Kia Motors India had officially begun the trial production of its SP2i compact premium SUV at its Anantapur factory in Andhra Pradesh at the end of last month. The facility spanning 536 acres has installed production capacity of up to three lakh units per annum and Kia has invested more than two billion dollars with its vendor partners in its domestic operations.
The South Korean auto major has big plans for India and the SP2i is at the forefront of its strategy. Based on the SP Concept showcased at the 2018 Auto Expo just over one year ago, the pre-production prototype was also revealed to the media and it shows the model’s striking resemblances with the concept.
The Kia SP2i comes with slim LED headlights, signature Tiger Nose grille, sporty bumper with round shaped fog lights, ORVMs with integrated turn signals, 17-inch machine cut alloy wheels, disc brake on all four wheels, tall pillars and a compact rear end with horizontal LED tail lights and so on.
It appears that the SP2i has bigger size than the Creta. The SUV will compete against the likes of Hyundai Creta, Nissan Kicks and Tata Harrier and will feature a number of advanced equipment including some being segmental first (full digital instrument cluster earmarked) to have a competitive advantage over its key rivals.
The Kia SP2i derives power from new 1.5-litre petrol and diesel powertrains and both of them will be BSVI ready ahead of the eventual switch from April 2020. They will be connected to either a manual gearbox as standard or automatic transmission as optional.
Expect the price range of the SP2i to hover around Rs. 9.49 lakh to Rs. 14 lakh (ex-showroom) as Kia targets to position the compact SUV aggressively in the domestic market with high localisation. The company is also planning to introduce one new product every six months until 2022.
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