Will the Japanese lose its monopoly in the MUV segment?

2019 witnessed the invasion of a South Korean brand and a Chinese brand into the Indian Automobile Industry and which really shook the industry. The budding SUVs from Tata and even the kings of Indian roads- The Mahindra were terrified by their sales figures. Yeah it is true that these really affected the sales of the existing brands in India.

While the whole industry is said to be in the verge of a downfall, these two brands stood iconic. Their positioning of their product was so accurate that the Indian buyers fell for it. Indians always had a soft corner or an extra love towards SUVs. This was correctly utilized or rather exploited by the invaders. Both the brands have made their signature through their first vehicle- the Kia Seltos and MG Hector.

Now the last month of 2019 and first month of 2020 saw the diversification that the brands are aiming at in the Indian market. The MG is diversifying into a smaller electric compact SUV whereas Kia is in for a bigger game. They have launched the Kia Carnival – the Toyota Innova rival. The MPV segment was pioneered by the Japanese giants across India. Innova has its own unique features to remain the best in the segment. It was not just the durability and trust the brand made, but also the low maintenance cost and the comfort level and satisfaction that the brand offered which made it the best.

Innova, as we know was an MPV which was replaced from a 15 to 20 lakh bandwidth to 20 to 30 lakh as its popularity got increased. Now the top end is as costly as an Endeavour. Kia is also no less in terms of pricing. It is also priced from 27 lakhs to 34 lakhs, which is above the innova but comparatively lesser to Toyota Vellfire and the Mercedes V-class.

The Carnival comes with a diesel power train with a 2.2 litre engine driven by an 8 speed automatic gear box. The engine produces about 197bhp and 440 nm of torque, which itself could be a criterion for its purchase. The best thing that Kia has offered in the carnival is that it comes with 3 seat configurations. One is the 7 seater with 2^nd row captain seats. The next one is an 8 seater with the 2^nd row bench seats. And the 3^rd variant is the star of the show, a first in class 9 seater for an exceptionally big family.

How well it can perform is something that all the enthusiasts are looking forward to. But as the bookings open, the first day bookings went up to 1500 approximately. This again shows a positive signal. As the Chinese brand is losing its tempo as one of its cars catches fire last week, Kia is becoming one of our favorite foreigners.