Hyundai Motor Group’s Kia Motors said it was ready to begin investing an additional EUR70m (US$79m) expanding its engine factory in Slovakia.

The automaker aims to complete expanding the manufacturing plant in Zilina by the end of August 2020.

The company plans subsequently to introduce the next generation 1.6 GDi and T-GDi at the facility and the petrol engines will be fitted to the locally-made Ceed C-segment vehicle range.

The vehicle assembly plant in Zilina is the only production location worldwide for the Ceed passenger car and XCeed crossover model – the factory also makes the Sportage SUV.

It produced 99,514 vehicles in the first five months of 2020, for sale mainly in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

A Kia official confirmed the automaker had originally planned to start expanding the plant in March but construction was postponed due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

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He added “the completion date for the production line expansion could still change, depending on the virus situation”.