Kia’s future new car plans laid bare in 2024 Investor Day announcement
The upcoming Kia EV2, EV6 facelift and EV9 GT were all mentioned in Kia’s ‘state of the nation’ address
Kia is rapidly expanding its all-electric EV-badged line up and now the Korean giant has confirmed it will launch 15 new EVs by 2027. Other strategic announcements were made — such as electric car sales targets, investment figures and technological developments up to the end of the decade.
Just last year, Kia said it would launch nine new electric vehicles in the UK by 2027 and now we have a clearer idea of when to expect these fresh offerings. Kia said six new cars will arrive by 2026 — the EV3 later this year, followed by the EV2, EV4 and EV5.
We’ve already been given an early look at the EV3, courtesy of the Kia EV3 Concept in late 2023. Judging by previous concepts from Kia, such as the EV9 Concept, the final production EV3 shouldn’t look too different from the concept car when it launches in the third quarter of this year. It should provide an all-electric alternative to the similarly-sized Kia Sportage SUV, sitting above the Niro EV.
Revealed at the same time as the EV3 Concept last year at Kia’s ‘EV Day’ was the EV4 Concept. The EV4 was also referred to in the Investor Day, although a specific launch date was not revealed. The same situation applies to the EV5 SUV, which will be a mid-size SUV to rival the Tesla Model Y and upcoming Audi Q6 e-tron.
The Kia EV2 is yet to be previewed by a concept car (we expect that to arrive later this year), but it was again mentioned in the Investor Day update. We now know it’ll arrive in 2026 and could be pitched as a supermini-sized rival to the Renault 5 and BYD Dolphin. Kia’s electric passenger car lineup will also be complemented by two ‘PBVs’ (purpose built vehicles) - the medium-sized PV5 and larger PV7.
Kia GT performance cars
Kia reaffirmed its plans for GT-badged performance models by declaring an EV9 GT would arrive in January 2025. The seven-seat EV9 SUV is the flagship model of Kia’s all-electric range and while specific details are yet to be announced, the EV9 GT will use a dual-motor powertrain with a significant bump over the current car’s maximum 376bhp output. The 576bhp dual-motor set up from the EV6 GT could certainly be a viable option. A sub four-second 0-62mph time is targeted and it'll come with uprated suspension and brakes to deal with the extra power.
The first of Kia’s all-electric EV models, the EV6, wasn’t forgotten about either. Kia said we can expect to see the mid-life facelift of the EV6 in Q2 this year, followed by an update of the sportier EV6 GT version in Q4 2024. The EV6’s sister car from Hyundai, the Ioniq 5, was recently announced to be getting an update this year, too, with its battery size increasing from 77.4kWh to 84kWh. Given that the EV6 uses the same E-GMP platform, the same update should come the way of the Kia.
It wasn’t all EVs at the Kia Investor Day. Kia also revealed its most popular car in Europe - the Sportage SUV, would be receiving its mid-life refresh later this year, although details are yet to be announced.
Kia also said it would "respond agilely to changes in the market environment" by expanding its line up of hybrid vehicles from six models in 2024 to nine models by 2028.
Kia is targeting 1.6 million EV sales in 2030 globally with 250,000 of those sales coming from its PBV offerings. The Korean firm sold 3,085,771 cars last year and is aiming to up this to 4.3m annually by 2030. To help build interest in EVs, Kia’s ongoing partnership with Ionity will also help build more than 17,000 charging stations in Europe.
Now read our review of the Kia EV9 Air...
