Kia Hits One Million Engines At Zilina Factory

WEYBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM – May 13, 2011: A four-cylinder 1.4 litre petrol engine became the one millionth engine to be produced at Kia Motors Slovakia’s Zilina engine production facility – a mark reached within five years of the factory’s opening.

Built alongside the Zilina facility that produces cee’d Sportage and soon-to-be-added Venga, the KMS engine plant assembles finished units from components both manufactured on site and supplied by European partners including Nemak and ZF Zachs.

Petrol engines represent 60 per cent of the output with diesel units accounting for the rest of the 1,350 units per day production level. Currently the plant has a capacity of 300,000 units but following an expansion programme costing Euro 100 million that level will be increased to 450,000 per year on a three-shift basis.

"We are particularly proud to have produced one million engines within less than five years since the volume production was launched,” said Myung-Chul Chung, President and CEO of Kia Motors Slovakia. “And our expansion plan will allow us to become one of the biggest automotive engine manufacturing sites in Central Europe.”

The Kia Motors Slovakia engine plant produces 1.4-litre and 1.6-litre petrol and 1.4, 1.6 and 1.7-litre diesel engines and the car plant has already built more than 820,000 vehicles since it opened in 2006.