Kia confident Chinese production won’t compromise quality

Kia Australia insists the move to a new Chinese production facility will not compromise quality or alienate the brand’s local following.

The incoming all-new 2024 Kia EV5 electric mid-size SUV will be the first Chinese-built car in the Korean brand’s Australian range from its mid-year launch, following Kia Motors’ investment in a new manufacturing facility in Yancheng and an expansive proving ground at the opposite end of the country.

According to Kia Australia officials, the EV5 is likely to be the first of many Kia models sourced from China, in what has been declared a boon for Australian model timing and pricing.

“Don’t be surprised if there’s other future product being looked at to transition to Chinese manufacturing,” Kia Australia product planning boss Roland Rivero told carsales.

“We’re definitely appreciating two different things to come from EV5: we were able to bring it to market about a year earlier than Europe, which will source from the Korean factory, and we get a head start on an ANCAP rating, which we’re going to do ourselves.”

Whereas the Korean-sourced Kia EV6 and EV9 have been severely hamstrung by supply as a result of Australia competing for allocation with legislation-bound European countries, the Chinese-sourced EV5 supply is much freer-flowing.

The scale of Chinese production has also helped Kia Australia secure a competitive entry price – believed to be in the vicinity of about $62,000 plus on-road costs.

That will see it undercut the Tesla Model Y, which starts from $65,400 plus ORCs and is also built in China.

“We’ll pitch it [EV5] at 10,000 vehicles a year,” said Kia Australia chief operating officer Dennis Piccoli.

“It’s a pivotal car for us – it competes in a bigger segment and there’s plenty of opportunity for us. There’s a bit of upside there with the Chinese factory as well.”

Key to Kia’s recent success in Australia has been an expansive ride and handling program, which has ensured it latest generations of vehicles have virtually been tailored to our unique road conditions.

Kia Australia chief engineer Graeme Gambold revealed that same level of on-road detail would carry over to Chinese production.

“This ties in to the new R&D centre in Northern China that is separate from the manufacturing plant,” he said.

“Kia has basically copied and pasted the Namyang proving ground in Korea to the new base in Northern China, which is just across from Seoul.

“It’s a fully operational, standalone R&D centre from Namyang. All the ride surfaces and roads are equivalent to Namyang and it’s full of smart and knowledgeable Chinese graduates. It’s a good operation and Australia is a prime customer… it’s the red-carpet treatment.

“The whole research centre in China is a very good demonstration that the product is ‘made in Kia’, it’s not made in China.

“The processes, the level of expertise, the equipment – all that is the same level of expertise as Korea, so it is made in Kia.”

Anecdotally, Kia officials say that parts that would typically require six months to develop could now be turned around in a matter of days.

According to Rivero, the EV5 is likely to be the first of many Kia models that will be sourced from China.

“As an example, the Niro is a huge seller in Europe and parts of Scandinavia, and it’s therefore tough to get supply of Niro and tough to get the pricing that we might have liked,” he explained.

“It’s had huge success here and our fleet crew have done really well with it, but we could have sold a lot more if we’d had the supply and could have priced it accordingly.

“The move to China has a lot of benefits.”

Kia Australia chief executive Damien Meredith added: “We’ll source cars from anywhere that meets the parameters of new legislation in terms of EVs, plug-in hybrids, etc.

“Whether the factory is in China, South Korea or Slovakia, we’ll do what we have to.”

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