Kia keeps to EV goals but plans to enhance hybrid lineup – GWC Mag

Kia remains committed to an ambitious EV sales goal, but plans to keep hybrids and plug-in hybrids as part of its product mix, the automaker announced Friday in a presentation to investors.

Kia still targets 1.6 million global EV sales annually by 2030. That’s the same goal the automaker stepped up to in 2023, versus a previous target of 1.2 million. And it plans to introduce 15 new electric models globally by 2027. Its flexible PBV electric vans, designed to switch from delivery vehicles to taxis, might initially be about 250,000 of these global sales.

Now Kia is also saying that those EVs will be a portion of a targeted 2.4 million global sales of “electrified models” by the end of decade, encompassing hybrids and plug-in hybrids alongside all-electric models. Kia anticipates that these models will represent 58% of its yearly global sales by 2030, which claims will give it the highest percentage of electrified-model sales of any (full-line) automaker at that point.

Growing sales will include increasing the number of model lines for all powertrain types. Kia plans to introduce EV2, EV3, EV4, and EV5 models globally, and grow its global hybrid lineup from six models in 2024 to eight in 2026, adding a ninth hybrid in 2028.

Kia first showed the EV5, a compact crossover in August 2023, with concept versions of the EV4 and EV5 appearing a few months later. Kia said at the time that the EV3 would target a base price of $30,000-$35,000, but so far hasn’t disclosed firm plans to bring any of these new models to the U.S.

In 2021, the company also added plans for a hydrogen fuel-cell lineup in 2028, and to phase out leather later in the decade—part of a large-scale sustainability vision. At the time, Kia announced aims to achieve a fuel-cell vehicle at a price point comparable to that of a battery-electric vehicle by 2030.