Over 338,000 cars rolled off the production lines at Kia Motors Slovakia in 2015 representing a 4% year-on-year growth. In comparison with 2014, the engine production increased by 18% exceeding the limit of 582,000 units. The investment of €110 million was primarily aimed at launching volume production of new models. In June, Kia introduced a product-enhanced version of the cee'd model and the 4th generation of the popular model Kia Sportage in December. The automaker also reported a number of significant milestones when the jubilee two-millionth car as well as the three-millionth engine were manufactured during the past year.
”My big thank you is due to all of our employees who contributed to fulfilling the production plan with their passion and creativity. Thanks to their effort, production in our manufacturing facility has been growing continuously six years in a row. I truly believe that the current upgraded product portfolio will assist in keeping the set trend in the upcoming years,“ said Eek-Hee Lee, President and CEO of Kia Motors Slovakia.
In addition to the enhanced version of the cee’d model and its new sporty GT line edition, volume production of the 4th generation Sportage was successfully commenced at the end of last year. This SUV model, which is growing more and more popular with customers, constituted 58% of the overall production. The cee’d model took almost a third of all produced cars while the versatile Venga took the remaining 9%. The cars manufactured in Slovakia covered 56% of all Kia sales in Europe. The biggest share proceeded to Russia (14%) followed by Great Britain (14%), Germany (8%), Spain (8%), and Italy (6%).
Last year, the plant recorded an 18% increase in engine production at the amount of 582,000 units. The most demanded was the 1.7 liter diesel engine. Diesel engines composed around 50% of the total engine production last year. Almost half of all engines Kia traditionally exported to its sister company Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech in the Czech Republic.
In December, Kia Motors Slovakia received the Merkur 2015 award that the Financial Directorate of the Slovak Republic gives away to the largest income tax payers. The automaker has been awarded the accolade three times in a row, last year for paying €103.95 million. In total, Kia has paid €244.45 million of the corporate income tax to the state budget, which is more than the company drew from in a form of stimuli after its arrival in Slovakia. After including all corporate income tax and income tax of individuals, property tax, custom duties and levies, its contribution to the state funds surpasses the investment stimuli and tax breaks more than threefold.
