In the past half-a-year or so, Kia has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds in India. From being an obscure brand only known to a few, Hyundai’s sister brand has now almost become a household name. At present, Kia sells only three models in our market, of which, the Seltos and Sonet are the most popular. If you are wondering about the third model in the brand’s line-up in India, it is the Carnival minivan. While the Kia enjoyed much success in 2020, the tidal wave of abject misery brought on by Covid-19 couldn’t be ignored. And even though sales of its two crossover SUVs – Seltos and Sonet – grew pretty rapidly, input costs soared too. So in order to claw back some revenue, Kia announced that its cars will get costlier in 2021.
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Keeping to its promise, Kia has hiked the prices of the Seltos and Sonet in India. However, keep in mind that the increase in price for these two models is not exactly uniform across variants. In fact, Kia hasn’t bumped the cost of some of the variants at all. Before the hike, the ex-showroom price of the Kia Seltos ranged between Rs 9.89 Lakh and Rs 17.54 Lakh. Post the hike, the sticker of the entry-level Seltos HTE variant reads the same – Rs 9.89 Lakh. The same treatment of “zilch hike” applies for the GTX+ DCT, GTX+ DCT (Dual Tone) and HTK (Diesel) variants as well. All these cost the same as they did before. Meanwhile, all the other variants of the Seltos (including the Anniversary Edition) have had their ex-showroom prices increased.
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The minimum price hike for the Seltos is only Rs 1,000, but that is only applicable on one variant. It is the HTE Diesel, which has had its price go up from Rs 10.34 Lakh to Rs 10.35 Lakh. On the other hand, many variants of the Kia Seltos have had their prices upped by Rs 10,000. These include the Petrol HTK, HTK+, Turbo-Petrol GTX+, GTX+ (Dual Tone), Diesel HTK+, HTK+ AT, HTX+, HTX+ (Dual Tone), HTX+ AT and HTX+ AT (Dual Tone).
The remaining variants have become costlier by Rs 11,000. These include the Petrol HTX, HTX Anniversary Edition, HTX CVT, HTX CVT Anniversary Edition, Turbo-Petrol GTX, Diesel HTX, HTX Anniversary Edition, GTX+ AT, and the range-topping GTX+ AT (Dual Tone).
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As for Kia’s most affordable and successful offering in India, the subcompact Sonet has also become more expensive now. Prior to the hike, the ex-showroom price of the Kia Sonet ranged between Rs 6.71 Lakh and Rs 12.99 Lakh. However, just like the Seltos, few variants of the Sonet remain unaffected by the price hike. These lucky ones are the Turbo-Petrol variants, which are still priced between Rs 9.49 Lakh and Rs 12.99 Lakh.
The least bump in price can be seen on the entry-level Petrol HTE variant, which now costs Rs 8,000 more than before. This means the cheapest Kia Sonet now starts from Rs 6.79 Lakh. Meanwhile, the Petrol HTK and HTK+ variants both cost Rs 10,000 more than before – at Rs 7.69 Lakh and Rs 8.55 Lakh, respectively.
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Finally, all diesel variants of the Kia Sonet have had their prices increased by Rs 20,000. This means that the Sonet’s diesel range now cost between Rs 8.25 Lakh and Rs 13.19 Lakh. As mentioned earlier, the only Kia that hasn’t been touched by the price hike is the Carnival. It is still the most expensive Kia model currently on sale in India, and costs between Rs 24.95 Lakh and 33.95 Lakh (ex-showroom). While higher prices usually tend to be dissuasive, when it comes to Kia, that isn’t entirely true. It seems that we Indians have warmed up to the brand quite well for that to be a big concern.
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