Tata Sierra Vs Kia Seltos: Sales Report Card After 3 Months
The mid-size SUV segment has lately been witnessing heightened traction. A bunch of new launches have been driving more people into it. The second-generation Kia Seltos, the new Tata Sierra and the new Renault Duster are currently the stars in this space. We now have the March sales data of the Sierra and Seltos. Duster deliveries are yet to commence. 9003 units of the Sierra and 11041 units of the new Seltos were sold in March 2026.
The second-generation Kia Seltos was launched in January this year, with deliveries starting shortly after. 10,639 units of the Seltos were sold in the first month itself. In January, 7003 new Sierras found takers. In February this year, Kia posted sales of 10,308 units of the Seltos while Sierra numbers stood at 7100 units. Seltos’ numbers dropped by 331 units while Tata Motors sold 97 more Sierras in February.
In the first two months, the Seltos sold more units than the Sierra. In January, it sold 3636 more units. In February, Seltos numbers were higher by 3208 units. A similar pattern can be seen in March numbers as well. 11041 units of the Seltos and 9003 Sierras- translating to a difference of 2038 units. The gap has become slim, but it is still the Kia that sold more.
Looking at the larger picture, 31,988 units of the Seltos and 23,106 units of the Sierra have been sold in the first three months of 2026.
Tata Motors, in March announced completing deliveries of 20,000 Sierras. The new Sierra had generated massive interest. The mid-size SUV even got 70,000 bookings within the first 24 hours of the portal going live. Later, the leadership even confirmed that the total booking count crossed 1 lakh units. The huge order-pile also made the waiting periods soar. The manufacturer is now ramping up production aggressively to clear the backlog and bring waiting periods under control.
More recently, we have come across multiple large-scale delivery events. In Kolkata, 81 Sierras were delivered on the same day. In another case, 111 Sierras were delivered in a single day.
The Sierra’s relatively lower monthly volumes are largely a result of supply-side limitations rather than lesser demand. There is a clear gap between the Sierra’s demand and production capacity- something that the carmaker is currently working on reducing.
Tata Motors manufactures the Sierra at its Sanand facility. This is also where the Nexon, another high-volume, high-demand model, is made. This shared production environment may be one of the key reasons behind the constrained output. That said, the fact that the plant is capable of handling high-demand models is indeed an advantage.
As of now, Tata Motors is said to be producing roughly 8,000 Sierras per month, translating to an annual capacity of roughly 96,000 units. By the second quarter of this year, it plans to take this count to 15,000 units per month or 1,80,000 units a year. Achieving this scale will be critical for reducing waiting periods and improving delivery timelines. This ramp-up is expected to be gradual.
Tata Motors has also acknowledged supplier-side bottlenecks as a major hurdle. Tier-1 to Tier-3 component manufacturers are currently operating under high pressure, due to the general boom in India’s automotive manufacturing industry. Total industry volumes have touched 4.5 lakh units per month, marking a major hike.
Critical components such as castings, powertrain elements, and structural parts are among the most affected. The production of these cannot be scaled overnight. Supply chain constraints should ease first for the production ramp-up to be completed effectively.