South Korea’s oldest automotive manufacturer Kia Motors is all set to roll out its first ‘Made in India’ car with maximum localisation by mid-2019 from Andhra Pradesh. Kia Motors contributes the single-largest FDI in the automotive sector.The company had signed an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh (AP) government during April 2017 to build a manufacturing facility along with an ecosystem for ancillaries with a $2-billion investment for producing 300,000 units per year.“This is part of our global manufacturing footprint plan. With an initial investment if $1.1 billion, the production from India plant will begin from mid of 2019,” Han-Woo Park, CEO, Kia Motors, said after inaugurating framework installation at Anantapur in AP. The first car to be rolled out would be an SUV SP Concept which was recently showcased at the auto expo.
The 214-hectare plant will provide jobs to 3,000 local residents. The capacity of the plant is about 300,000 cars annually. “Along with a social and economic development, we plan to invest about $2 billion by 2021, creating over 10,000 jobs for manufacturing different brands,” Park said. The Anantapur plant is the 15th global manufacturing facility and is expected to become the largest facility for Kia Motors over a period of time. Over 2.7 million Kia vehicles are produced at 14 manufacturing and assembly operations in five countries.
The facility would cater majorly for the domestic market close to 90% and the rest would be for exports. According to AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, a South Korean ecosystem will be created along with a township, training centre, etc on about 335 acres, thus creating over 3,000 jobs for local residents.