Connected Car
Kia celebrates the 1 million unit production milestone at the Indian plant in Anantapur on July 13, 2023 (Courtesy of Kia)Kia automobile manufacturing plant in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, India (Courtesy of Kia)Kia Seltos (Courtesy of Kia)In celebration of producing 1 million cars from its Indian plant, Kia Corp. has vowed to command 10% of the Indian car market with more diverse models and the addition of new car dealers.South Korea’s No. 2 carmaker, an affiliate of the country’s No. 1 Hyundai Motor Co., on Thursday announced that its finished car manufacturing plant in Anantapur, India, has churned out 1 million cars in total since the opening of the plant in 2019.“It is a great milestone to produce a million units in India, which is the world’s third-biggest auto market with great growth potential,” according to a press release from Kia on Friday. It boasts an annual production capacity of 350,000 units.The finished car plant is armed with up-to-date robotics technologies for automatic manufacturing and monitoring.Kia produces five models from the Indian plant -- the Seltos, the Carnival, the Sonet, the Carens and the EV6. The total global sales in the first half of this year were 11% higher from the same period of last year.The global sales growth was mainly driven by brisk sales of sport utility vehicles, with the Sportage selling 260,485 units, followed by 157,188 units of the Seltos and 115,644 units of the Sorento.The Seltos also was the top-selling car among export models from the Indian plant, accounting for 68% of its cumulative outbound shipments and 53% of Indian local sales since its opening.Nan-Sae Bin at binthere@hankyung.com Sookyung Seo edited this article.