Kia "The First Year of Great Transformation as a Mobility Solutions Company" (Update)

Song Hoseong, President of Kia, giving a presentation at the 'CEO Investor Day'

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Kia has declared this year as the inaugural year of a major transformation and announced a complete overhaul into an electric vehicle and eco-friendly mobility solutions company.

On the 9th, Kia President Song Ho-sung stated at the online CEO Investor Day, "We declare this year, featuring a new logo, new design, and new name, as the inaugural year of Kia's great transformation," adding, "Kia will now establish itself as a brand that provides customers with innovative mobility experiences beyond just manufacturing and selling cars."

President Song said, "Kia Motors will now disappear into history, and under the name Kia, we will embrace a new era of mobility," emphasizing, "We will position ourselves as a brand that offers customers innovative mobility experiences beyond manufacturing and selling vehicles."

Plan S, Three Core Businesses Unveiled

On this day, Kia revealed the three core businesses of Plan S, along with detailed strategies, mid-to-long-term financial and investment goals, to shareholders, analysts, and credit rating agencies. Plan S, unveiled last year, is Kia’s mid-to-long-term strategy to proactively transition to an electric vehicle (EV) business system and expand brand innovation and profitability by providing eco-friendly mobility solutions.

Kia disclosed the three core businesses related to Plan S. First, regarding electric vehicles, the company plans to establish a full lineup of 11 models by 2026 and aims to sell 1.6 million units annually by 2030. It intends to increase the proportion of eco-friendly vehicles to 40% of total sales by 2030. In particular, Kia aims to become a global top-tier EV brand by selling more than 880,000 electric vehicles annually by 2030.

Until last year, Kia had only released derivative electric vehicles based on internal combustion engine models, but starting with the dedicated electric vehicle CV launching this year, it will strengthen its dedicated EV lineup. To accelerate electrification, Kia plans to launch seven dedicated EVs by 2026, one year earlier than originally planned, building a full lineup of 11 electric vehicles including four derivative EVs.

Additionally, Kia plans to launch its first model, PBV01, in the purpose-built vehicle (PBV) market in 2022 and aims to achieve annual sales of 1 million units by 2030, aspiring to become the global sales leader in the PBV market. By leveraging existing vehicles, Kia intends to enter the early PBV market faster than anyone else and meet diverse customer needs through a segmented product lineup (for mobility, logistics, retail, etc.).

Thirdly, instead of targeting all customer segments in the mobility market, Kia plans to focus on areas with long-term growth opportunities where service providers are absent or where ecosystems are insufficiently established despite the presence of competitors.

First, in the B2C mobility business sector, Kia will expand services in the growing shared mobility market that meets urban environmental regulations.

Kia will expand its car-sharing service ‘WiBLE,’ currently operating for individual customers in Madrid, Spain, to include corporate and shared services this year. Additionally, KiaMobility services, previously available only in Italy and Russia, will be newly launched in four European countries this year.

Targeting 3.7% Global Auto Market Share This Year

Kia also announced its business plan and financial goals for this year. The company aims to sell 2,922,000 units worldwide this year, a 12% increase from the previous year (based on wholesale sales), and achieve a 3.7% share of the global automotive market.

To this end, starting with the fully redesigned K7 and the improved K3 in the first quarter, Kia plans to launch the new generation of its global best-selling sports utility vehicle (SUV) model Sportage and an improved version of its flagship sedan K9 in the second quarter, followed by the first dedicated electric vehicle CV and an improved version of the European strategic model Ceed in the third quarter, introducing competitive new models.

In the mid-to-long term, considering improvements in sales mix and an increase in recreational vehicle (RV) sales proportion, Kia has raised its previously stated operating profit margin targets (5% in 2022 and 6% in 2025) to 6.7% in 2022 and 7.9% in 2025.

Kia plans to invest a total of 29 trillion KRW by 2025. While reducing investment in existing business areas by 1 trillion KRW, it will allocate more than 10 trillion KRW to future business sectors, strengthening core future technologies such as autonomous driving, hydrogen, and urban air mobility (UAM).

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