The Kia Seltos compact SUV is the biggest hit of the year, selling over 40,000 units in just four months of launch. In November 2019, the Seltos emerged as India’s best selling SUV – beating many lower priced offerings – by clocking over 14,000 units. The sales momentum is likely to continue for a few more months as the Kia Seltos is the freshest SUV in the market, is priced very well, and of course, offers a massive set of features that won’t be out of place on a luxury car sold by German brands such as Mercedes and BMW. Prices of the Kia Seltos start from Rs. 9.69 lakhs, which makes it slightly cheaper than the Hyundai Creta, which is priced at Rs. 10 lakhs for the base trim.
The Seltos sold in India is offered with three engine and four gearbox options. All engines are Bharat Stage 6 (BS6) emission norms compliant. There’s a 6 speed manual gearbox that’s standard across all engines while each engine gets a different automatic gearbox as an option. The 1.5 liter-4 cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine makes 113 Bhp-144 Nm, and is paired with a 6 speed manual gearbox as standard, with a CVT automatic gearbox offered as an option.
The 1.5 liter-4 cylinder turbocharged diesel engine makes 115 Bhp-250 Nm, and is offered with 6 speed manual and torque converter automatic gearboxes. The 1.4 liter-4 cylinder turbocharged petrol engine makes 138 Bhp-242 Nm, and gets 6 speed manual and 7 speed twin clutch automatic gearboxes. All variants of the Seltos is front wheel driven.
Coming to the features on offer with the Seltos, a massive touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a multi-speaker Bose stereo, automatic climate control, power adjustable driver’s seat, heads-up display, rear AC vents, air purifier, on-board internet connectivity with app-based remote feature controls, cruise control, 6 airbags, ABS, traction control, ESP, reverse parking sensors and camera, 360 degree camera, ventilated driver’s seat, leather seats, LED day time running lights and projector headlamps are on offer with the top-end trims of the SUV.
The Seltos is built at Kia Motors’ Greenfield manufacturing facility set up at Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh. The South Korean automaker will soon introduce two more vehicles – the Carnival luxury MPV in early 2020, and a sub-4 meter compact SUV in the middle of 2020. Both products are likely to be showcased at the 2020 Indian Auto Expo – the Carnival in production trim and the QXi sub-4 meter compact SUV in concept form. Kia is part-owned by Hyundai but both automakers have distinct operations in India.
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