Kia Celebrates Five Successful Years of US Production

Nov 18, 2014

When you’re looking at a new 2015 Kia Sorento near Libertyville at our dealership, did you know it was actually made right here in the United States. Though Kia may have originated in South Korea, today many of its models are produced in our country by American hands. Recently, Kia just celebrated five years of producing cars at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia.

On November 16, 2009, the Kia plant in Georgia produced their first car. It was a 2011 Kia Sorento crossover painted white. To honor this first car, the Kia plant celebrated its five years in business by rolling out a new 2016 Kia Sorento crossover. Earlier this month on November 12, 2014, the plant also celebrated the completion of 1,500,000 Kia automobiles.

Originally, the plant in Georgia started with only one shift of 1200 team members. That is on the lower side for a manufacturing plant, which can sometimes turn out vehicles 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Of course, the demand for the plant soon grew in 2010, and 800 more jobs were created for a second shift.

Following in 2011, Kia decided to add the midsize 2011 Kia Optima to the production line, requiring a third shift. During this update, Kia invested $100 million to expand the plant and boosting production capacity to 360,000 models a year. In total, Kia created 3000 jobs at the plant. If you factor in local suppliers, the job total goes up to 14,000.

To see the results of American’s hard work, come to Classic Kia. We are located at 425 North Green Bay Road in Waukegan, where we have the 2015 Kia Sorento and 2015 Kia Optima in stock right now.