Kia Motors Corp. opened its first U.S. auto-assembly plant, a $1 billion factory in Georgia, as the Hyundai Motor Co. affiliate seeks to lure customers from struggling Toyota Motor Corp.
The first model at the facility is the revamped Sorento crossover, which starts at $19,995 and competes with models such as Toyota's RAV4 sport-utility vehicle. Located in West Point, Georgia, the plant will be able to build 300,000 vehicles a year and employs more than 1,200 people, Kia said yesterday.
Adding U.S. capacity will help Kia boost inventory as Toyota, the world's largest automaker, risks a sales slump after a global recall of 8 million autos for flaws tied to unintended acceleration. Seoul-based Kia is targeting younger buyers with new designs and cars such as the Soul wagon starting at $13,300.
If Kia "can back up its ambitions with solid products, good quality and a good warranty, they can start retaining some of these customers they picked up who previously bought the brand because it was all they could afford," said Aaron Bragman, an analyst at IHS Global Insight in Troy, Michigan.
U.S. deliveries on a daily basis this month are "outpacing January," Tom Loveless, vice president of sales for Kia Motors America, said at a press conference without giving specifics. "Who knows what impact the snowstorms in the Northeast had and what the final weekend will bring, but we are running well ahead of last February."
Sales Outlook
Toyota's stumbles are creating opportunities for rivals as the U.S. economy improves. Combined Hyundai-Kia sales may rise 25 percent this month from a year earlier, and Toyota probably will fall 10 percent, auto researcher Edmunds.com estimated last week.
"The natural momentum we had prior to the trouble Toyota is having is just continuing," Loveless said in an interview. "We've fanned the flames with our products and that momentum does give us an opportunity to take market share."
Kia's U.S. sales rose 9.8 percent last year, according to researcher Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. That bucked a 21 percent slump in industrywide light-vehicle sales to the lowest level since 1982.
