Kia Motors Manufacturing Slovakia has built its 1,000,000th car – a white, diesel-engined Ceed wagon – in just over five years since production started.
The milestone car was donated to Slovakian children’s charity Red Nose Clowndoctors. It was also the 600,000th Ceed, the Zilina factory’s first model. It has since added the Sportage SUV and Venga small hatchback.
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The plant built around 252,000 cars and 359,000 engines last year, up 10% and 12% respectively. Some engines are shipped to parent Hyundai Motor’s plant in the neighbouring Czech Republic. Target Kia vehicle production for 2012 is around 285,000 units.
Sportage production in 2011 topped 101,000 units, accounting for 40% of the overall production. The plant made 103,000 Ceeds (41%) and 11,000 Vengas. The remaining 36,000 units were Hyundai ix35s (same platform as the Sportage) built up to June 2011 but production of these has since been shifted to the Czech plant.
Kia Motors Slovakia launched a third shift this year and increased the number of employees to 3,900. Production of the second generation Ceed starts in the second quarter.
