New Hustle

Make way for what promises to be one of the year’s biggest launches: the Kia Seltos

- Raunak Ajinkya

Last month, I had a go in what was Kia’s pre-production model for the new Seltos that’s now been launched in India. And let me tell you this: launches don’t come any better. The effort Kia’s put in to make the Seltos every kind of car you want to be is really quite commendable. I know that I’ve given away most of the story at the start itself, but when it comes to a car as good as the Seltos, you don’t really mind not beating around the bush as much. Everything I’d noticed, be it the scrupulous attention to detail, the finicky manner in which every operation was running as smoothly as possible, and the multiple insightful Kia personnel I met along the way that were more than happy to dish out any information I needed on the Seltos points to the fact that Kia is taking the Indian market very seriously, indeed. Kia isn’t coming into this half-baked. It’s done a lot of research, taken its time, studied the market intensely and is entering it with arms and eyes wide open.

How can I tell? Well, primarily because of the car you see on these pages: the Seltos. If you think back, you may remember the SP2i concept that Kia brought for us at the last Expo, and based on the amount of interest it garnered, I think it’s the right move to bring this in as its first product. And why not? It’s an SUV, and we certainly seem to love SUVs to bits. It’s large, stylish, imposing, and it stands out from the rest of the cars. That, I believe, is as good a start as any already. And having had a go in the car in a torrential Goa where it was almost impossible to get any shots of the car (these photographers and their complaining...), I can tell you that it’s been absolutely worth the lengthy wait.