10:33 30-07-2026

Kia EV3 leaves Korea: Mexican line starts on 4 August with 605 km on offer

Kia will build the electric EV3 at its Pesquería plant in Nuevo León from 4 August, backed by a $649 million investment through 2028. More than $260 million goes to the crossover itself, and the top SXL version claims up to 605 km of WLTP range.

Kia is moving production of its electric EV3 crossover from South Korea to Mexico: assembly starts at the Pesquería plant in the state of Nuevo León on 4 August 2026. The announcement came on 29 July at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference, and the $649 million earmarked for 2026–2028 is Kia’s largest investment in the country since its Mexican operations began in 2016.

This is not a new factory but a retooling of an existing one. “It’s an investment made to adjust the production line, so the same plant continues to be used,” Reuters quoted Kia Mexico managing director Horacio Chávez as saying. A significant share of the output, according to Sheinbaum, is intended for the domestic market: the government wants to push electric car demand at home.

Pinning the whole sum on the EV3 would be wrong: more than $260 million goes directly to the electric crossover. The rest funds capacity expansion and environmental infrastructure — a 2 MW solar park growing to 8 MW by 2030, and a second water treatment plant that will let around 1050 cubic metres of water a day be reused, roughly 70% of all the treated water on site.

On jobs, Kia has pledged 500 new positions in 2026 and another 1500 between 2027 and 2030. Local content at launch will be around 27%: Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard called it “almost 27%”, while ministry documents put the figure at 26.54%. The share is expected to climb as Mexican suppliers come on board.

The cars will be built in Pesquería, where Kia currently assembles K3 and K4 sedans for the domestic market and for export. Stated plant capacity reaches 400,000 vehicles a year, though Kia has not said what share of the line will go to the EV3. Groundwork started in spring: the plant built its first 15 pre-production EV3s in March, some of which have already been spotted on roads around Monterrey, and the North American version appeared at the New York auto show in April.

The Mexican price list is already open. Pre-orders for the 2027 model year EV3 began on 17 July and run to 13 August, exclusively through Mercado Libre — a first for a car brand in the country. Only the top SXL trim is available so far, with an 81 kWh battery and up to 605 km of WLTP range, at 767,700 pesos. The entry-level EX, with a 54 kWh battery and up to 436 km, is still waiting for its price. First deliveries start on 6 August, two days after the line fires up.

Charging from 10 to 80% takes about half an hour, and every car comes with a 7.4 kW home AC charger and its installation: up to 20 metres of cable from the connection point, plus the paperwork with Mexican utility CFE. The charging port is NACS, the standard Tesla made mainstream in North America.

Local assembly cuts shipping costs and reliance on Korean supply, but it does not by itself guarantee a lower retail price. That will depend on where the batteries and other components come from, how heavily the line is loaded, state incentives and the trade rules between Mexico, the United States and Canada — the USMCA agreement is going through its joint review right now. Ebrard tied the project directly to rising protectionism from Mexico’s northern neighbour: the country is hunting for new markets and new technology.

For Kia the project also matters as preparation of the Mexican plant for electric architecture. Until now the site has specialised mainly in compact cars with combustion engines, so the EV3 will call for separate battery assembly processes, high-voltage equipment handling and extra safety controls.