Filed under:
Sedan,
Plants/Manufacturing,
Kia
Since we already know what the
2014 Kia Forte will look like courtesy of the
Kia K3 and
Cerato, the big news at the car's official debut at the
LA Auto Show could end up being where the car is built.
Reuters is reporting that
Kia is considering building the all-new Forte in the US, and while it didn't say which plant, we'd venture to guess the redesigned compact will be built alongside its sister car, the
Hyundai Elantra, in
Montgomery, Alabama.
This report is even more credible following an article in
Bloomberg that indicates that labor disputes and
union strikes in South Korea affected Kia's third-quarter profits and stock prices. The strike lasted from July through September, and it ended up costing Kia output of about 63,000 vehicles and resulted in a decrease in exports by 9.2 percent. Currently, 62 percent of Kia's production takes place in South Korea, and moving to non-union plants (such as those in the US) could help diversify output and avoid such impacting consequences in the future.
If true, this could make the Forte the third Kia model made in the USA following the
Sorento and
Optima that are both built right up I-85 from the Elantra in
West Point, Georgia.
Kia mulling Forte production in US? originally appeared on
Autoblog on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:20:00 EST. Please see our
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Report: Kia mulling Forte production in US?
