Big ambitions
During its annual Investor Day in Seoul, Kia outlined the results it wants to achieve in the coming years. We are also becoming a little wiser about the arrival of new models, including the electric Kia EV5 and a completely new Rio.
The brand-new Kia EV9 will eventually receive a smaller electric SUV with a similarly daring design: the EV5. With the Concept EV5, Kia already gave a concrete preview of the new electric SUV in the segment of the Kia Sportage at the end of March. The final production version of the Concept EV5 will be on the market in China in the fourth quarter of this year, but will most likely also come to Europe and therefore also to the Netherlands in 2024. But there’s more.
For example, Kia says that it will also present a completely new Rio in the fourth quarter of this year. After all, the current model has been around for a while and will even disappear from the Dutch market after this year. Whether that new Rio is also coming our way? That remains to be seen. The Dutch importer recently indicated that it hopes for the arrival of a small electric model to replace the Rio. Kia says specifically about the new Rio that it will be built in Mexico. The current model is also produced in South Korea in addition to Mexico. The Rio future for the Netherlands is therefore still uncertain.
New models and sporty EVs
In 2027, Kia’s international delivery range must contain a total of 15 fully electric models, although we do not expect all those 15 different EVs to become available in Europe. Kia indicates that it wants to build and sell small and medium-sized electric cars in Europe because these are important segments in our part of the world. Kia also wants to produce EVs in the United States, just like in China (EV5). In India, Kia will eventually start producing electric cars for growth markets. Next year, Kia will also set up its first factory in its home country of South Korea, where it will only produce fully electric cars. Next year it will produce two models there, although it is not yet clear which one.
The GT label that you now know from the EV6 at Kia is not reserved for that car. For example, not only will the EV9 get an extra potent GT version, but every electric model of the EV label will get such a sporty variant.
Numbers
This great attention to new electric models is of course not just there. Kia aims to sell 258,000 electric cars this year, but this should be 1,005,000 in 2026 and no less than 1.6 million in 2030. With this, Kia has sharpened its EV goals considerably. Previously, it had set a goal of selling 1.2 million EVs annually by 2030.
Will Kia only sell EVs? No. Also in 2030, the majority of the cars that Kia sells worldwide will not be EVs. Kia expects to sell 3.2 million cars this year. That should be slightly more than 4 million in 2026 and even 4.3 million in 2030. Of these, 1.6 million are EVs (37 percent). Furthermore, as previously announced, Kia is investing heavily in the development of so-called Purpose Bult Vehicles (PBVs). You can read more about that here.
Cheaper
Good news for those who generally find electric cars too expensive. Kia aims to reduce the cost of the battery packs required for EVs by 25 percent by 2026 compared to 2018. In 2030, battery packs must even be 55 percent cheaper than comparable units in 2018. The costs of electric motors and on-board chargers must be reduced in have been reduced by no less than 70 percent by 2030 compared to 2018.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl