On Friday, Kia India announced that it has sold over 2 lakh units of the first vehicle it launched in India, the Seltos, in 2019. The company added it leads in sales of ‘connected cars’ in the country, having sold 1.5 lakh such cars.
Of these 1.5 lakh connected cars sold, a lion’s share has been contributed by the Seltos (78 per cent), followed by the Sonet (19 per cent).
Of late, connected cars—these have an inbuilt eSIM, and features such as voice-based navigation, voice-assisted phone calls, in-car air quality monitoring, remote engine start, and so on; these are also capable of over-the-air software updates, just like your smartphone—are getting popular, and there are lakhs of such cars running on Indian roads.
Other players
While Kia’s connected car technology is called the UVO, Hyundai has the Blue Link. It’s being offered in six models—i20, Venue, Creta, Elantra, Tucson and Verna.
The Honda City comes with Alexa remote capabilities (this connected feature is not an option in the City, but is standard).
Last year Ford introduced its connectivity solution FordPass as a standard feature across all its models and variants. All BS6 Ford cars get a factory-fitted, cloud-connected device that facilitates real-time information exchange—like vehicle health alerts and location, fuel information, and so on—between the car and the FordPass app.
Tata Motors has developed a tech called the iRA (Intelligent Real time Assist).
MG Motor’s tech is called the iSMART (developed by MG in partnership with Microsoft, Adobe, Unlimit, SAP, Cisco, Gaana, TomTom and Nuance). It’s available in select variant of all models.
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