Kia Motors to Launch 7 Dedicated Electric Vehicles by 2027... "EV Share to Reach 25% Within 10 Years"

President Song Hoseong Visits Hwaseong Plant on the 14th
Unveils Sketches of 7 Exclusive Electric Vehicle Lineups
Accelerating Transition to Electric Vehicle Business Model

Song Hoseong, President of Kia Motors, visited the Hwaseong plant on the 14th and explained the sketch images of the dedicated Kia electric vehicle model lineup to be released by 2027. (Photo by Kia Motors)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] Kia Motors has announced a future car blueprint centered on launching seven dedicated electric vehicle models by 2027. By 2029, two years later, it aims to increase the sales share of electric vehicles to 25% in the global market.

According to Kia on the 16th, President Song Ho-sung revealed a sketch image of the upcoming dedicated electric vehicle model lineup at the Hwaseong plant on the 14th and disclosed the direction of the global electric vehicle strategy containing this information. The dedicated electric vehicles feature a new design identity introduced by Kia and include various vehicle classes ranging from passenger cars to sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

President Song stated, “Since introducing the Ray EV, the first mass-produced pure electric vehicle in Korea in 2011, Kia has sold over 100,000 electric vehicles worldwide,” adding, “Based on an electric vehicle-centered business strategy, we plan to raise the global electric vehicle sales share to 25% by 2029.”

The global strategy unveiled this time includes more detailed content from Kia’s mid- to long-term future strategy 'Plan S' announced earlier this year. At that time, Kia announced a goal to complete a full lineup of 11 electric vehicle models across all vehicle classes by 2025 and increase the electric vehicle sales share to 20% in advanced markets such as Korea, North America, and Europe. Taking a step further, Kia plans to sequentially launch seven dedicated electric vehicle models by 2027, starting with ‘CV’ (project name) next year. The original target of raising the sales share of eco-friendly vehicles, including electric vehicles, to 25% by 2025 has been strengthened to a 25% sales share focused on electric vehicles by 2029.

Sketch image of Kia's dedicated electric vehicle models scheduled for sequential release by 2027 (Photo by Kia)

On the same day, President Song visited the Hwaseong plant, where CV production is scheduled, to inspect plans for establishing related production and quality systems and to examine the Niro EV production line. By selecting Hwaseong Plant 3 as the production base for CV, Kia expects to lead the popularization of electric vehicles in the global automotive market and secure leadership.

Kia is already undergoing innovation toward an electric vehicle business system based on Plan S in various sectors. Kia plans to present a new design direction reflecting the transition to an electric vehicle system and apply it throughout. From a product perspective, the company will apply the dedicated electric vehicle platform E-GMP to secure best-in-class interior space while establishing a planning-development-production system that actively reflects customer needs, offering segmented product configurations such as ▲urban type ▲long-range type ▲performance type.

Furthermore, Kia will take the lead in popularizing electric vehicles by expanding dedicated electric vehicle services and charging infrastructure. In the domestic market, the current 84 dedicated electric vehicle service workshops nationwide will be expanded to 1,200 locations by 2030. Overseas, more than 600 dedicated electric vehicle workshops will be established by the end of this year, and over 2,000 by 2023.

Using its own nationwide sales points, dealerships, and service centers, Kia will also distribute about 1,500 electric vehicle chargers by 2030. At the group level, 120 ultra-fast chargers will be installed by next year on 12 highways and urban areas connecting eight regions nationwide. Additionally, through partnerships with SK Energy, GS Caltex, E-Mart, and others, the current 27 cooperative charging infrastructures will be expanded to 214 by next year. Overseas, Kia is currently building about 2,400 electric vehicle charging infrastructures in the European region and about 500 in the North American region and plans to continue expanding charging infrastructure.

A Kia official stated, “We will seek charging infrastructure partners capable of responding to the U.S. and Chinese markets to secure electric vehicle charging infrastructure optimized for market conditions and characteristics and strengthen cooperation to secure charging technology.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.