Kia’s Hwaseong plant halted due to fire; K5, K8, EV6 output affected

Kia Corp., South Korea’s second-largest automaker, said on Tuesday the operation of its car manufacturing plant in Hwaseong, 80 km southwest of Seoul, has been halted due to a fire there on Monday night.

Kia, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co., will suspend the plant through Sept. 6, affecting the production of thousands of vehicles, including electric models, company officials said.

It will take at least 10 days for the factory, Autoland Hwaseong 3, to resume normal operations, they said.

The third plant in Hwaseong currently produces the K5 and K8 sedans and the electric EV6 crossover.

Two other lines at the plant that produce the K3, Sorento, Mohave, Niro and EV6 weren’t affected.

Fire broke out on the second floor of the third plant’s robot-operated painting line at 7:28 p.m. on Monday.

The automated fire extinguishing system was instantly activated and the fire was completely put out in about 40 minutes, according to Kia.

No casualties were reported, but eight of the painting line robots were stopped due to the fire.

Although the press and chassis lines at the affected plant were operating normally, the company decided to suspend the entire Autoland Hwaseong 3 factory to check its facilities, officials said.

During the temporary closure, Kia plans to dismantle and reinstall the affected facilities before conducting quality checks and trial production.

DELIVERY DELAYS LIKELY

The fire is expected to cause delays in delivering the K5, K8 and EV6 models to consumers.

Currently, it takes about a month from a new car order placement to delivery at Kia’s Hwaseong complex.

The K8, among Kia’s popular models, sold 28,000 units so far this year, up 15.4% from the year-earlier period.

“We’re looking into the exact cause of the fire. We’ll do our best to resume operations at the Autoland Hwaseong 3 factory as soon as possible,” said a Kia official.

Last year, Kia said it plans to build a new line to produce electric purpose-built vehicles (PBVs) at the Hwaseong complex.

The new PBV factory – Kia’s first domestic plant in 25 years – is expected to start mass production by the end of 2025.

Besides the Hwaseong complex, Kia runs two more car manufacturing plants in Korea – one in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province and the other in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province.

Write to Sungsu Bae at baebae@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.