Kia’s Slovakian plant has hit five million units of output in the twenty years it has been operational.

Of the five million vehicles produced in Teplicka nad Vahom, Žilina, more than 2.5 million are Sportage models, which have been produced in Kia Slovakia since the second generation. It is closely followed by Ceed models, of which more than 2.1 million have been produced.

“We have tripled our share of the European car market in the last two decades thanks to the presence of our plant in Europe”, commented Marc Hedrich, President of Kia Europe, present at the local ceremony. “The tremendous success of the Ceed and Sportage models produced in Slovakia is truly admirable, becoming best-selling models across Europe several times, which is proof of the quality Kia has managed to achieve”, he added.

Kia Slovakia currently produces nearly 1,500 Ceed and Sportage vehicles per day, which are transported by train and truck to customers. In recent years, the main export countries for Kia Slovakia remain Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Spain.

The Kia plant in Slovakia employs around 3,800 people.

GlobalData analyst Justin Cox highlights the positives of the Slovakia vehicle manufacturing location for Kia in Europe. He says: “The Slovakian plant is ideally located from a logistics and parts supply perspective in terms of the European region. That geographical benefit also means relatively short final shipment journeys – with good transport communications - to major markets, especially Germany. Heading east from Germany also means that labour costs are significantly reduced.”