Tamil Nadu offers 400 acres to Kia Motors plant; final site location of its inaugural facility will be announced in few weeks
The government of Southern state Tamil Nadu has said yesterday that as much as 400 acres of land have been offered for Kia Motors to establish a plant in the state. While the exact location was not pointed out, we can presume that it could be closer to its parental company Hyundai’s state-of-the-art production facility near the state capital Chennai.
MC Sampath Industries Minister in the state assembly divulged that the government is ready to provide about 390 acres of land in a hope Kia would build a manufacturing base in Tamil Nadu. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are other states where Kia Motors is seeking a favourable destination on but the latter is tipped to be the eye-candy.
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Report emerged on the internet last month said the South Korean automaker will choose a site for its inaugural production facility in India and yesterday we posted another news that the brand is in final stages of penning a deal with Andhra Pradesh and the mutual benefits are being currently discussed.
Kia’s key personnel have prior experience in handling the domestic market and they want to make the presence felt as soon as they can as competition pumps up like never before from existing as well as forthcoming automakers. The proposed factory could begin production as early as 2019 with the production capacity aimed at three lakh units per year.
Also Read: Kia Choosing Site for Indian Production Plant
The investment was also said to be more than 5,000 crores. Hyundai has two facilities in Chennai with a total annual capacity of 6,80,000 units. These factories are utilised to full effect as Hyundai is the largest exporter of passenger cars in the market.
It is obvious to see Hyundai sharing components and underpinnings with Kia and leverage the latter’s facility for its own development. Hyundai has the biggest challenge lying in pricing and positioning the brand as they might intersect in potentially every segment.
Source: LiveMint