ANANTAPUR: South Korean automobile giant Kia Motors on Thursday said it would raise its total investment on the manufacturing unit coming up in Anantapur district to $2 billion by 2021 — almost double its initial budget of $1.1 billion. The venture will generate employment opportunities for over 3,000 people.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said he had “big plans” for the automaker which celebrated its framework installation ceremony in Yerramanchi village of Penugonda mandal and wanted to make Kia’s only Indian plant the largest in the world.He evinced hope that the project would turn the drought-hit Anantapur region into a hub for automobile industries. “The Bangaluru-Hyderabad highway is going to be an industrial corridor. It is also going to connect Visakhapatnam and Chennai,” he said. The car maker’s main target group is domestic buyers, but also plans to export its vehicles.
The $2-billion project, the MoU for which was signed in April 2017, is one of the biggest foreign investment ventures in India. Kia Motors has been allotted 536 acres of land for its main plant, 36 acres for a township and 11.20 acres for a training centre which it is proposed to run jointly with the government to develop necessary manufacturing skills among local residents.
“We are here to build more than just great cars. We aim to set a new standard of automotive lifestyle experience by providing Indian consumers world-class products and service, but also deeply engage with the Indian people and give back to the community whenever possible,” Kia president and CEO Han-Woo Park said on the occasion. The production of about three-lakh cars per annum is scheduled to begin in the second-half of 2019.
Kia officials, on being asked the reason behind choosing Andhra Pradesh as their investment destination, said the AP government was “very eager to take us in and was offering more incentives than other states in the region”.
The automaker, which is hoping the applause its SP concept cars won at the recent Auto-Expo in New Delhi will translate into good business, is ahead of its schedule by a month. A senior official of the firm told TNIE its target audience was India’s upper-middle class aged between 20 and 30 years and which is willing to spend more than the average buyer.
