Kia cars to get dearer from April 1 in India

Kia India is all set to hike prices of all its models available in India by three percent.

Announcing the development, Kia India said that it will hike prices across its mass model portfolio, including Seltos, Sonet and Carens by up to 3 percent starting April 1.

The car maker attributed the hike to the escalation in commodity prices and supply chain-related inputs. It marks the first price adjustment by the company this year.

Hardeep Singh Brar, National Head -Sales and Marketing, Kia India said, "At Kia, we consistently strive to deliver premium and technologically advanced products to our esteemed customers. However, due to the continuous increase in commodity prices, adverse exchange rate and rising input cost, we are compelled to implement a partial price hike. The company is absorbing a significant portion of the increase, allowing customers to continue driving their favourite Kia cars without a major dent in their pockets".

The South Korean firm partly owned by Hyundai, commenced mass production in 2019 in India and has an annual production capacity of around 300,000 units. It has launched five vehicles for the domestic market – Seltos, Carnival, Sonet, Carens, and EV6. The carmaker has completed over 1.16 million vehicle dispatches from its Anantapur plant in Andhra Pradesh.

Apart from Kia India, other automakers such as Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors, Honda Cars India and Audi have also hiked the prices of their vehicles recently, citing similar reasons.

Kia recently issued a recall for 4,358 units of the Seltos CVT manufactured between February 28 and July 13, 2023. The company stated that the recall was to address a potential error that may impact the performance of the electronic oil pump in the vehicle’s transmission.