900 Engines Stolen From Kia’s Plant

According to reports, thieves have stolen around 900 Kia car engines from the company’s manufacturing facility in Penukonda, Andhra Pradesh. Kia Motors India MD Gwang-gu Lee has lodged a formal complaint with the Penukonda Industrial Estate Police Department about this matter.

900 Engines Stolen From Kia

Kia Motors, a South Korean car manufacturer, also a sister brand of the renowned Hyundai group, has a manufacturing facility that is located in Penukonda, Andhra Pradesh. During the year-end audit, which was performed in March 2025, Kia realised that they were subjected to a major theft that had been going on for the past 5 years. The company seems to have lost about 900 engines in the past 5 years. Y Venkateshwarulu, Penukonda DSP, strongly believes that some insiders were involved in the facilitation of this theft. He further suspects that there must have been some collaboration between the former employees and the present employees.
This theft seems to have happened in a planned and phased manner. Police further suspect that these thefts could have happened in transit while the engines were transported from Tamil Nadu(presumably Hyundai’s facility) to Kia’s facility in Penukonda.

However, recent reports and conclusions from the police state that all engines were stolen from Kia’s facility in Penukonda by tampering with records. A formal complaint was lodged on 19 March 2025 with the Industrial Estate Police, Penukonda, regarding this matter.

Further Course Of Action

The police have started to investigate the matter seriously. Sri Sathya Sai district SP, V Rathna, has initiated a thorough plant inspection. He further mentioned that there are 3 special investigation teams for this particular case. He further promised that the investigation is moving forward at a brisk pace, and the concerned team is travelling all over India to collect relevant information.

Kia has not revealed finer details about this matter. However, the company mentioned that this theft had not caused any problems with the production output in any manner. Kia is still capable of producing 3 lakh to 4 lakh units annually, based on demand and requirement. This production output is reportedly unaffected, despite the thefts that took place over the past 5 years.