One of the brands that is keen to enter the Indian market is Kia Motors, South Korea’s second largest automaker. With Hyundai owning nearly 34% stake, the brand appears to be in rude health. Recent media reports claim that the brand is in location scout in several states of India for a greenfield plant, but might settle in TN in the vicinity of Hyundai’s existing plant, as it would be easy to manage and share bits and parts.
Now Kia’s Sportage and Soul Crossovers have been spotted testing with West Bengal temporary plates, suggesting the brand could be exploring India opportunities. However, there is no official word either from the brand or from Hyundai yet.
The Kia Sportage, currently in its fourth generation, is closely related to Hyundai Tucson. Internationally, the Sportage is available in 2.4 petrol, 2.0 turbocharged petrol and 1.7 litre turbo diesel engines with 6 Speed AT, 6 Speed manual and a 7 Speed DCT options. For India, it’ll most likely share the engines from Tucson, that is 2.0 litre petrol and 2.0 litre diesel.
The Soul on the other hand is in its second generation, and there isn’t an alter ego from Hyundai. The design is Skoda “Yeti-ish”, if that makes sense. If launched in India, the Soul might share engines from Elite i20.
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