Three popular automobile brands have hit important milestones in their respective journeys in the country. While Hero has been around for a good 37 years, it’s just been a year-and-a-half that Korean car maker Kia has been present in India. And then there is the ever-popular Maruti Swift that has consistently been a bestseller in the market. What unites them is that all the brands seem to be the favourites when it comes to buyers in their respective segments. A few days back Hero hit the big production milestone of 10 crore vehicles, Kia succeeded selling 2 lakh cars in India in just about 17 months, the fastest car company to hit the milestone in India. And the Swift too reached a huge landmark in its journey.
KIA’S 2 LAKH SALES
Kia Motors India began sales operations in the country in the second half of 2019 and the brand had registered sales of 1 lakh units in July 2020 while the 2-lakh sales figure has been achieved within just the next 6 months. The more amusing part is that top variants of all the three products—Seltos, Carnival and Sonet—accounted for 60% of the total sales, clearly implying that buyers are looking for more features and are willing to pay the price for it. And that’s not all, more than half of these 2 lakh cars come with Kia UVO connected car technology. A total of 106,000 UVO Kia vehicles on the road have accounted for a share of 53% of the brand’s total sales in the country. Roughly one out of every two Kia cars sold now has connected car features.
Over the last few months, Kia has consistently featured in the top 5 automakers list despite having just three cars in its portfolio in India. Its first car in India, Seltos leads the sales charts with 149,428 units, followed by the Sonet with 45,195 units, which was launched in September, 2020. The most expensive of the 3, luxury MPV Carnival, accounts for total sales of 5,409 units. Currently, Kia’s manufacturing plant in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, is running on two-shift operations and given the increasing demand, the brand is evaluating operating in three shifts to meet them. Kia says that it aims to fully utilise the capacity of 300,000 units per annum at its manufacturing unit by 2022.
HERO MAKES 100 MILLION VEHICLES
The world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters, Hero MotoCorp, has surpassed the significant milestone of 100 million (10 crore) units in cumulative production. The 100 millionth bike, the Xtreme 160R, was rolled-out of the company’s manufacturing facility in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. This is also the 20th consecutive year that Hero MotoCorp has retained the coveted title of the world’s largest manufacturer of two-wheelers. Hero MotoCorp’s achievement of this landmark is one of the fastest global achievements of the 100 million cumulative production mark, with the last 50 million units coming in a span of just seven years.
After starting production back in 1984, the company hit the one million production mark ten years later in 1994. In another 7 years the company had made 5 million vehicles and in 2004, a total of 10 million vehicles were made. The next few millions can come at a much faster rate with the company committing to introduce over 10 products including variants, refreshes and upgrades every year over the next 5 years. To mark the occasion, Hero unveiled six special celebration edition models. These models include Splendor+, Xtreme 160R, Passion Pro, Glamour (motorcycles) and Destini 125, Maestro Edge 110 (scooters)—that will go on sale from February 2021. Hero MotoCorp also has a steep growth target for its markets outside India. It will continue to grow its operations in these markets and also enter key markets in new geographies.
MARUTI SWIFT HITS 23 LAKH IN SALES
In its 16th year of being sold in India, one of India’s most popular cars, the Maruti Suzuki Swift has hit the big sales figure of 23 lakh cars. In the process the car also became the highest selling car in the year of the pandemic. In calendar year 2020, brand Swift sold over 160,700 units. The car was first launched in the country in 2005 and in 5 years, Maruti Suzuki was able to sell the first 5 lakh units of the car in the country. The company reached the mark of 10 lakh sales for the car in 2013 and it took it just 3 more years for Swift to cross the 15-lakh sales mark.