December 23, 2024

• 

Kia Motors said on March 20 that it is considering producing electric vehicles at one of its three plants in China amid weak sales there.

“The company is considering halting the production of existing models such as the Sportage sport utility vehicle and the localized KX7 SUV and manufacturing EVs at the 140,000 unit-a-year No. 1 plant in Yancheng,” a company spokesman said.

A final decision has yet to be made, he said.

Kia has three plants in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, with their combined capacity reaching 890,000 units.

Its vehicle sales in China began to falter in 2017, when Seoul and Beijing engaged in a diplomatic row over the deployment of an advanced US anti-missile system called THAAD in South Korea.

Sales plunged 45 percent to 360,006 vehicles in China in 2017 from 650,005 units a year earlier. Last year, sales in the world’s biggest automobile market remained weak at 370,002 units, a 2.8 percent on-year growth.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)