Kia, like many other major automakers, is forced to respond to the global slowdown in demand for electric vehicles, an updated development program for the South Korean company was presented at the end of last week as part of the Kia Investor Day 2024 event.
Kia CEO Ho-Sung Song remains optimistic about the long-term prospects of electric vehicles, and therefore a key goal announced last fall at the Kia event EV Day 2023 remains unchanged: by 2030, Kia wants to reach sales of 1.6 million electric vehicles per year, with total sales of 4.3 million cars. The share of electrified cars (electric vehicles + hybrids) in total sales by 2030 should be 2.48 million or 58%.
The main news announced at the Kia Investor Day 2024 event is the expansion of the line of hybrid models, thus Kia is responding to what its management believes is a temporary global slowdown in demand for electric vehicles. Kia currently has six hybrid models, by 2028 there will be nine, in addition, in the long term, hybrid versions will appear in all major “hydrocarbon” Kia models.
Kia will continue to invest in the development of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, hoping that they will sooner or later dominate the market.
Meanwhile, due to the weakening position of Kia in China, the company's factories in this country will be used to produce cars for other developing countries: by 2027, Kia's Chinese factories will export 250,000 cars per year.
Kia's electric vehicle lineup will grow from the current three to fifteen models by 2027. The current three models are the Niro EV, EV6 and EV9 crossovers. In the coming months, the premiere of the serial subcompact crossover Kia EV3, announced by the concept of the same name at the Kia EV Day 2023 event, will premiere. The serial mid-size sedan Kia EV4 and compact crossover Kia EV5 will appear, apparently, next year. In addition, a certain junior global electric model Kia EV2 and an electric crossover Carens EV for India have been officially announced.
Earlier this year at CES in Las Vegas, Kia presented the PBV (Platform Beyond Vehicle) family of light commercial electric vehicles in the form of concepts ), of which PV5 (in 2025) and PV7 (in 2027) will become serial in the current decade. Kia expects that the PV5 model will reach sales of 150 thousand units per year by 2030, and the PV7 model will sell 100 thousand units per year.
Kia EV6 electric crossover this year will survive the planned restyling, and this year two updated “hydrocarbon” models will be presented – the Kia Sportage crossover and the Kia K8 sedan.
Two pickup trucks announced in 2022 were not mentioned at the 2024 Kia Investor Day events, although one of the pickups surfaced on Kia's Australian consumer site last month.
Kia's year-end results expects modest sales growth of 3.6% to 3.2 million vehicles.
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