Pune: Car buyers in India do not mind the price if the vehicle provides innovative features and comfort for the road even as mass-market cars have not seen an uptick during this festive season.
The all-new Kia Carnival Limousine, a luxury van or multipurpose vehicle (MPV) has garnered over 3,000 bookings, which was introduced in the market last month. The minimum booking amount was Rs 2 lakh.
On the first day of opening the booking itself, Carnival had garnered 1,822 bookings without knowing the price.
Considering its price at Rs 63.90 lakh at the Delhi showroom, Kia Carnival has clearly bucked the market trend of slowing sales.
Moreover, with the assembly of just 300 units of the Carnival every month at its factory at Ananthapur in AP, the automaker is booked for nearly a year.
At Rs 63.90 lakh, the Carnival does not have any direct rival and it is positioned between the popular Toyota Innova Hycross at Rs 19.77 lakh-Rs 30.98 lakh, and the Toyota Vellfire luxury van at Rs 1.22 crore-Rs 1.32 crore.
"We have received an overwhelming response from the buyers and we have got over 3,000 bookings and they are still pouring in,” Hardeep Singh Brar, Senior VP, Sales and Marketing at Kia Motors India told Financial Chronicle.
He said this is a testament to the strong legacy that Carnival has created and crafted a new segment for itself in the car market.
“The Carnival has set a benchmark of flawless integration of luxury and technology,” Brar said, adding that the brand was working on supplies to reduce the waiting period.
The Carnival is assembled at Kia India’s plant at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh from the imported semi-knocked down (SKD) kits from South Korea.
The previous version of Carnival had sold more than 14,500 units in the country.
