Two former Kia employees are being investigated for their roles in stealing more than 1,000 engines from a company factory in India. In an effort spanning at least three years, investigators say they conspired with scrap dealers to falsify paperwork allowing them to procure the engines without resistance, shipping them out right under the company’s nose.
Initially, police suspected the engines were being diverted in transit from other manufacturing facilities, but following an internal audit performed by Kia, it was determined that the thieves were pilfering them directly from Kia’s assembly plant near Penukonda in the Sri Sathya Sai district of Andhra Pradesh, where it builds the Sonet, Syros, Seltos, and Carens for the domestic market.
Focusing on the plant led authorities to two former factory workers (described by Reuters as a “team leader” and a “head of section” for the engine department). They allegedly worked with two outsiders to forge invoices and side-step the factory’s security protocols, allowing them to drive off with the assemblies without being challenged by employees. After all, an assembled engine isn’t exactly the sort of thing you can hide in your pocket. Trucks needed to be brought in to load the stolen merchandise.
The plant builds between 300,000 and 400,000 vehicles a year, which helps explain why even hundreds of engines could go unaccounted for over a period of several years. Given the scale of the theft, it should come as no surprise that the authorities are looking at employees and others who had regular access to incoming and outgoing supply inventories.
The two insiders could face up to ten years in jail if convicted for their role in the alleged thefts.
“It [the thefts] started in 2020. It has been a continuous process for nearly five years. We will go deep into the investigation,” a police spokesperson previously told PTI. “It’s not outsiders—it’s from within. Not even a small part can leave the premises without the management’s knowledge. We’re investigating who was involved,” the spokesperson said.
Update Wednesday, June 4, 2025, 11:30 a.m. Eastern: Investigators have announced new developments in the case; the copy has been updated to reflect the latest progress.
Byron is one of those weird car people who has never owned an automatic transmission. Born in the DMV but Midwestern at heart, he lives outside of Detroit with his wife, two cats, a Miata, a Wrangler, and a Blackwing.