Kia to start production of Optima in U.S. next month

SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, said Sunday that its plant in Georgia, the United States, will start producing the Optima sedan from September.
   Kia Motors' sales in the U.S. are rapidly increasing, especially since the launch of the award-winning passenger sedan in November, sold in South Korea as K5.
   Sales of the Optima reached some 43,000 units in the first seven months of the year. In July alone, the sales more than tripled from a year earlier to some 6,700 units, according to Kia Motors.
   In order to expand production capacity at its Georgia plant, Kia Motors said earlier it would spend US$100 million this year.
   The facility expansion will increase its capacity by 20 percent to 360,000 vehicles a year, Kia Motors said earlier.
   sam@yna.co.kr
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