south koreas secondbiggest carmaker said on wednesday it will suspend the operation of one of its eight domestic plants during the second half of this year in preparation for electric vehicle ev productionkia a smaller affiliate of hyundai motor co will begin the construction thursday to change the no 1 gwangmyeong plant just south of seoul into an ev plant by the end of december the company said in a regulatory filingit may take time for the plant to begin ev production after the sixmonth suspension period the filing saidthe stonic subcompact sport utility vehicle produced at the no 1 gwangmyong plant will be manufactured by donghee auto which has churned out the morning and the ray mini cars for kia a company spokesman saidkia has eight plants in korea two in gwangmyeong three in hwaseong and three in gwangju and seven overseas ones three in china and one each in the united states slovakia mexico and india their overall annual capacity is 384 million unitsin april the maker of k5 sedans and sorento suvs said it aims to sell 1 million evs in 2026 and gradually fill its ev lineup with 15 models by 2027kia recently unveiled the flagship ev9 electric suv ahead of its domestic launch during the second quarter it plans to gradually launch the ev9 in europe the united states and other markets in the second halfthe threerow seat ev9 is kias second model equipped with hyundai motor groups dedicated ev platform called egmp after the ev6 suv launched in 2021 it comes with a 998 kilowatthour battery and is expected to travel more than 500 kilometers on a single chargeon the same day most of its domestic plants suffered from production losses due to fourhour partial strikes at each plant under the guidelines of the korean metal workers union kia said in another filingbut the company didnt provide further details about the partial strikes