Description
ndia is one of the fastest-growing and most competitive car markets in the world, with a huge demand for affordable and reliable vehicles. However, in the past few years, the Indian car makers have faced a tough challenge from a new entrant: Kia. Kia is a South Korean car brand that has taken the Indian market by storm, with its innovative, stylish, and value-for-money cars. In just three years, Kia has become the fourth-largest car maker in India, surpassing established players like Tata and Mahindra.
Success Story
Covid 19 was creating havoc everywhere. Most of the industries were on the verge of ruin. There was recession all over the world. The condition of automobile companies is even worse. But there is one company which has increased its revenue by eight percent. The name is Kia Motors. Now, although this name was completely new to us Indians till this time, this company used to dominate at the global level. Although this famous company was also declared bankrupt in 1997, but despite this, how it bounced back and became dominant as soon as it entered a competitive market like India.
In this Blog we are going to know everything in detail. So friends, this story begins in 1905 when Kim Seoul Ho, born in Korea, goes to Japan in search of work and there he gets a chance to work in a steel mill. While doing this work, he got the idea of ​​starting his own business. After which he came back to Korea and started a small company named King Precision Industry on June 9, 1944, where bicycle parts and steel tubes. Were made. Now at this time the Second World War was also going on and Korea was occupied by Japan.
That is why this business could not grow much in the initial years. But as soon as World War Two ended, Kim started expanding his business. In 1951 he. Made Korea’s first domestic bicycle, which was named Century. And friends, this bicycle became so popular. Later, this name was kept as the company name and then the bicycle division started being operated separately. By the way, for your information, let us tell you that Century is the largest bicycle manufacturer in Korea at present.
In the year 1952, the name of Precision Industries was changed to Kia Industries and in 1947, this company. Manufactured his first motorcycle which became very popular. Actually sugar the name Kia. The first one is from which men you arise and the second one is from the Korean characters. Refers to rice and if you combine the two it means two rice from Asia. Later, in 1962, Kia made its first truck and it was very successful in this too. But the company’s dream. Not only dealing with trucks and bikes, he also established himself as a car manufacturer.
She wanted to do this because she knew that cars would be in highest demand in the future. That’s why in 1973. Kia opened its first automotive assembly plant, named the Sohari Plant and its. The very next year i.e. from 1974, the company also started manufacturing cars. Initially it was a small range car. Made Barsa, which was liked very much by the people and it also brought a lot of profit to the company. Now I started my production slowly. She was increasing her business and was trying to generate more and more sales. But during that time something happened.
The company had to stop its car manufacturing completely. Actually Chung Lohar during 1981. A military dictator named South Korea. Took power into his own hands and thought of restructuring many industries there. In which the automotive sector was also included. Chandu wanted all the small car companies to produce light trucks instead of manufacturing passenger cars. Now Kia had no other option but to accept this order, hence it had to stop the manufacturing of its cars.
However, the company again joined the automobile industry in early 1986 by partnering with Ford and after this, Kia started making many cars for domestic sales in South Korea as well as selling its vehicles in other countries. These cars were basically inspired by the Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer Mazda Motor Corporation. That is, cars like Kia Pride and Kia Avail were made based on Mazda One to One and then these cars were sold in North America as well as Australia.
Wherever Kia’s car was launched in the global market, it gained a lot of popularity and this was the reason that gradually the company started expanding itself into more new countries. Or success till that time. Was at its peak and including Korea. It had made its presence quite strong in the global market also. But then came 1997 which snatched away all its profits, market share and reputation from the company in an instant. Actually, due to the Asian Financial Crisis this year, the sales of this car had gone down considerably and the company was recording huge losses.
The situation became so bad that Korea had to declare bankruptcy. After which Hyundai Motor Company acquired fifty percent share of Kia and thus Kia came under Hyundai Motors. Hyundai worked to revitalize Kia and under his supervision the company started earning profits again. During this period, the company launched many popular models and continued to rule the markets of Europe and UK for almost two decades. After this explosive comeback, Kia thought of taking a big challenge and decided to enter a competitive market which had already shown the way out to big jets like Fiat General Motors and Ford.
