Kia has now built 3m cars in Europe.
The three millionth car is a white Ceed five door GT Line hatchback built for Iceland. It has the 1.0-litre T-GDi (Turbo Gasoline-Direct injection) engine.
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In 2017, Kia Motors Slovakia made 335,600 vehicles and 539,987 engines, exporting to 80 countries. The most popular engine last year was the 1.7-litre CRDi (Common-Rail Direct injection) diesel.
Zilina builds the Ceed hatchback and wagon line, the Sportage SUV and the Venga compact MPV. European made models account for almost half of the company’s total sales on the continent.
Since volume production started, the Ceed family – designed, engineered and manufactured exclusively in Europe for the local market – has accounted for almost half of total production at Zilina. To date, Kia has manufactured close to 1.3m units. In 2017, the model line was Kia’s third best-seller here in the UK.
The plant produced 646,300 first generation Ceeds from launch in 2006 until the launch of the second generation model in 2012. Some 647,700 second generation cars have been produced and the factory is due to start production of the third generation in the second quarter of 2018. Like its predecessors, the new model also will be made exclusively in Europe for European customers.
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By GlobalDataZilina has also produced three generations of the Sportage, commencing with the second generation model in 2007. Since then, close to 1.4m have been produced – 104,500 second generation models, 797,500 third generation and 492,000 of the current model which entered production at the end of 2015.
Engine production – over 4m served
Zilina has also been the European home of Kia engine manufacturing. With two engine production workshops on site, over 4m engines have been produced since 2006.
Kia Motors Slovakia is responsible for the production of a range of petrol (1.4-litre MPI, 1.6-litre GDI and, for GT models, the 201 bhp 1.6-litre T-GDI) and diesel (1.4-, 1.6-, and 1.7-litre CRDi and 2.0-litre R) engines. The factory will also manufacture the efficient new U3 1.6-litre diesel engine which will power a range of vehicles in coming years, starting with the third generation Ceed.
Kia Motors Slovakia purchased 73% of its supplies in 2016, worth EUR3.8bn, from sources within Europe.
The Zilina factory has created around 15,000 direct and indirect jobs.
