal mobility options amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a senior company official.

The South Korean automaker, which sells models like Seltos and Sonet in the domestic market, also aims to ship about 50,000 units to various global markets during the current financial year.

Last year, the company had sold 1,55,678 units in the domestic market and dispatched 40,440 units to various global markets.

"Our first priority right now is to overcome supply chain challenges... The first step is to come back to normal and achieve a target of two lakh units in the domestic market and about 50,000 units in exports so that we can hit the 2.5 lakh sales mark during the year (FY22). This is our short term goal," Kia India Vice-President and Head (Sales and Marketing) Hardeep Singh Brar told PTI in an interaction.

In the medium term, the company would like to hit the cumulative sales milestone of 4 lakh units by end of this year or early 2022, he added.

Kia has already become the fastest player in the Indian automotive industry to cross the 3 lakh cumulative sales mark in less than two years of commencing operations in the country. The company achieved the milestone last month.

Brar noted that pent-up demand plus shift towards personal mobility options due to Covid-19 is expected to drive the sales demand in the rest of the current financial year.

Counting on other positives, he added that people postponed exchanging their cars last year for new ones due to the pandemic and now with situation easing across states, the process is expected to commence once again thereby helping new car offtakes in the market.

"Supply chain challenge is the only negative we can think of at the moment," Brar said when asked about the issues which could derail the growth story.

He admitted that the company's production has been down by around 10 per cent currently due to semiconductor shortage but expressed hope that things would soon return to normalcy.

"By October, we should be running at the capacity we would like to run. Right now, we are doing between 15,000-17,000 units per month and we would be running around 18,000-20,000 units by the fourth quarter (calendar year)," Brar said.

When asked if the company has been able to kickstart a third shift at its Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh) based plant, he noted that the process would be initiated once supply chain issues were over.

"It may happen around the festive period... right now operating at a very low inventory level because whatever we are producing it is getting sold... October is festive period and probably our production by that time would be at the peak and we would be able to serve a much bigger set of customers," Brar stated.

He noted that both Seltos and Sonet currently have a waiting period of about four months.

Even premium MPV Carnival is having a waiting period now with decent demand in the market, Brar said.

On new product launches, he noted that some of the refreshes of the existing model range would be launched during the upcoming festive season.

"We are also planning for a new model next year," Brar said without divulging details.

He noted that the company is taking a lot of steps in order to maintain its position in the country.

"Customers love us and the waiting period on our products clearly shows that. We have strong loyal customers who wait to buy our products. There is a strong pull towards feature rich cars and we fulfill that need," he added.

The company is also expanding its sales network by blending physical outlets and digital reach in order to reach out to different sets of customers, Brar noted.

"We are covering about 200 cities as of now. The company has about 250 sales outlets and about 220 odd workshops, across the country" he added.

He added that the company has been able to book about 2,500 cars through Digi Connect, its digital sales initiative.

When asked about the safety aspect, he said that Kia cars were better than most products in the industry.

"We are fulfilling all the safety related requirements and are better than most players in the industry," Brar noted while adding that nothing much can be done in some cases of unsafe driving.

Asked if the company is also looking to hike vehicle prices to offset the impact of rising commodity prices, he noted that the automaker is evaluating the situation and would arrive on a decision in the next few weeks.