Kia India recalls 30,297 Carens MPVs for software update on instrument cluster

Kia India has issued a recall for its Carens MPV to fix a potential issue with its digital instrument cluster via a software update on affected units. The company has announced that over 30,297 units of Kia Carens MPV built will be inspected.

This is the second recall for the Carens within a year under SIAM’s voluntary recall policy. In October 2022, Kia India had recalled 44,174 Carens for a possible error in the software of the airbag control unit (ACU) module. This was also fixed with a software update. 

The latest recall was necessitated as a few units of the Carens MPV's instrument cluster were not booting up properly and going blank. The Carens, manufactured between September 2022 and March 2023 at the company’s Anantapur plant in Andhra Pradesh, are likely to be affected. Owners of these MPVs will be contacted and will be asked to come to the service centre for an inspection and a software update, if required.

The Kia Carens is priced at Rs 10.45 lakh (ex-showroom) for the base 1.5 litre petrol manual variant, with the fully loaded turbo-diesel and turbo-petrol variants costing Rs 18.90 lakh (ex-showroom). The MPV is available as either a 6- or 7-seater and has a waiting period of around 10 months, depending on the trim.

The Kia Carens, launched on February 15, 2022, has turned out to be a high seller for the company. In FY2023, the Carens sold 70,314 units and accounted for 26% of Kia India’s total sales last fiscal which was also its best 12-month performance since market entry in August 2019.

Kia India had had two recalls in the past – in October 2019 and March 2020 – for the Kia Seltos diesel for a fuel pump issue.