Kia Motors India Plant to start trial production on Tue

Kia Motors, the world’s 8th largest automaker, is all set to start trial production at its largest global, Erramanchi unit in Penukonda block of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.

Korean Ambassador to India Mr. Shin Bongkil, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and top brass of Kia will take part in the trial production ceremony. Kia Motors currently produces 3 million cars worldwide, and the Anantapur factory will be its 15 manufacturing facility.

In February last year, the foundation for the 650-acre facility was laid. The full-fledged manufacturing plant has an engine shop, body and paint shops, seat assembly, vehicle assembly unit, utility center and a power train shop.

Kia has invested $ 1.1 billion already and says that the total investment would go up to $2 billion by 2021. The government hopes that the car company will create more than 10,000 jobs. Kia Motors in the backward Anantapur district has an installed annual production capacity of 300,000 units which can be expanded to 100,000 more.

A 12.60-acre Korean township with more than 82 buildings in 16 complexes is under construction and will be part of the township. The township is coming up near Penukonda and surrounding parts located on NH 44. In all, 19 ancillary units are expected to come up in the vicinity of the plant. In addition to the township, the state government has allocated Krishna water from Gollapalli reservoir with a separate pipeline from the reservoir.

In December last Kia Motors also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state of Andhra Pradesh to collaborate on the ‘Partnership for Future Eco Mobility’.

The partnership is to support the Andhra Pradesh in the uptake of electric vehicles and development of local EV infrastructure.

As part of the agreement, Kia Motors has provided the government with three of its global bestselling eco car – a Niro Hybrid, Niro Plug-in Hybrid, and a Niro EV. Kia is also installing a vehicle charging station at Vijayawada.