KIA SYROS: A REJUVENATING TAKE ON SUV SEGMENT

Kia’s success in India can be attributed to how they have always played it safe.

- Vivek Venugopal

They always understood the Indian tastes, loaded their cars with features and priced them competitively. The Seltos was an all-around very well thought out product that appealed to everyone, the Sonet did the same at a lower price point and the Carens was a masterstroke in packaging. Of late, we have seen them deviate from that path and launch the obscenely overpriced EV9, the very expensive Carnival and now the rather adventurously styled Syros. Will it work?

The Syros sits between the Sonet and Seltos in Kia’s line up. While those two are based on the K2 platform, the Syros uses a K1 platform like the Grand i10, Exter and international models like Inster. The K1 platform has been extensively reworked with additional width for the engine bay to accommodate the U2 diesel engine as well as to meet new crash tests. It also has the new electronics architecture that supports the latest electrical and electronics architecture with over-the-air updates for body controllers for remote diagnostics. While the Sonet, Seltos, Carens and EV6 do not have controllers that can be updated OTA, the Syros has 16, the Carnival has 26 and the EV9 has 45.