Believe it or not, Kia does not have an assembly line in Southeast Asia. It’s a bit of a surprise given that sister company Hyundai has a plant in the region already. At the moment, Kia has four manufacturing plants in its home country, along with other factories in in China, India, Japan, Mexico, Slovakia, the United States and Vietnam.
But hang on, isn’t Vietnam in Southeast Asia? Well, that facility is dedicated to commercial vehicles like the H350 and the County minibus, not Kia (or even Hyundai) passenger vehicles. But that could change soon according to a report from Maeil Business News Korea.
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Per the South Korean news outlet, Kia could be considering Thailand as its first manufacturing facility in ASEAN. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise given that most major automakers have factories over there. If that’s the case, the possible Kia Thailand assembly line would complement Hyundai’s plant in Indonesia.
The paper adds that the planned facility aims to have a production output of 250,000 units per month. It is still known what models will be built there, but these are likely to be popular and/or region-specific models. Likely candidates include the Stonic, Seltos, and Soluto, along with other models not offered in the Philippines such as the Sonet (B-crossover), and Carens (B-MPV).
But given Kia’s push towards electrification, it is possible that EV models could be produced there. There’s also a chance the other premium Kia models might be assembled in Thailand. With that, it opens up the possibility of models like the Carnival, Sorento, and EV6 having lower prices in the country and the region thanks to lower labor costs and more favorable trade agreements.
