The Kia Seltos has made its global premiere in India, resembling the SP2i Concept that was showcased earlier.
Korean major Kia Motors are making their way into the Indian market, and the first car will be a compact SUV called the Seltos. Kia claim that their brand network is the biggest for any new brand in India and will include Tier-III and Tier-IV cities. The name “Seltos” has been derived from Speed+Celtos (a Greek god).
The Kia Seltos will be offered with a trio of BS-VI compliant petrol and diesel engines. The first, is the all-new 1.4-litre T-GDI turbo-petrol, direct-injection “Smartstream” engine, apart from a naturally aspirated petrol engine and a turbo-diesel engine. The standard transmission in the Kia Seltos will be a six-speed manual, with the automatic options including an intelligent continuously variable transmission, dubbed IVT, for the natural petrol, a six-speed torque converter automatic for the diesel, and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission (DCT) for the 1.4 T-GDI petrol. The Kia Seltos will offer three driving modes: Normal, Eco and Sport. Furthermore, Terrain modes will consist of Wet, Mud and Sand, which can be chosen using a rotary knob on the centre console.
The new Seltos has gone through vigorous testing and research has been done taking Indian road conditions into account. The clutch has been engineered to have a longer life and less effort is required to operate it, resulting in a smooth and quick acceleration between 20-80 km/h.
There will be eight colour options available on the Kia Seltos. It boasts of all the latest features including a 10.5-inch infotainment system, 360-degree surround-view camera, head-up display, leather upholstery with ventilated front seats, a sunroof, rain-sensing wipers, auto headlights and an eight-speaker Bose sound system. The lower variants, of which one was displayed, had a smaller infotainment system and drum brakes at the rear as opposed to the other car’s disc brakes on all four wheels. The Seltos will have UVO connectivity which is similar to the Hyundai Venue’s BlueLink system. The UVO system will offer Navigation, Safety and Security, Vehicle Management, Remote Control and Convenience. It will also offer AI-based voice commands, stolen vehicle tracking and immobilization, safety alerts, remote engine start and stop, auto collision notification and remote control of the air purifier.
The Kia Seltos will also have three buttons on the rear-view mirror, that can be used to summon roadside assistance or to send out an SOS message in case of an emergency. Safety features include six airbags, ABS, electronic stability control, vehicle stability management, hill-start assist, front and rear parking sensors, and a blind-spot view monitor.
The price of the Kia Seltos has not yet been revealed but, with six potential drivetrain variations and more than 10 variants, we expect the pricing to be between Rs 11 lakh and 19 lakh.
Story: Azaman Chothia
