Kia Small SUV Teased: A 4-Seater With Ventilated Captain Seats? | V3Cars

In their media communication, they are saying that it has “lounge style premium interiors” and “innovative seating layout”. The SUV will borrow design aesthetics from their recently-launched luxurious cars — the EV9 and the new Carnival. According to Kia, the car will also offer “segment-first features” and “unparalleled comfort” while “breaking conventions” and offering “ultra-spacious … cabin”.

What Is This New Kia SUV? V3Cars Speculates

We have also learned from official sources that the new sub-4m SUV will be positioned above the Sonet; as a more premium and luxurious car in their portfolio. Also, it will sit below the Seltos in their India lineup. Well, duh!

Now, it appears like they might end up creating another product, which overlaps with the Sonet and leads to duplicacy in the portfolio. However, give another look to their language and you’ll notice that the car will prioritise space, comfort while offering an innovative seating layout and lounge style interiors.

Such choice of words leads us to believe that this may be a 4-seater option with captain seats in the 2nd row. Moreover, it may offer segment-first features such as 2nd row seat ventilation along with the usual stuff like panoramic sunroof and ADAS. You know, to keep up with the competition (XUV3XO).

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Positioning

Clearly, they intend to position this new car as a city-friendly alternative to their bigger and overpriced cars like Carnival and EV9. Those 2 cars have an overlapping price tag with proper luxury brands like BMW, Mercedes, etc. This small car can serve as their city car, which they can not only drive themselves in a pinch, but also enjoy the rear seat when chauffeured around town.

It is clearly filling up a white space in the market as luxury car owners currently have to settle for a typical mass market brand for their small, city cars. Almost all luxury cars are just too big to comfortably be used in the city. And even those that are usable on the affordable side, they have a terrible rear seat experience. 

Expected Price

Naturally, it should carry a higher than typical price tag. Given its unique positioning, it can afford to carry a high price tag and still attract enough buyers to justify the R&D expenses and setting up the production line.

The question now is: what production capacity are they setting up for this new SUV? If they only choose to set up a small capacity production of say 1,000 - 2,000 (monthly), then you can expect it to cost as high as Rs. 16.0 - 18.0 lakh and only come in a couple of loaded variants. Such an approach will limit its availability and make it exclusive. This way, the car won’t ruin the image of luxury car owners if they choose this option for city use.

However, if they intend to spoil us, commoners, and are targeting 8,000 - 10,000 units a month then they may price it a bit more attractively to be able to achieve those volumes. In this case, we can expect it to cost between Rs. 12.0 lakh to Rs. 16.0 lakh. That’s still high but it’s justifiable because of its unique value proposition.

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