Kia Plant Officially Complete, Ready For Upcoming Carnival & QYI

Has manufacturing capacity of 3 lakh units a year, meeting Seltos demand uses around half capacity

• The Kia facility which began construction in 2017 is now completed.

• It covers an area of 536 acres for all stages of production, from press shop to test track and the stockyard.

• It is equipped and ready for the manufacture of upcoming Kia models such as the Carnival and QYI.

• Kia currently runs two shifts for production of the Seltos, averaging almost 1600 units a day.

The construction of the Kia Motors manufacturing facility in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, is now officially complete. It’s the same plant that has produced over 40,000 units of the Seltos SUV since mid-2019 and now it’s ready for whatever Kia will offer next.

The facility has a manufacturing capacity of 3 lakh units per annum. It is also equipped to manufacture upcoming models in 2020 like the Carnival MPV and the QYI sub-4m SUV. A source from the plant mentioned that the facility can be adapted for the manufacture of electric vehicles in the future.

Since the Carnival MPV will be a CKD model (completely knocked down) and a premium offering, it should not be any burden on the assembly shop. At present, Kia is able to produce around 1,600 units of the Seltos in a day across two shifts. The production rate can vary between 40 to 50 units an hour.

Since its launch, over 40,000 units of the Kia Seltos have been shipped and over 14,000 of them were shipped in November 2019 alone from the Anantapur plant. Kia recently announced that it was ramping up the production of the petrol-DCT and diesel-AT variants to meet the demand and reduce waiting times.

Kia is likely to showcase its sub-4m SUV at the 2020 Auto Expo in February and launch it in mid-2020. Now complete, the Kia plant should be prepared to meet future demand for the upcoming models without a significant delay.