Kia India Bets ₹17,700 Crore on Second Andhra Facility to Boost Capacity to 630,000

If you have spent months waiting for dealership delivery allocations on high-demand crossovers, assembly relief is finally on the horizon. Kia India is committing $2 billion — approximately ₹17,700 crore — to erect a second automotive manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh. The investment will expand the automaker's total annual production ceiling from 4.3 lakh vehicles to 6.3 lakh units.

Gwanggu Lee, managing director and chief executive officer of Kia India, confirmed the capital deployment during his address at the CII Partnership Summit on November 12. The upcoming complex is projected to create roughly 12,000 industrial jobs across the regional manufacturing belt.

Assembly bottlenecks require concrete solutions.

Doubling Down on the Anantapur Manufacturing Footprint

Kia first anchored its Indian operations in Anantapur back in 2017, establishing a manufacturing hub with an installed nameplate capacity of 4.3 lakh vehicles annually. That operational base propelled the brand into a front-running sales position within years of showroom entry. But running near capacity limits future vehicle introductions. Lee stated that commissioning the additional plant will elevate Kia India's combined annual build volume to 630,000 units — an absolute addition of 200,000 vehicles a year.

Yet the carmaker is holding operational dates close to its chest. Kia has not disclosed an exact capital expenditure schedule or an official target date for the start of commercial production.

Dissecting the FY2026 Production Split

The company's FY2026 production logs illustrate why factory floor expansion became necessary. During the fiscal period, Kia rolled out 3.17 lakh vehicles from its Anantapur lines. Domestic showrooms soaked up the vast majority of that inventory, absorbing 2.89 lakh units across the country.

Exports absorbed the remaining factory throughput. Overseas dispatches accounted for 27,953 vehicles over the course of the fiscal cycle.

Market Context: With domestic sales consuming more than 91 percent of total local production, Kia faced a firm ceiling against future line allocations. The 200,000-unit factory buffer gives the automaker room to feed domestic variant demand without restricting foreign shipment commitments.

Prospective buyers tracking waiting periods and model rollouts will look for when the company confirms site acquisition and machinery installation. While an operational kick-off timeline remains unannounced, securing the $2 billion blueprint anchors Kia's largest capacity ramp in India since its debut.