A new plant and a new car
by Stuart Livesey
A new car every 57 seconds, 34 new cars every hour, 822 new cars every day, 24,657 new cars every month, 300,000 new cars every year … the figures are staggering. But that’s the output that Kia expects to achieve from their new plant in Zilina, Slovakia.
The plant began production in December 2006 after a 1 billion euro investment by Kia. Production has been slowly increasing since then; the plant turned out 12,000 units in March and the target for May is 14,000 units.
When the plant is in full production it will be employing a workforce of around 10,000 and will be producing just one vehicle – the Kia cee’d. Initial production is focused on the four-door version but the plant will begin to turn out the five door cee’d wagon in August and the three-door cee3’d will begin to appear in December.
In Europe the cee’d is being offered with a whopping 7 year/150,000km warranty that covers the entire car for five years and the power train for an additional two.
You can expect to see the Kia cee’d in Australia before the end of the year.