South Korean manufacturer Kia Motors made its debut in the Indian market with Seltos SUV. It turned out to be a great product for Kia and helped greatly to popularize the brand in India. The brand became so popular in such a short time that Kia had managed to sell over 80,000 units in 8 months of its launch. The second product from the Brand was Carnival luxury MPV, which again us receiving good response from the customers. According to some reports, Kia is now planning to launch their Soul hatchback in both petrol and electric trims in India.
Kia had showcased Soul hatchback in their pavilion at the Auto Expo earlier this year and it received a positive response from the audience. Talking to Carandbike, VP Head- Sales and Marketing, Kia Motors India, Manohar Bhat said,
The Soul is a very young and different looking vehicle. While the Soul EV might not be a viable solution for India right now, it Soul is available in other powertrains and it is well worth looking at. We have got very positive feedback about the design of the Soul. We will look at the Soul or a similar vehicle for the Indian market going forward. We are seriously looking at it and we’ll bring it only after checking out on how the market is progressing.
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The Soul hatchback, just like any other Kia car, has a distinct design. It has sleek looking headlamps with DRLs and ice cube shaped fog lamps at the front. The car has a wide air dam and the car looks pretty premium for its size. Even though we have players like Hyundai, Tata Motors and MG is the EV space, it does not seems like Kia will be bringing the electric verison of Soul to India initially as the demand and infrastructure is still not up to the mark. It is likely to be launched with a petrol engine only. Just like Hyundai and other cars from Kia, Soul is also expected to get a host of features when launched in India.
Internationally Kia Soul petrol version is available with two engine options. One of them is a 2.0 litre, 4 cylinder unit that generates 147 Bhp and the other is much more powerful 1.6 litre turbocharged unit which is capable of generating 200 Bhp. It is highly unlikely that Kia will be launching Soul with same set of engines in India as these may lead to a higher price tag. A detuned petrol is likely.
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