Kia Motors Corporation has announced global sales of 228,871 units for August 2019, a 2.1 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The Korean carmaker's best-selling model was the Sportage SUV, with 37,775 units sold worldwide in August. 

The Sportage topped the sales chart once again with 36,290 units, followed by the Rio (Pride) and the K3 (Forte) subcompact sedans with 24,704 and 22,167 units, respectively. But the just-launched Kia Seltos has already begun making news on the sales front, in India and in home market Korea.

Seltos a high seller both in India and Korea
Kia Motors' sales outside of Korea totaled 185,509 units, a 3 percent year-on-year increase in part due to the introduction of the Seltos SUV in India in August.

The Seltos, which was officially launched in India on August 22, sold a total of 6,236 units last month, giving the company a Utility Vehicle market share of 1.72 percent. Kia Motors India, which got 6,046 bookings on a single day when online bookings opened on July 17, currently has over 35,000 bookings in hand and is aggressively driving production at its Anantapur plant to meet the surging demand for its first made-in-India product.

The company officially began production on August 8,  23,311 bookings for the Seltos in hand.

What is helping the BS VI-ready Seltos make headway in the competitive Indian SUV market is its very aggressive pricing. The Korean carmaker's pricing strategy for all of 16 variants covers virtually every price point and starts from Rs 969,000 (for the entry level petrol Smartstream G1.5 HTE model) and goes up to Rs 15.99 lakh (for the diesel 1.5 CRDi HTX plus (6AT) and Petrol Smartstream 1.4 T – Gdi GTX (7DCT) and GTX plus top-end variant). With this, it takes on rivals like the Hyundai Creta, MG Hector, Nissan Kicks, Mahindra XUV500 and the Renault Captur in India.

Kia Motors will add two new top-spec variants of the Seltos in the coming months for the Indian market. Here's a list of waiting periods for all variants available currently. 

With its first month's sales of 6,236 units, Kia Motors India has opened its account in the UV chart and takes a 1.72 percent share. Within the overall passenger vehicle segment, the company now has a 0.56 percent market share.

Made-in-India Seltos outsells made-in-Korea Seltos by 91 units
The Seltos is currently produced from two of Kia’s production facilities – in Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India, and in Gwangju, Korea – and has gone on sale in both countries last month. With 6,236 units sold in its first month of sale in India, the made-in-India Seltos has outsold the made-in-Korea Seltos, which saw retail sales of 6,109 units – a difference of 127 units.

Sales in Korea fell 1.9 percent from a year earlier to 43,362 units. Sales were driven by the K7 (Cadenza) sedan with 6,961 units, followed by the Seltos which became the segment best-seller in its first month of sales with 6,109 units. 

Kia’s sales are forecast to gain stronger momentum in the second half of 2019 with a more extensive line-up of SUVs, including Seltos, Telluride, and the Mohave Product Enhancement slated to go on sale later this month.

Also read: Kia Motors India looks to connect with youthful audience with the Seltos

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