It has been a bit of a wait for a seven-seater SUV from Kia that would flank the five-seater Seltos SUV and keep buyers from moving to vehicles from other companies. And last week, the Carens, as it is called, was finally showed in metal.

While most other companies that have brought out six- or seven-seater versions of their five-seater midsize SUVs have not changed the broad look of the longer version up to the end of the front doors (till the B-pillar), the Carens, which is built on the same platform as the Seltos, looks totally different from the shorter model although some design cues are visible in the lights and other bits.

The focus is, naturally, on space and, of course, on safety. And while Kia seems to be loading up the features and the price is not decided yet, it is likely to be it somewhere in the Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh range for different versions when it is launched in the first quarter of 2022.

As for the Kia’s plans for electric vehicles, Hardeep Singh Brar, vice president and head of sales and marketing, Kia India, told t2oS that the car maker is looking at possible of models, needed range and growth of service networks and will reveal plans in the second half of 2022.

Pictures: Kia India