Actually, we are not talking about anywhere else but India, where many big car companies are already present and they have strong dominance in the market. Despite this, on May 19, 2017, India announced the opening of a 536-acre manufacturing plant in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. Let us tell you that the company had invested two billion US dollars for this plant. Trial production started in this plant from January 2019 itself and then on July 31, 2019, the company launched its first car or Seltos in India, which was a mid-size SUV. Although this car became very popular, but within a few months of its launch, the pandemic started.
Which affected people’s work and their purchasing power went down. And this was the reason why there was a recession in the automotive market along with other sectors. But friends, the most surprising thing here is that the entire automotive market was incurring huge losses. Whereas Kia’s revenue had increased by 8%. In such a situation, it is natural for all of us to have this question that how did the company achieve this feat and what were the strategies that made it successful even in a competitive market like India. Let us understand point to point. Feature Loaded Cars.
Actually friends, the market gap that Kia saw in India was not noticed by any other car manufacturer before today and that gap was premium cars. But in the budget because the premium cars of other brands were so expensive that most people could not afford them. On the other hand, the budget cars did not have premium features that people could enjoy. In such a situation, customers were left with no other option but to compromise. But when Kia saw these problems of the people, it made its first car. Launched Seltos, whose ex-showroom price was Rs 6 lakh.
Let us tell you that 32 thousand units were booked at the time of its launch and the company made a very strong debut in the Indian market by selling 6200 units in its very first month. There were two major reasons behind the success of this car. Great design and lots of features. Because this car was provided with many premium features like two-inch touchscreen infotainment system, Apple CarPlay, electric sunroof, premium bus, speaker sound system, air purifier, ventilated front seat and so on, which are not available in a car of this price range.
Never met before. Apart from this, Kia Seltos was given a sporty look in which its signature tiger nose grille was installed along with LED headlamps. Also, an attempt was made to give a premium look to DRL, fog lamp indicator and tail lamps. It was launched in the market with 17 inch machine cut alloy wheels along with dual tone color and matte finish option, which immediately established its dominance in the market. Another big reason for the popularity of this car was that.
This Seltos was an SUV and Indian people started preferring SUVs instead of sedans and hatchbacks. But the problem was that till that time only a few SUVs were available in the Indian market. Therefore people did not have many options. But when Kia Seltos was launched, it was represented as a dream car and an attempt was made to solve every problem that Indian buyers were facing till now. That is why 40 thousand 581 units of Seltos were sold in just four months.
Apart from this, the company sold approximately 1 lakh units in its first year and more than 2 lakh units in the second year, which was a huge achievement for any new company. Not only this, in October 2019, Kia Seltos had registered its name in India’s best selling SUV list. The position which was in the name of Maruti Suzuki’s Vitara Brezza a year ago. But after this, the period of pandemic came and gradually all types of businesses started getting closed. On one hand, companies like Tata, Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki had started reducing their production due to low demand. Kia’s revenue in India saw a growth of up to one percent.
In the year 2020, the company had also launched Kia Sonet and despite the pandemic, it got 6,523 bookings in just one day. Apart from this, this model had also achieved the milestone of selling more than 1 lakh units in its very first year. In this way, even during the pandemic, Kia had to increase its production, while the rest of the company was busy reducing its losses. Specialized Products for India. Friends, when any product of any car brand becomes popular in any country, then they make slight changes in it and launch it in other countries also.
For example, Hyundai’s Creta was first launched in China in 2014 where it gained a lot of popularity. After this, this car was also launched in Brazil and it got huge success there too. Not only this, it was also launched in India in 2015. Also, it was launched in many other countries with some changes. Another example is Toyota’s Fortuner, which was first launched in South Africa and then due to its popularity, it was launched in India, Middle East, Australia and some parts of Latin America. Apart from this, there are examples of car models like Toyota Innova, Honda City, Hyundai Tucson Nishan and many more, which were performing well in the foreign market.
So from this region they were launched in India or other countries also. However, it is not that this type of strategy is not in their culture, rather they have been doing the same for years. But perhaps they were already a little more careful for the Indian market. For this reason, the company worked on making a specialized car for India, which is completely according to the needs of the people here. That means, it provided high mileage in its SUV within India.
