2 days ago
Kia sets new sales record in India for H1
Korea's second-largest automaker Kia posted record sales in India during the first half of 2025, bolstered by the launch of its new Syros sport utility vehicle.
According to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Kia sold 142,139 units in India between January and June, surpassing its previous first-half sales record of 136,108 units — set in 2023 — by 4.4 percent.
The performance marks a rebound from last year's decline and puts the firm nearly halfway toward its full-year target of 300,000 units in the world's third-largest auto market.
Kia's market share also rose to 6.4 percent, up 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier, placing it sixth in the country's private vehicle market.
After experiencing a decline in sales in 2024, the launch of the Syros SUV played a key role in reversing the trend.
Tailored for India's dense urban environments and narrow roads, the compact SUV recorded 24,371 units sold in the first half of 2025, following Kia's consistently strong-selling models — the Sonet SUV, the Seltos SUV and the Carens multi-purpose vehicle, which sold 45,277, 36,883 and 34,056 units, respectively.
The Syros also contributed to the brand's 9.5 percent year-on-year growth in the Indian market during the second quarter.
Stepping up its new model rollout, Kia launched the all-electric Carens Clavis in July. The segment is intensifying in competition, driven by challenges from local producers and the recent arrival of Tesla.
Kia has also been expanding its local production capacity and partnering with the Indian Institute of Technology, India's premier network of technology institutes, to accelerate innovation and develop products tailored to the local market.
All Kia models sold in India, except for the imported EV6 and EV9 SUVs, are produced at the company's manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh, southern India. Since production began in 2019, the facility had produced 1,482,490 units as of the first quarter of 2025, having surpassed the 1-million-unit milestone in 2023.
