Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, announced Monday it will set up its first U.S. plant in Georgia.
Production will begin in 2009 and the $1.2 billion factory, in West Point, near the Alabama border, will employ 2,500 workers, Kia said in a press release.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and Kia President and CEO Euisun Chung made the formal announcement at a ceremony in Seoul.
Locations in Mississippi and Tennessee had also contended for the plant.
Perdue said Kia's decision to locate in the state "is a testament to the tools, experience and know-how Georgia will deliver to one of the automotive industry's leading innovators."
Kia, the maker of the Optima midsize sedan, the small-size Picanto and Sorento SUV, is an affiliate of South Korea's largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor Co., which has a factory in Montgomery, Alabama, 75 miles away.
Proximity to the Hyundai site — combined with a $258 million incentive package from the state — helped sway Kia, Georgia state officials said.
Full article here