Introduced better technology than the existing car brand. Gave extra warranty on cars. Besides, the car was given such a premium look that nine out of 10 people like it. However, the company still knew that if their first product failed, it would affect the overall reputation of Korea and later they would face a lot of challenges in establishing themselves as a trusted brand. That is why, before working on its car, Kia analyzed the needs of Indian customers and found out what important features Indians want in their premium cars and what they do not want.
And friends, according to this analysis, Seltos was designed which proved to be a big hit for the company. Pricing. Now as we talked about, there are already many premium and luxury car brands in India but due to their high prices they could never get a huge customer base. That is why Kia has planned to keep the price of its car such that it does not go too high beyond people’s budget and is also not so low that it goes out of the image of a premium car.
That is why the company launched its first car Kia Seltos at a price of Rs 9,00,069 thousand because the average car buying budget of an Indian is only ₹ 6 lakh. In such a situation, by increasing their budget a little, they can buy a premium car instead of a normal car. Apart from this, if we look at the price range of Kia cars, then it ranges from ₹ 7 lakh to ₹ 67 lakh, in which there are many different models and all of them include more and more premium features according to the price. .
And friends, due to its affordability, the company did not have to face any special competition and all its models gained a lot of popularity as soon as they were launched. Multiple options available. Now friends, that is, he has not only paid attention to the features of his car but he has also designed his SUV in such a way that almost every kind of requirement can be fulfilled. Like if you want a petrol car then they have that too. If you want turbo petrol or diesel then that is also an option. Apart from this, options like IMT DCT, manual automatic or CVT are also available with the company.
Also, if you want an EV, then for that too, Kia had launched its electric vehicle named EV 6 on August 2, 2021. In this way, if you want to buy Kia cars, then you will hardly have to worry about anything. We have to compromise together. And friends, if we look beyond all this then your company. Along with this, she also takes full care of your family. For example, if your family is big then this. More special than the name Kia Carnival. It also offers an eight seater car, in which sufficient luggage space is provided. as well as.
The seats have been made in such a way that even long distance journeys are comfortable. Can manage. If we talk about the color options of Kia cars, then many options like Olive Clear White, Sparkling Silver, Gravity Gray and Aurora Black Pearl will be available. And because of this variety of options, Kia’s sales are continuously increasing. While its total sales were 12 thousand 536 units in the month of December 2023, it increased to 23 thousand 769 units in the very next month i.e. January 2024.
Market Presence Friends, it had taken a very smart decision as soon as it entered India and by 2019 itself, it had created 339 touch points in about 160 cities, so that it could easily interact with the customers and provide them timely service. So to receive. But the amazing thing is that till now in the history of Indian automobile, no company had started from such a big level and friends, you can guess from the steps itself that the intention of the company was not to do trial or experiment. Rather it was to track the market.
And we can say that due to the large number of touchpoints and easy customer service, people quickly trusted this new brand. Supported by Hyundai. Now friends, we cannot congratulate anyone alone for all this success because Hyundai has also been very supportive in making it successful. Now as we already told that Hyundai has 51% shares of Kia, hence with its help Kia studied the Indian market very deeply and learned about the customer behavior here. Now the Indian automotive industry was not at all new for Hyundai, in fact it had entered here in 1996 itself.
In such a situation, Hyundai had learned very well how to stay on top in this competitive market and the effect of this was that today Hyundai is the second largest car manufacturer in India with a market share of more than fifteen percent. Now Kia got the benefit of this experience of the company and Kia did not need to go down to the ground level to understand things and was also successful in identifying those gaps where it could create its strong presence. In this way, Kia got the complete advantage of Hyundai and it achieved astonishing growth in a few years.
And friends, due to all these amazing strategies, Kia had generated a profit of Rs 800 ₹ 25 crore in 2022, which increased by 100% to ₹ 20100 ₹ 22 crore in 2023 and this company is still looking to stop. Not taking names. By the way, please tell us which Kia car you like the most by commenting. And yes, if you want to know how a poor boy made a Mercedes Benz, then definitely Read the Blog from the P link in the description or comment.
Anyway, see you again with the powerful explanation of the Success Story.
