On Wednesday, Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced that Kia would be investing over $200 million and creating almost 200 new jobs at its West Point facility to accommodate assembly of the car company’s new all-electric 2024 EV9 three-row SUV.
“Georgia’s longstanding partnership with Kia has led to generational job creation and growth for the West Point area,” said Kemp. “As a national leader in the automotive industry, I am proud of Kia’s continued impact on the Peach State. As we noted earlier this year, this project will both bring more opportunity to hardworking Georgians and help propel the state toward our goal of becoming the e-mobility capital.”
According to a press release from Kemp’s office, through “this production line transformation, the EV9 will become the fifth model to be assembled at Kia Georgia, joining the Telluride, Sorento and Sportage SUVs, and the K5 mid-size sedan. EV9 assembly is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2024.”
“Currently, more than 40 percent of Kia vehicles sold in the U.S. are manufactured in West Point. The addition of the EV9 to the lineup will further increase the facility’s output. As the brand’s first three-row EV SUV and the first Kia EV to be assembled in North America, the EV9 is the flagship vehicle for the company’s global Plan S strategy focused on sustainable mobility leadership,” the press release added.
“Like Telluride, EV9 has the potential to be another change catalyst for Kia,” said Sean Yoon, President & CEO, Kia Motors North America and Kia Motors America. “This will be the most innovative vehicle that we have ever built and will be a standout in the EV market and on the road. Best of all, it will be assembled in West Point, Georgia.”
The press release said that so far Kia “has invested more than $1.9 billion in the state and Kia Georgia is responsible for more than 14,000 plant and supplier jobs in the region. Earlier this year, Governor Kemp and state lawmakers recognized January 31 as “Kia Day,” commending Kia’s vehicle manufacturing and its impact to the state since making one of the biggest single foreign investments in Georgia’s history with the 2006 announcement that a state-of-the-art vehicle assembly facility would be established in West Point.”
