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Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. are certainly on a roll after overtaking Toyota as the biggest Asian carmaker in Europe and have no plans of stopping any time soon. According to a report citing Slovak news agency TASR, Kia wants to begin production of a new model at its European plant in 2012.

“We launched two new models this year and we want to launch a new model in 2012”, In-Kyu Bae, head of Kia Motors Slovakia told reporters, after a meeting with Prime Minister Iveta Radicova.

Located near Zilina, in the northern part of Slovakia, Kia’s factory has an annual capacity of 300,000 units and builds two SUVs (Kia Sportage/Hyundai ix35) and the Kia Cee’d compact.

The highest demand is for the Sport Utility Vehicles, therefore the Korean maker announced that the plant’s maximum capacity is expected to increase next year.

In the first eleven months of 2010, 207,000 vehicles left the plant's assembly lines, representing a 50% increase compared to the same period last year, while this year’s total output is estimated to reach around 228,000 units.

By Csaba Daradics

Source: Reuters via Yahoo

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