Vedomosti.- Avtotor has started the full-cycle production (welding, painting) of KIA Soul compact crossovers, according to a company statement. A welding line with a project capacity of 30,000 bodies per year has been built for the purpose. 20 million Euros have been invested in the project.
The capacity of the line has been determined liberally: 16,954 new Soul vehicles have been registered in Russia in 2018 or approximately 7.5% of the total sales of the brand last year, according to AEB data.
Soul has become the third passenger model manufactured in full-cycle mode at Avtotor, following KIA Sorento and Cerato, the welding are painting of which are being carried out at the plant since 2013 and 2014, respectively. The same spray booth will be used for the production of Soul, alongside other KIA models, as told by an Avtotor representative.
The contract manufacturing specialist Avtotor assemblies passenger cars for BMW, Hyundai and KIA (along with commercial vehicles). The plant has manufactured 203,000 vehicles in 2018.
