Kia has held a ceremony for its dedicated plant for the production of battery-electric purpose-built vehicles.
The ceremony was held at Kia’s Hwaseong plant, located in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, and was attended by over 200 people, including government officials, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, Kia’s Global President and CEO Ho Sung Song, and other employees from Hyundai Motor Group and the automotive parts industry.
Kia President and CEO Ho Sung Song, on behalf of Hyundai Motor Group, highlighted in a greeting, “Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Hyundai MOBIS together plan to invest KRW 24 trillion in the domestic electric vehicle industry by 2030, with the goal of making South Korea one of the top three players in the global EV market. Our focus is to enhance the competitiveness of the entire electric vehicle ecosystem, including research and development, production, and infrastructure, and to lead the way in driving change and innovation in the new global automotive industry.”
Kia has announced that they will invest around one trillion won to secure 99 acres of land, with the company planning to start mass production in the second half of 2025. The new plant plans to produce 150,000 units in the first full year.
The new PBV plant will be built as an eco-friendly plant that applies future innovative manufacturing technologies while minimising carbon emissions, states the release. It will also seek efficiency and intelligence with Hyundai Motor and Kia’s smart factory brand ‘E-FOREST technologies’ such as digital manufacturing systems.
Additionally, the PBV plant will be built as a low-carbon factory by operating a dry booth, a nature-friendly construction method, during the painting process of vehicle manufacturing, and reducing carbon emissions by about 20 percent compared to existing factories by utilizing natural light and streamlining the manufacturing process.
Kia will also apply innovative technologies such as automation of facilities using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), automation of painting quality inspection under the vehicle, automation of installation of parts such as glass, vehicle name, and company logo, and real-time automatic measurement quality data analysis to autonomously correct and install the vehicle body in real time.
The new facility will be a ‘human-friendly’ plant by pushing automation in heavy-duty work and tasks that require looking up at the ceiling, while enhancing the feeling of ‘openness’ and also reducing noise levels.
At the ceremony, Hyundai Motor Group also outlined its aim to become one of the worlds top three EV manufacturers by 2030 through the combined sales of Hyundai Motor, Kia and Genesis electric models.
The Group also announced that it plans to significantly expand the annual EV production in Korea to 1.51 million units and global volume to 3.64 million units by 2030. To enable such plans, Hyundai Motor and Kia, alongside with Hyundai MOBIS, plan to invest KRW 24 trillion (approximately 18 billion USD) in the EV sector domestically.
Source: Kia
