A yr after Kia unveiled its roadmap to sustainable mobility by 2030, the Hyundai-owned model has upped the ante. On the firm’s 2023 CEO Investor Day Wednesday, Kia’s management stated the corporate goals to achieve KRW 160 trillion ($122 billion) in gross income by 2030.
The monetary objective is a part of a common replace of Kia’s future-focused technique, “Plan S,” which launched in 2020 and featured new branding. Wednesday’s replace additionally features a KRW 32 trillion ($24 million) funding into the automaker’s electrification technique, with 45% of that cash devoted to “future enterprise areas.”
The funds ought to assist Kia nudge up its output up over the following few years. Kia up to date its world gross sales objective of 4 million items by 2030 to 4.3 million items, and its annual EV gross sales objective of 1.2 million items to 1.6 million items by 2030. That’ll be fairly the ramp from the place Kia is at the moment. The corporate is focusing on 258,000 EV gross sales by 2023 and 1 million items by 2026, which will probably be 8% and 25% of all Kia gross sales, respectively. By subsequent yr, the corporate stated it is going to start working its first devoted EV manufacturing unit at Gwangmyeong.
Kia additionally stated it is going to launch 15 new EV fashions by 2027, which is yet one more mannequin than the corporate had promised final yr. A kind of fashions is anticipated to be a purpose-built mid-sized SUV, which Kia is aiming to launch by 2025. For what objective it’s being constructed, Kia didn’t say.
The Korean automaker lately revealed the most recent EV in its portfolio, the EV9 SUV, which is filled with tech and can go on sale in chosen markets within the second half of the yr.
All of Kia’s upcoming automobiles will probably be tech-focused, the corporate stated. By 2025, Kia stated all new fashions will probably be linked to the corporate’s “linked automobile information cloud,” which ought to allow over-the-air updates and permit clients to personalize their automobiles.
The corporate can also be promising to give attention to its model of superior driver help system (ADAS), AutoMode, which is debuting on the EV9. Kia is pushing its ADAS one step additional with HDP (Freeway Driving Pilot), which it describes as a Degree 3 autonomous driving expertise “that doesn’t require human steering wheel management for sure street sections, comparable to highways,” and also will debut with the EV9 this yr.
As a part of its autonomy roadmap, Kia stated by subsequent yr, the corporate plans to make use of OTA updates to convey drivers extra “eye-off” or hands-free features, and in 2026, it’ll launch HDP2 that makes use of “excessive precision navigation.”
Goal-built automobile enterprise
Alongside its first purpose-built SUV Kia goals to launch by 2025, the corporate has formally established a purpose-built automobile (PBV) enterprise construction, with a devoted lineup of automobiles for varied business wants. The corporate goals to develop an answer that may handle information, software program and charging for the PBVs.
Kia stated it believes the PBV unit will probably be one among its key future companies. As such, the corporate is constructing a devoted manufacturing unit in Hwaseong, which will probably be unveiled in 2025 and can construct medium-sized automobiles for a wide range of automobiles. The PBVs will probably be primarily based on a “flat skateboard-type platform, permitting the dimensions and form to be adjusted in accordance” to a enterprise accomplice’s objective and wishes.
Kia will progressively increase its PBV lineup to incorporate a robotaxi, a small automobile for delivering items or meals, and a big automobile that may “change public transportation or be used as a cell workplace,” the corporate stated.
