Kia eyes Maruti Suzuki with local manufacturing; Tamil Nadu has offered 400 acres of land for yet undecided production plant
South Korean automaker is finalizing the set up process of their first manufacturing plant in India. The Hyundai owned auto major is already in talks with Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh governments for the plant. Meanwhile the company has already set up a research and development plant in Hyderabad, which has already gone operational.
This R & D centre will help the company is localizing the products in the country. As per the company’s annual reports suggest, the company set the target to take on India’s largest automaker Maruti Suzuki. This R & D centre will mainly focus on the design of the Kia products in India. Incidentally, the Indian market is generally known for its love toward the compact cars. And Kia is known for their stylish compact urban cars.
Also read: Kia Motors India Likely to Invest Rs. 5,000 Crore
Interestingly, the automakers usually set up plant and starts production, then only they set up an R & D centre. We have already seen the Hyundai and Renault doing the same. But Kia does it differently, which indicates, that the company is giving the Indian market much importance. The company already has R & D centres in China, Europe, Japan and US apart from India.
Maruti Suzuki is known for its strong presence in the compact hatchback space. The Indo Japanese company also has popular models in compact sedan, MPV and compact SUV segment. On the other hand, the Hyundai, Kia’s parent brand is shifting its focus toward the premium segment. To capture the vacuum in compact car segment Kia enters the scenario. Therefore, it will target the Maruti Suzuki as its prime rival.
Also read: Tamil Nadu Offers 400 Acres to Kia Motors Plant
In recent times, the South Koran auto major has seen a decline in sales in China, Russia and several other Asian markets. The overall global sales have increased in last fiscal though. In last year Kia sold around 2.91 million units globally, compared to 2.90 million units in previous year. But despite that, it is being hopeful in investing in the Indian market.