Kia Motors Corporation has signed a new agreement with Russian car manufacturer Izhmash-Auto to begin production of the Kia Spectra (the Shuma in some markets) four-door saloon from November 2004.
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Kia will supply the cars to Izhmash-Auto in CKD kit form and the Russian company is planning to assemble 1,000 cars in 2004 and 40,000 during 2005 at its existing plant in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia Republic, 1,300 km east of Moscow. By 2007, annual production is planned to reach 120,000 cars.
KMC will assist Izhmash-Auto with the upgrading of its facilities and with technical training for its assembly workers and engineers.
Production of the Spectra will include manufacture of the engine and transmission, using equipment supplied by KMC.
“The agreement with Izhmash-Auto is the latest development in a highly successful programme that saw the production of Kia’s one-millionth knockdown vehicle earlier this year,” commented Yong-Mo Ahn, director of Kia Motors knockdown operations. “Overseas assembly plays an important role in Kia’s developing business, increasing our penetration in key local markets and sometimes paving the way for full scale manufacturing in the future.”
Kia has sold 120,000 1.6-litre Spectra models in export markets since 2000. The current model will be phased out of production in Korea next year to make way for the new C-Segment Cerato model, shown recently at Korea’s Busan Auto Show, and due to make its world debut at the Detroit International Auto Show in January 2004.
The new agreement with Izhmash-Auto does not effect Kia’s continuing relationship with the Russian vehicle manufacturer Avtotor. The company assembles the Kia Sportage model at its plant in Kaliningrad, on the Baltic coast, 1,200 kms west of Moscow, which has a capacity of 10,000 cars per year.
