[THE INVESTOR] Kia Motors said on March 13 it will invest over 2 trillion won (US$1.90 billion) in research and development activities in 2018.

For this year, Kia has earmarked a total of 2.069 trillion won for R&D activities, up 26 percent from 1.642 trillion won spent a year earlier, a company spokesman said.

The planned R&D expenditure does not include investments in facilities, the spokesman said, adding the R&D budget will be mainly spent on future vehicle technologies, such as autonomous driving.

In 2017, the ratio of R&D spending out of total sales stood at 2.85 percent. Kia posted 53.536 trillion won in overall sales last year.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)