- Battery EVs account for 6% of Kia’s total European sales in Q1 2020
- Kia to offer 11 EVs by 2025 globally, across a range of vehicle segments
- Dedicated new EV to launch in Europe in 2021, offering long driving range, crossover design, new platform, and rapid-charging capability
- Every new Kia model launched in Europe to offer an electrified powertrain
Kia Motors today outlines further details of its shift towards electrification, following record sales of the brand’s electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe in the first quarter of 2020
At the start of the year, Kia Motors announced ‘Plan S’, a new mid- to long-term strategy aimed at progressively establishing a leadership position in the future automotive industry, encompassing electrification and mobility services, as well as connectivity and autonomy.
The Plan S strategy outlines Kia’s pre-emptive and enterprising ‘shift’ from a business system focused on internal combustion engine vehicles toward one centred on popularising EVs.
The EV focus is already achieving unprecedented results in Europe. In the first quarter of 2020, sales of new EVs grew by 75 percent compared with the first quarter of 2019, to 6,811 units. This meant that zero emission vehicles from Kia accounted for 6.0 percent of the company’s total European sales* during the first quarter of 2020, up from 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2019.
A product plan for an electric Europe
To achieve these goals, Kia plans to offer 11 EVs in 2025 globally, across a range of vehicle segments – including passenger vehicles, SUVs and MPVs.
The first of Kia’s next-generation EVs will be introduced to Europe in 2021, constructed on a unique platform specifically engineered to accommodate the car’s world-leading EV powertrain and technologies. Not only will it offer a crossover design which blurs the boundaries between passenger and sport utility vehicles, as well as a future-oriented user experience. It will also offer a single-charge driving range of over 500 kilometres, as well as sub-20-minute high-speed charging time.
Emilio Herrera, Chief Operating Officer for Kia Motors Europe commented that, many of Kia’s new EVs would be offered in Europe, which would be the current focal point for EV sales growth worldwide. The company is encouraged by the early sales success of their current generation of EVs, the new e-Niro and e-Soul, which had been well-received by buyers across the continent. In every one of the last five years, the company has reported growing sales of Kia EVs, and their next-generation models would accelerate this trend further.
Kia Motors Europe will launch many of the brand’s future global EVs following the introduction of the brand’s maiden dedicated zero-emissions model in 2021. Indeed, every new model line due to launch in Europe from now on will offer at least one variety of electrified (mild-hybrid, full-hybrid, plug-in hybrid or electric) powertrain, as advanced powertrain technology forms an ever greater proportion of the brand’s European sales.
