Kia’s Hwaseong factory closed due to fire, production of K5, K8, EV6 affected – Photo: Korea Economic Daily,
Kia is temporarily suspending operations at the Autoland Hwaseong 3 plant just south of Seoul, South Korea. According to Korea Economic Daily, the factory will remain closed until September 6 to control the consequences of the fire. Affected cars include the Kia EV6, K5 and K8.
According to the Korean press, a fire broke out on the second floor of a robot-operated paint line at around 7:30 pm on August 28. There is no news of any casualty in this fire.
The factory’s automatic fire suppression system was immediately activated, extinguishing the fire after about 40 minutes. However, due to the fire, 8 robots in the painting line had to be temporarily shut down.
A Kia leader said: “We are investigating the exact cause of the fire. We will do our best to restore operations at the Autoland Hwaseong 3 factory as soon as possible.”
According to this leader, although the fire has been brought under control and other lines are still operating normally, Kia still has to temporarily close the entire factory to control quality.
Additionally, a warning was also issued regarding the possibility of delays in vehicle deliveries due to this fire. Those receiving their cars from the Kia Autoland Hwaseong 3 factory may have to wait for another month.
It’s unclear whether the fire will affect the Kia EV6’s ability to officially arrive in Vietnam – Photo: Ottosia
Last year, Kia announced that Autoland Hwaseong 3 would become a factory specializing in the production of electric vehicles with a new line starting in 2025. Officially launched electric car models include Kia EV6, Niro EV, EV9 and EV5.
Apart from this, the company has also started accepting deposits for the Ray EV mini electric car model. If we talk about Vietnam, this car model will be a competitor to Hongguang MiniEV and Vinfast VF3.
The Kia EV6 is an electric car model in the SUV/crossover B/B+ segment that was expected to be launched by THACO Auto in the second quarter of 2022, but has been pushed back.
This year, fellow competitor Hyundai Ioniq 5 was officially sold in Vietnam, so it’s likely that the EV6 will appear around the end of this year. It is unclear whether the fire will have any impact on the ability to sell the EV6 in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the K5 being circulated in Vietnam is a domestically assembled car. Therefore, the fire will not affect the car pickup time for customers who have made a deposit.
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