Kia Celebrates One Million Engines Built at Zilina Plant

South Korean manufacturer Kia Motors today announced its Slovakian engine production facility in Zilina has produced its one millionth unit. The feat was reached within five years of the factory’s opening, with the milestone unit in question being a four-cylinder 1.4-liter petrol engine.

Built alongside the Zilina facility that produces the 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.

According to Kia, petrol engines represent 60 percent 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 program costing €100 million, that level will be increased to 450,000 per year on a three-shift basis.

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

"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 company has high expectations from the future and plans to become one of the top 10 mainstream brands in Europe by 2013, which means it would have to surpass popular brands, such as Skoda and Renault's Dacia.