Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was the chief guest at the Kia Motors Grand Cermony celebrations organized in Penukonda.
After visiting the plant facilities, he said that his Government will extend all necessary support as it steps up production and launches new models.
Jagan Mohan Reddy was pleased with the Kia plant seeing an investment of 1.1 billion dollars and providing employment to over 6500 people now (of them 3000 directly by Kia Motors and another 3500 by its vendors).
He said that when in full capacity, the car plant would employ about 18000 people, this includes 11000 jobs directly and about 7000 jobs indirectly.
He expressed that Kia will soon head towards its capacity of 300000 units and the Government would pro-actively support its growth in India.
The Kia plant, its fifteenth, has been set up on a 536 acre site and has had an investment of 1.1 billion dollars. The barren land has been converted to a most modern eco-friendly plant, Han Woo Park, President and CEO of Kia Motor Corporation, said.
The eighth largest automotive company with revenues of 50 billion dollars and sales of over 2.8 million units expects to cross 3 million units soon, he said.
The company is expected to launch it's luxury MUV Carnival early next year in India, he said.
Mentioning about rapid strides Kia was making with it's new models, he mentioned how Telluride launch in the United States (US) has created a buzz and how it is set to play a major role in electric mobility.
The new plant here has capability to produce Electric Vehicles, he said.
