Kia Corporation said it has halted production at one of its eight vehicle assembly plants in South Korea for more than a week due to a fire in the paintshop.
South Korea’s second-largest automaker confirmed that production operations at its Hwaseong No 3 assembly plant will be suspended until at least the 6th September after a fire damaged eight industrial robots in the second-floor paintshop on Monday evening. A spark in the electrical system in one of the robots is understood to have been the cause of the fire.
A company spokesperson said the automated fire extinguishing system was instantly activated and that the fire was completely put out after 40 minutes. The plant produces the Kia K5 and K8 passenger cars models and the all-electric EV6 SUV.
Kia has 14 vehicle assembly plants worldwide, including eight in South Korea, two in China and one in each of the USA, Mexico, India and Slovakia with a combined annual production capacity of 3.8 million vehicles. The company’s global sales last year exceeded 2.9 million units.
