Kia India plans to invest about $2 billion in a second manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh, a move expected to create around 12,000 jobs and lift the company's annual production capacity in the country to 630,000 vehicles.

Gwanggu Lee, managing director and chief executive of Kia India, announced the plan on Thursday at the Confederation of Indian Industry's Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam. The new facility would raise capacity from 430,000 vehicles a year at Kia's existing plant in the state.

What the expansion involves

The investment, worth roughly Rs 17,000 crore, will fund an additional plant alongside Kia's existing factory at Anantapur, which the company set up after signing an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government in 2017. Mass production at Anantapur began in August 2019, and the site has since anchored Kia's manufacturing in India, building models for the domestic market and for export.

Lee did not set out a timetable for the new plant, and did not say when construction would begin or when the extra capacity would come on stream. That detail will matter to suppliers and to workers in the state, because the 12,000 jobs and the higher output depend on the project moving from announcement to construction.

A growing market

In the financial year 2026, Kia India produced 317,000 vehicles, dispatching 289,000 in the domestic market and exporting 27,953, according to figures reported alongside the announcement. The expansion would take total capacity to 630,000 vehicles a year, a rise of almost half on the current 430,000.

India is the world's third-largest car market, and global manufacturers are competing hard for a share of it. Japan's Suzuki Motor, the majority owner of India's largest carmaker by volume, Maruti Suzuki, laid out plans in 2025 to invest about $8 billion in the country, Reuters reported.

Lee made the announcement at the inaugural session of the 31st CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, an annual gathering that brings together Indian and overseas businesses with state governments. Andhra Pradesh has courted carmakers and their suppliers for years, and Kia's first plant helped put Anantapur on the automotive map. A second factory would extend that footprint, drawing in component makers and logistics firms alongside the carmaker itself.

For Andhra Pradesh, the announcement is a significant vote of confidence in its automotive sector. The state already hosts Kia's first Indian plant, and a second factory would deepen that relationship, bringing new supplier work and employment to the region. The test now is delivery: turning a summit announcement into a working plant, on a schedule the company has yet to publish.