“The growth will come from the SUV segment, which still has a lot of potential to grow,” he said.
Every second passenger vehicle sold in India is an SUV.
To be positioned between the Sonet and Seltos, with the new sub compact offering, the company is looking to cement its position in the segment led by Brezza.
Meanwhile, expressing his views on certain state governments giving incentives to hybrids, Lee who took charge of the India operations in January 2024, said he is not in favour of such moves as it creates uncertainty and confusion.
“All the manufacturers have invested heavily in policies until now based on the central government directive. We need to play the game fairly and the rules of the game should be consistent. It’s like cricket, if the rule of the game keeps changing frequently, who can play a professional game?”While Kia has the hybrid technology available globally it’s not looking to introduce it any time soon in India due to policy uncertainties. Korea, he pointed out, has seen a surge in the demand for hybrid technology in the recent past and Kia has been one of the biggest beneficiaries. Penetration of hybrids in Korea has seen a big jump to 25.2% in the first half of 2024 from 11.8% in the same period, according to Nomura Research Institute. However, the scenario in India is different and the decision to bring the technology here has to be based on the local conditions-consumer demand and policy incentives, he said. “We have to monitor what’s going on in India. when I joined, I was told India will change dramatically and electrification will gather lot of pace. I was like, let’s see… we wanted to be very careful.”
His comments on EVs comes against the backdrop of softening of EV sales in contrary to the projection of faster adoption.
Electric car sales in India have been slow. It dropped to the lowest in 19 months in September to 5733 units. Lee was speaking on the side lines of launch of the EV9 and Carnival limousine.
Priced at Rs 63,89,000 (on-road) with the new Carnival, which is 50% dearer than the model that was discontinued in March 2023, Kia is looking to tap into the white space that exists between Toyota Vellfire-priced at Rs 1.20 crore, ex-showroom, and Innova Hycross-priced at Rs 35 lakh (top-end).
