Auto Sales December 2021: Kia Sees 34% Drop In Volume YoY, Annual Sales Breach 2.27 Lakh Units Mark

Kia India has released the monthly sales number for December 2021, during which the company sold 7,797 units. Compared to 11,818 units sold during the same month in 2020, the company witnessed a decline of 34 per cent. One major reason for this drop in sales would be the production constraints caused due to the ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips. As for the entire calendar year, Kia registered cumulative sales of 2,27,844 units, which is a substantial growth of 62 per cent, compared to 140,505 units sold in CY2020. Here, we have to consider the fact that 2020 was plagued with COVID-19 related challenges and the company's top-selling model, Sonet, was also not on sale in H1 2020. In CY2021, Kia India also shipped 46,261 units, witnessing a YoY growth of 23 per cent in exports.

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Commenting on the company's sales performance, Tae-Jin Park, MD and CEO, Kia India said, "It brings us great joy to see Kia India going from strength to strength in a year punctuated by supply-side issues and rise in the cost of raw material. We have sold more than 3.7 lakh units since entering the Indian automotive market in August 2019, a remarkable feat for a new entrant; not just that, till date, we have exported to around 90 countries across the world."

In December 2021 the Kia Seltos was the highest selling models from the Korean carmaker in India

In December 2021 the Kia Seltos was the top contributor with 4,012 units, while Sonet and Carnival accounted for 3,578 and 207 units, respectively. The company has been ranked amongst the top 5 car manufacturers in the country with a 6 per cent market share in the domestic market. As for the entire calendar year, Kia sold 98,168 units of the Seltos, 4,178 units of the Carnival, and 79,309 units of the Sonet between January and December 2021.

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Kia is gearing up to launch its fourth product for the Indian market, the Carens three-row vehicle

Also Read: Kia Evaluating Plan To See If It Needs To Switch To Sourcing Chips From India

Also, since it arrived in India in August 2019, Kia India has sold 4.5 lakh units, out of which 3.7 lakh vehicles were sold in the domestic market, and around 80,000 units have been exported from India. Right now, Kia is gearing up to launch its fourth product for the Indian market, the Carens three-row vehicle, which is based on the same platform as the Seltos. We expect the new MPV to arrive in February 2021.