91Wheels caught up with Mr. Manohar Bhat, Vice President and Head, Sales & Marketing, Kia Motors India for an exclusive interview and understanding of the current and upcoming plans for the company. The youngest car brand in India has two products on sale and both these offerings have received an overwhelming response. Here are some of the important things we spoke about during the interview with Mr. Bhat.
91Wheels: How has Kia Motors India helped its dealer partners in this Corona lockdown period?
Mr. Bhat: Dealer partners are our 'Front Line Warriors' and we are proud of them. When the lockdown came in, the first thing we did was to release any pending funds that included extended warranty costs, claims, free services etc. This immediately helped them with liquidity. Next, we gave them inventory support as we realized, due to lockdown, sales were down to zero. An inventory build-up leads to blockage of financial liquidity and this was taken care of to ease some pressure off their shoulders.
91Wheels: Are the workshops running normally now? What about the precautions being followed?
Mr. Bhat: In terms of service, I am happy to say that the inflow is almost back to normal. While we do offer a complete package of pick, service and drop including sanitization of cars, customers are confident of the safety steps we undertake at the workshop level. Hence, most customers are still preferring to drive in themselves, get the vehicles serviced and drive out with fully sanitized cars.
91Wheels: What is your take on a contactless or complete online purchase of vehicles going forward?
Mr. Bhat: While our showrooms follow a complete safety protocol to ensure the safety of both the staff and customers, we also offer the option of online purchase of Kia cars. This includes booking, purchasing, opting for finance and even the insurance part. Infact, we were the first manufacture in the segment to offer this when the Seltos was launched. That said, cars remain an important purchase decision and hence consumers would still want to visit a showroom, feel the car first hand, take a test drive and then put down their money. Hence, a complete digital purchase experience is still some time away in India.
91Wheels: What about the EV space? What are your plans for the Indian market.
Mr. Bhat: Kia is one of the global leaders when it comes to electric cars and EV technology. We hold about 5-6% of the global EV market share and have successful products like the Soul which also won the 'World Urban Car' award recently. For India, we want to first make sure we utilize the plant capacity properly, which by the way can roll out 3,00,000 units annually. Second, the demand right now isn't high enough for us to give the EV space priority over other models that are in the pipeline. That said, whenever Kia Motors India gets into the EV segment, our offering will be way ahead of the current options in terms of technology.
91Wheels: Talking of plant utilization, is a small hatchback or basically a mass-market product the best and fastest way to achieve full utilization?
Mr. Bhat: Well, our current products, the Seltos and Carnival are doing very well. We see the Seltos as a mass product and so will be our next offering, the Sonet too. A mass product need not be a low priced car or a hatchback. With the Sonet coming in, it will help Kia Motors India make better use of the installed capacity.
The upcoming Sonet, showcased first at the 2020 Auto Expo will be launched this year in India. While it will compete in the sub 4m compact SUV space, we think Kia will position it as a premium offering. Given the design, interiors, features and overall quality on offer, consumers will be willing to pay a small premium for it. We wish Kia Motors India the very best for 2020 and beyond.
