Kia second plant in Andhra Pradesh: USD 2 billion, 12,000 jobs from 2030

Kia India will invest about USD 2 billion, together with its supplier partners, in a second car plant in Andhra Pradesh, its Managing Director and CEO Gwanggu Lee announced at the 31st CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam on Thursday, 12 November 2026. The company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government in the presence of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The new plant is to add capacity for 2 lakh vehicles a year, start production in early 2030 and create about 12,000 direct and indirect jobs, the company said.

Kia already makes cars at its first Indian factory in the Penukonda area of Andhra Pradesh, in the Rayalaseema region. A second plant in the same state signals that the company expects Indian demand to keep growing enough to need a second production line by the end of the decade, and that Andhra Pradesh has kept it as an investor.

For the state, the announcement is a headline win from the CII Partnership Summit, its showcase investment event in Visakhapatnam. An MoU is a statement of intent, not a binding contract, so the investment and jobs are commitments that will be measured as the project is built. The 12,000 figure counts direct jobs at the plant and indirect jobs at suppliers and service providers, which is how such projections are usually stated.

The inclusion of supplier partners in the USD 2 billion matters on the ground. Car plants rely on hundreds of component makers, many of them small and medium firms. When a carmaker brings its suppliers with it, the money spreads into smaller factories, logistics, housing and services in the district, which is where most of the indirect jobs come from.

Reported numbers differ slightly. The rupee value has been given as about Rs 17,000 crore, Rs 18,811 crore and nearly Rs 20,000 crore in different reports, depending on how the dollar figure was converted and what was counted. The existing plant's capacity is reported at about 4.3 lakh units a year. Readers should treat the exact rupee value as approximate until the state publishes the MoU details.

Peepals calculation: Adding 2 lakh units to the existing plant's reported capacity of about 4.3 lakh raises Kia India's total by about 47% (2 ÷ 4.3 ≈ 0.47), to about 6.3 lakh units. At the MoU value of Rs 18,811 crore and 12,000 expected jobs, the investment works out to about Rs 1.57 crore per job (18,811 ÷ 12,000 ≈ 1.57). Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: Land allotment, approvals and supplier planning for the new plant begin under the MoU; no vehicles will come from it before 2030.

Long-term: If built as planned, the plant would deepen the automobile cluster in Rayalaseema, add supplier units and jobs in the district, and raise Andhra Pradesh's share of India's car output.

Who is affected: Job seekers and component makers in Sri Sathya Sai and nearby districts; Kia's existing suppliers; farmers and landowners near the proposed site; and the state government, which will be judged on turning the MoU into a working plant.

What to watch next: The state's allotment of land for the plant and the start of construction, with production targeted for early 2030.

Questions and Answers