Kia Motors Slovakia has started to build the Kia Venga alongside the cee’d family and the popular Sportage at its European factory in Zilina, Slovakia. The B-segment MPV model was previously built at its sister company plant in the Czech Republic before production was moved to Zilina.
The Venga has won design and environmental awards from the prestigious iF product design award as well as the internationally recognised Red Dot Award for product design. TUV NORD, has confirmed that the Venga meets strict environmental standards ISO 14040 after assessing the life-cycle of the product. The Quality Management certificate is given based on evaluation of the possible impacts on the environment. Moreover, the lifecycle from the raw materials and component production, manufacturing cars up to the lifetime of vehicles is also evaluated.
The Zilina plant is expanding to include a third shift and a second engine shop and will employ and extra 1,000 staff bringing the total to 4,000 employees. Throughout 2011 Kia Motors has invested over 40 million Euros into modifying the production lines to incorporate the Venga as well as investing heavily in staff training. In the first half of 2012 Kia Slovakia are looking to employ and over 1,000 new staff in all areas of the facility from quality inspectors, welders and assembly operators.
