Kia Motors President Song Ho-sung explains a sketch of the company’s lineup of electric cars to be released by 2027, during a visit to its Hwaseong plant, Wednesday.
Kia Motors is set to release seven electric vehicles by 2027 that will use the company’s dedicated EV platform, a move to speed up the transition to EVs in the growing eco-friendly car market.
The first model, called CV and built on the Electric Global Modular Platform, or E-GMP, will be released next year, the automaker said Wednesday.
Hyundai and Kia will establish the exclusive E-GMP next year.
Kia Motors also said it will continue to build a lineup of electric vehicles both on existing platforms and dedicated EV platforms, with the aim of expanding the proportion of EVs sold in South Korea, North America and Europe to 20 percent.
President Song Ho-sung visited the company’s Hwaseong plant the same day to reveal the automaker’s global EV strategy and model lineups ranging from sport utility vehicles to sedans.
“Kia Motors has a history of selling more than 100,000 electric vehicles in the global market since the introduction of Ray EV in 2011,” Song said.
“We plan to increase the proportion of electric vehicles in the global market by 25 percent in 2029.”
The global EV market is expected to grow in earnest in the future. Energy research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicted in May that the proportion of EV sales among new passenger car sales worldwide will reach 58 percent by 2040.
Kia Motors also plans to expand its EV infrastructure at home and abroad.
The automaker will supply about 1,500 electric vehicle chargers by 2030 and 120 super-fast chargers by 2021 in Korea. Overseas, it is currently building 2,400 charging stations in Europe and 500 in North America in cooperation with dealer networks.
Currently, there are 84 maintenance centers for EVs, which will be expanded to 1,200 by 2030. Overseas, 600 will be built within this year and around 2,000 by 2023.
By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)
