The 2023 Kia Seltos facelift could see the light of the day by this year, might get subtle changes inside out
Kia is gearing up to launch the Seltos facelift soon and the test mules of the same have been spotted for the first time in India. The car, which actually heated up the midsize SUV segment, will soon get a midlife update.
Launched in August 2019, the Kia Seltos is now nearly 3 years old. The SUV, known for its unique ‘Tiger Nose’ grille, brought to D-segment, some of the never-seen-before features and powertrain options including the turbo petrol and DCT combo.
Some of the features included automatic LED headlamps, air purifier, Hyundai’s BlueLink system with more than 37 features, Bose sound system, 360 degree parking camera, and a lot more.
It was Kia Seltos and MG Hector, which forced manufacturers to bring in more features to their D-segment models.
While the Kia topped the sales charts for months, over time, competition caught up especially its parent firm Hyundai which launched the second generation Creta, a year later. Mahindra’s XUV700, which was launched last year, is also on the bring of overtaking Seltos in sales.
As of today, the SUV averages just around 5000 units, much lower than what it managed in its hey days. Coming to the spotted test mules, both were heavily camouflaged to the point that nothing was visible.
But 1 is a top-end model as it had alloy wheels and the other 1 seems to be a base variant as it sports wheel caps. As there’s heavy camouflage especially double covers at the front and rear, Kia might have extensively reworked the design.
As per sources, the SUV will get new headlights and tail lights with different inside elements while the bumpers and rear tail gate will be reworked too.
The biggest change, however, will be on the inside as various reports say Seltos, which brought revolutionary features earlier, will now bring the much-talked-about ADAS features this time.
As Hyundai has achieved some great breakthroughs with its Ioniq 5 Robotaxi, the company might introduce some of these technologies in its mass market cars like the Seltos and Creta. In fact, the Brazilian Creta N Line has now received ADAS features.
When launched, the upcoming Seltos will compete against the likes of the Hyundai Creta, Mahindra Scorpio N, Tata Harrier, MG Astor, Skoda Kushaq, MG Hector, Maruti Suzuki and Toyota hybrid SUV, Volkswagen Taigun, and the likes.