Currently, Kia Carnival has no direct rival in the Indian market, but its starting price pits it against the range-topping trim of the Toyota Innova Crysta
Kia India sold 503 units of the Carnival in June this year. The figure isn’t too big for the brand to brag about, but the premium MPV posted a bi-fold growth on a YoY basis. In June last year, the South Korean carmaker could only sell 161 units of the Carnival in the Indian market. On a month on month basis, this is an increment of 245 per cent, as the Carnival could find 146 buyers last month.
The Kia Carnival is positioned as a premium MPV in the Indian market. It rivals the top-spec trim of the Toyota Innova Crysta, which is said to be the undisputed king of the MPV space. Prices for the Carnival start at Rs. 24.95 lakh (ex-showroom India) and go all the way up to Rs. 33.95 lakh (ex-showroom India).
Sold in a total of 3 paint options, namely Aurora Black Pearl, Glacier White, and Steel Silver, there are 3 trim options on offer – Premium, Prestige, and Limousine. The base-spec Premium trim is available in three different seating layouts – 7-seater, 8-seater, and 9-seater. With 4 rows, the Carnival can accommodate 9 occupants with quite some ease.
The Limousine variant gets lounge seats for two in the second row. Other features include a 10-way power-adjustable driver seat, wireless charger, three-zone climate control, air purifier, UVO connected car tech, powered rear doors, tinted rear windows, ventilated driver’s seat, electronic parking brake, dual sunroof and more.
The Carnival is imported to the Indian market via the CKD (Completely Knocked Down) route, and it is then assembled at Kia’s Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh based manufacturing unit. In order to keep the occupants entertained, it gets an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment unit with Android Auto & Apple CarPlay connectivity. The sound system comes from Harman Kardon, and it gets 8-speakers in total.
For the powertrain duties, it uses a 2.2L 4-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine that develops 197 Bhp and 440 Nm. The 8-speed automatic comes as a standard affair across the range. Occupants’ safety is taken care of by ABS with EBD, 6 airbags, ESC, roll-over mitigation, hill-start assist, ISOFIX child seat mounts, and a reverse camera.