Since the first cee’d five-door hatchback cars for European customers rolled off the Zilina assembly line last December, manufacturing at Kia’s all-new facility in Slovakia has been setting a series of production records, with more than 24,000 cars made so far this year.
Kia’s original goal, to ramp-up monthly output from 5,000 during the first quarter of 2007, to 10,000 units per month in May with the introduction of a second shift, has already been surpassed. The first shift has been operating so efficiently - building a record 617 cee’d cars during a single day in March - that the second shift has now been introduced, 45 days ahead of schedule.
As the second Zilina shift builds up its pace to the target of 60 cars per hour, Kia is planning to manufacture 12,000 cars in March - 2,000 ahead of plan - and 14,000 in May.
“Production at Zilina is progressing really well and vehicle quality is being maintained at the very highest standards,” commented Jean-Charles Lievens, senior vice president of Kia Motors Europe. “The introduction of Kia cee’d is bringing about a qualitative revolution for the Kia brand that will change how we are perceived by consumers across Europe.”
Representing an investment by Kia of €1 billion, the facility at Zilina is establishing new benchmarks for vehicle quality and productivity - aiming to manufacture 100 cars per employee per year when fully operational. And it will set new standards for environmental protection. The establishment of this plant is creating 10,000 jobs in the region and Zilina will have an ultimate capacity of 300,000 units annually.
Thanks to some of the world’s most advanced manufacturing techniques, the Zilina plant is ensuring that cee’d is a durable high-quality product and Kia is demonstrating its confidence by giving every cee’d a revolutionary 7-year / 150,000 kilometre warranty in all EU states plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Gibraltar.
The Kia warranty is the ‘best’ new vehicle warranty ever offered by any car manufacturer in Europe, with five-years cover of the entire car and an additional two-years cover on the powertrain. It is the clearest corporate statement of Kia’s confidence in the quality, durability and reliability of Kia products made in Europe.
By the end of the year there will be three cee’d body styles to choose from. Production of the cee’d five-door ‘Sporty Wagon’ will begin in August and of the cee’d three-door in December 2007.
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