Kia EV3 likely will arrive sooner, EV4 delayed
The manager in question is Woo-Jeong Woo, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Kia. “Electric vehicles are the biggest influence on Kia’s sales and profits. We plan to flexibly respond to market changes in the medium to long term” he said. “The EV3, EV4, and EV5 will be launched sequentially, and we are determined to make these three models successful.”
With the EV5 and the following models EV3 and EV4, Kia wants to cover the electric car market at prices between 35,000 and 50,000 US dollars. Kia announced the EV3 and EV4 in the form of studies in October 2023. The former is an electric compact SUV, while the latter is a mid-range electric saloon.
Incidentally, the CFO did not say why the EV4 is coming a few months later than initially announced. However, Korean media interpreted the move as a “decision to improve product quality.”
At the ‘Kia EV Day’, when the EV3 and EV4 studies were presented, both models were promised for 2024. However, Kia has recently laid an important foundation for the market launch (regardless of the delay now announced for the EV4): Both models are to be built at the South Korean plant in Gwangmyeong – the conversion of the factory for this purpose was recently completed.
Kia has not yet provided technical data on either model. Both the EV3 and the EV4 will use the Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP as a platform, but most likely not the familiar 800-volt version of models such as the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and Kia EV6. This is because the Kia EV5, which is positioned as a mid-range SUV above the EV3 compact SUV, only uses a 400-volt version of the EV-platform for cost reasons.
According to Kia, the Concept EV3 aims to transfer the advantages of the Kia EV9 into a compact SUV. Like the EV9 and the EV5, the concept car therefore has a rather angular, but now striking design for electric Kias. With the Concept EV4, Kia is also venturing into the mid-size sedan segment. It is not yet known whether the EV4 will be the Kia offshoot of the Hyundai Ioniq 6 or whether the Kia will be positioned in a different price range with more affordable technology.
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