Kia Seltos waiting periods shoots up to 4 months: Production to be bumped up

The recently launched Kia Seltos compact SUV has received over 30,000 bookings, and the order book is only expected to bulge further given the sharp starting price of Rs. 9.69 lakhs, ex-showroom Delhi. Waiting times for the Seltos have already shot up to 4 months for the top-end GT Line trims, which seem to most in demand. The HT trims are now seeing waiting times between 6 weeks to 3 months. Kia Motors is planning to bump up production at the Anantapur factory in Andhra Pradesh by adding another shift. The factory is capable of producing up to 3 lakh units each year, which means that Kia Motors has enough capacity to meet demand of up to 20,000 monthly units of the Seltos. It’s unlikely that the Seltos would sell so well though. Current expectations are that the SUV could settle at around 5,000 monthly units in a market that is in the middle of a severe slowdown.

The Seltos is easily the most feature-rich compact SUVs sold in India. It competes with the likes of the Hyundai Creta, Renault Duster, Nissan Kicks, Renault Captur and the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross. The Seltos is sold with the widest range of engines and gearboxes in its class, and all engined are Bharat Stage 6 emission norms compliant. Moreover, they’re BS4 fuel compliant as well, which means that they can safely run on regular fuel until BS6 fuel becomes available across India sometime early next year. The entry level petrol engine on the Seltos is a 1.5 liter-4 cylinder naturally aspirated unit with 115 Bhp-144 Nm outputs. It gets 5 speed manual and CVT automatic gearbox options. The diesel engine is a 1.5 liter-4 cylinder turbocharged unit with 115 Bhp-250 nm. The diesel motor gets 6 speed manual and torque converter automatic gearbox options.

Kia also offers a sporty 1.4 liter-4 cylinder turbo petrol engine on the Seltos. This motor makes 140 Bhp-242 Nm. The turbo petrol engine is offered with 6 speed manual and 7 speed twin clutch automatic gearbox options. The Seltos is larger than the best selling Hyundai Creta, and also offers a slew of additional features. There’s a massive 10.25 inch touchscreen infotainment console that dominates the dashboard. This console also brings in a host of connected car features to the Seltos, making it an ‘internet car’ of sorts. An electric sunroof, leather seats, ventilated and powered seats, heads up display, 360 degree parking camera, 6 airbags, ABS, hill hold assist, traction control, ESP, a Bose audio system, front parking sensors and blind spot monitor are the various features that make the Seltos a truly loaded SUV. In the coming months, the top-end GTX+ trims will be offered on the turbo petrol automatic and diesel automatic powertrains as well.