(June 10, 2015) MEXICO CITY — Kia Motors officially launched the Kia brand in Mexico Tuesday at a ceremony held in Mexico City. Around 250 government officials, industry leaders and media were in attendance to witness the ushering in of a new entrant to the local automotive market and a new era of global expansion for the South Korean automaker.

Final details on Kia's entry to the Mexican market were confirmed at the event. The world's ninth largest automaker will commence retail sales at 21 dealerships in 10 major cities across the country on July 1.

Initially, three import models — Forte ('Cerato' or 'K3' in some markets) sedan, Sportage compact CUV, and Sorento midsize CUV — will be available to the Mexican public, with the all-new Optima midsize sedan to be added to lineup in November. The company also confirmed that all Kia vehicles sold in Mexico will be covered by an industry-best 7-year/150,000 manufacturer's warranty.

The company also announced that the national dealer network will continue to expand, with an additional 26 dealers expected to be in operation by January 2016 and a total of 65 dealers serving customers by 2017.

Construction of Kia's first manufacturing plant in Mexico, located in Pesqueria, Nuevo León (near Monterrey), is approximately 50 percent complete and the $1 billion state-of-the-art facility is on schedule to begin mass production in mid-2016. Construction began in October 2014 and is expected to be finished in December of this year. The plant, which will boast an annual production capacity of 300,000 units, will then enter a five-month period of pilot production for final quality-assurance verification before the first customer-bound cars roll off the line.

The popular Forte sedan will be the first model to be produced at the Kia Motors Mexico plant and other yet-to-be-confirmed compact Kia models will be added to the local production lineup. In addition to supplying the local Mexican markets, vehicles from the plant will be exported to numerous countries in the region including the United States and other Latin America markets.

When the plant enters operation, Kia's global manufacturing capacity will be boosted to 3.37 million vehicles. Meanwhile, significant employment creation is being generated by the plant project, with approximately 3,000 workers to be hired directly by the Kia Motors Mexico plant and around 7,000 additional jobs to be created by supplier firms by 2017.