In a rather interesting turn of events, thieves has stolen around 900 Kia engines from the company’s manufacturing facility in Penukonda, Andhra Pradesh. Gwanggu Lee, Kia Motors India MD and CEO, has filed a formal complaint with Penukonda Industrial Estate Police Department regarding the same. Let’s take a closer look.
900 Kia Car Engines Stolen In India
Kia Motors India, a renowned premium car manufacturer is based out of Penukonda in Andhra Pradesh’s Sri Sathya Sai district, situated in Rayalaseema region. During the year-end audit carried out in March 2025, the company realised that they were subjected to a major theft that seems to have taken place for the past 5 years.
The company seems to have lost up to 900 car engines over a duration of 5 years. Y Venkateshwarulu, Penukonda DSP, firmly believes that some insiders were involved to facilitate this theft. He suspects that there might have been some connivance between former and present employees.
This theft, involving 900 Kia car engines seems to have happened in a planned and phase-wise manner. Initially, Police suspected that these thefts could have happened in transit while the engines were transported from Tamil Nadu (presumably by Hyundai) to Kia’s facility in Penukonda.
However, recent conclusions by Police suggest that all engines were stolen from Kia’s facility in Penukonda by tampering with records. Gwanggu Lee, Kia Motors India MD and CEO, filed a formal complaint with Penukonda Industrial Estate Police on March 19th, 2025 and the case has been registered.
What next?
The Police are investigating this case seriously. Sri Sathya Sai district SP, V Rathna, has conducted a plant inspection. He mentioned that there are three special investigation teams for this case. He promises that the investigation is progressing in a brisk pace and the team is travelling all over India to collect relevant records.
Kia Motors India has not divulged finer details about this case. However, the company maintains that this theft has not caused any setbacks to the production output in any way. The company is still capable of rolling out 3,00,000 to 4,00,000 units annually, depending on demand and is unaffected by these thefts that took place over a span of around 5 years.
