Kia India Plans $2 Billion Second Plant in Andhra Pradesh, With 12,000 Jobs

Kia India plans to invest about $2 billion to build an additional manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh, the company's managing director and chief executive, Gwanggu Lee, said on Thursday, November 12. Lee announced the plan at the Confederation of Indian Industry Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, the port city in the same southern state where the new plant will be built.

What the investment covers

The company expects the project to create about 12,000 jobs. It would lift Kia India's annual production capacity to 630,000 vehicles, up from 430,000 at its existing plant. Lee gave no timeline for the investment. He did not say when construction would start or when the first cars would leave the new line, and the company has not named a site for the facility.

The announcement came on the opening day of the 31st CII Partnership Summit, a two day investment meeting in Visakhapatnam where state and national officials court manufacturers. Kia's pledge was one of the largest announced on the first day. Three supplier firms also signed agreements at the summit to set up units in Anantapur district, projects expected to create about 1,400 jobs and supply the car plants in the area.

Kia's base in Andhra Pradesh

Kia signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government in 2017 and began mass production at its plant in Anantapur in August 2019. That plant builds the Seltos and Sonet models and serves both Indian buyers and export markets. In the 2026 financial year the company produced 317,000 vehicles in India, dispatched 289,000 to domestic dealers and exported 27,953.

Sales have kept rising. Kia India recorded its highest ever monthly wholesales in October 2026, at 33,462 vehicles, up 13.22 percent from 29,556 in the same month a year earlier. A second plant gives the company room to add models and to fill more export orders without stretching the Anantapur lines.

A crowded race for India's car market

India is the world's third largest car market, and global automakers are putting billions of dollars into local plants to reach its buyers and build cars for export. Suzuki Motor, the majority owner of Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker by volume, laid out plans in 2025 to invest about $8 billion in the country. Toyota and Honda have also committed to expanding their manufacturing plans in India.

For Andhra Pradesh, the pledge deepens a car building cluster that started with the Anantapur plant. What happens next depends on the details Kia has not yet released: the site, the construction schedule and the models the new plant will build.