Kia continues to expand the range of electric vehicles: as part of the Kia EV Day 2023 event, the EV3 subcompact crossover and the EV4 midsize sedan were presented in the form of concepts, they are likely to turn into production cars next year.
Kia, together with its parent company Hyundai, is striving to become a major global player in the electric vehicle market, but so far they are not very successful, despite the presence of a fairly advanced modular E-GMP platform with an 800-volt electrical architecture. Below we present the statistics collected by the CleanTechnica resource of the world’s largest manufacturers of electric vehicles, it shows that Hyundai and Kia are in the second ten — from January to August of this year they sold 162,240 and 158,284 “commuter trains”, respectively.
No electric model of Hyundai and Kia has yet become a worldwide hit, even in their native South Korea they are not favored: for example, sales of related Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 crossovers are falling here: according to the BestSellingCarsBlog resource, 12,620 units were sold from January to September this year (-44.2% compared to APPG) and 13,874 units (-27.6%), respectively. Nevertheless, the Koreans are not discouraged and regularly update the electrification strategy of the model ranges, Kia last did it last spring, and now promises to hold Kia EV Day rhythmically, namely once a year.
So, judging by the new introductory notes, Kia’s management is still optimistic about the prospects of its electric trains: by 2026 Kia wants to reach the sales level of 1 million electric vehicles per year, the goal for 2030 is 1.6 million electric vehicles per year. Last year, the plan included 1.2 million electric vehicles per year by 2030, that is, ambitions are growing, despite not the most rosy statistics. At the Kia EV Day 2023 event, it was not said exactly how many electric models Kia will have by 2030, the two electric pickups promised last year were not confirmed, but three live novelties were presented — the Kia EV5 global compact crossover (read about it in a separate article) and the conceptual precursors of the EV3 and EV4 models. The main sales markets for Kia electric vehicles are the USA, Europe, China, India and South Korea, models for each of these markets will have their own characteristics.
Kia EV3 is a subcompact crossover with a faceted design and visually shaded wheel arches, the production version will look little different from the concept, but the interior will obviously get a more mundane design, as we have already seen with the example of Kia EV5 — its conceptual version had a much more futuristic and minimalistic interior than the one what the serial crossover got. The Kia EV3 concept has a rear seat lift cushion so that an electric scooter or any other means of individual mobility can be placed behind the first row and charged from a salon outlet.
The Kia EV4 is a mid—size sedan, a potential competitor to the Tesla Model 3. The faceted design and plastic body kit give the Kia EV4 a resemblance to crossovers, so it can be considered a cross-sedan or even a cross-fastback, because the third volume is not visually highlighted.
Kia EV3 and EV4 show a promising palette of natural and environmentally friendly finishing materials: a substitute for leather from grown mushrooms, bioplastics, bio—paint, biocomposites, fabrics based on recycled plastic and expired fishing nets – all this we will sooner or later see in production cars.
The main feature of the Kia EV4 interior is a touch—sensitive climate control unit made in the form of a pencil case: when it is not needed, the pencil case closes and hides the panel. The deflectors of the ventilation system are made in the form of thin tubes — they seem to merge with the ornament of the interior decoration. Whether the serial sedan will have such an elegant microclimate system is still unclear.
Kia did not name the dates of the serial EV3 and EV4, but they will definitely be, because generative artificial intelligence (analog ChatGPT) has already been announced for serial cars, which will be tied to online services, route planning, security systems and many other functions. The first generative AI will receive the serial Kia EV3, then it will be implemented in EV4 and EV5.
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