Kia slates $28 billion to bolster hybrid vehicle lineup

Industry

Published: 05 Apr. 2024, 17:28 Updated: 05 Apr. 2024, 19:41

Kia slates $28 billion to bolster hybrid vehicle lineup

Kia CEO Song Ho-sung talks at an Investor Day on Friday. [KIA]

Kia will invest 38 trillion won ($28 billion) through 2028 to strengthen its hybrid vehicle lineup as sales of EVs slow globally.

The investment plan is up 5 trillion won from last year's announcement. The plans were unveiled by CEO Song Ho-sung at this year's CEO Investor Day on Friday.

Kia has six hybrid models this year, and this will increase to nine in 2028.

"The EV sales slump will continue until 2026, and strengthening hybrid lineups will be Kia's first preventive strategy," Song said. "Kia aims to sell 800,000 hybrids in 2028, which will make up around 20 percent of its total sales."

Kia will also add cheaper pure EV lines to its existing EV6 and EV9 models.

"The series will have a total of six EVs and the EV2, EV3, EV4 and EV5," Song said. "Sales of this EV series will make up 66 percent of Kia's total EV sales in 2026."

Kia's EV lineup, from left, EV6, EV4 concept car, EV5, EV3 concept car, and EV9. [KIA]

The EV3 is slated to be introduced in the first half of the year as Kia's cheapest EV option. The car will sport the same boxy look as the EV9, but in a much smaller body.

The EV4 sedan, which will look similar to the EV6, will also hit the market later in the year.

Kia has bet big on purpose-built vehicles (PBVs), which are built on flexible architecture with swappable bodies. They are designed for specific uses, such as shuttling and last-mile delivery.

The automaker is set to release a midsize PV5 in 2025 as Kia's first PBV, and a bigger PV7 in 2027.

It aims to sell a total of 250,000 PBVs in 2030.

The company has recently started production at its first PBV manufacturing facility in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, with an annual capacity of 150,000.

Kia aims to sell a total of 3.2 million cars globally this year, which will grow up to 4.3 million in 2030. Of them, environmentally friendly cars, including hybrids, will make up 60 percent.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]