Kia shows the vanguard of its electric vans – including a suitable fleet solution

In the run-up to the trade fair, the South Korean car manufacturer sent out the message that it would be launching light electric commercial vehicles on its modular PBV platform from 2025. This is likely to have had an effect on the established players in the market, as Kia is a very experienced car manufacturer venturing into the van sector.

As announced, Kia is presenting the PV5 and PV7 concept cars at the trade fair in Hanover, partly as a People Mover, partly with a high roof or as a classic van. You can read about the core of Kia’s PBV strategy here. The presentation of the first series model is planned for the summer of 2025. It is important to Kia that its own concept for the van market does not only include the corresponding electric vehicles: Together with partners in areas such as fleet management and vehicle conversions, the brand wants to open up new opportunities for its customers in their respective business areas.

Kia Europe has announced its first cooperation in this field at the trade fair: Geotab, a provider of networked transport solutions, will set up a cross-brand fleet management system for Kia’s PBV vehicles. The system comprises four specific components: a white-labelled fleet management platform, a fleet manager app, a driver app and in-vehicle infotainment integration.

According to Kia, the partnership will also include additional applications such as extended electric vehicle route functions with automatic recommendations for charging stops or a digital vehicle key (Digital Key 2.0). According to the partners, services from the Kia Charge charging service such as usage contracts and billing management will also be integrated so that fleet managers can view and manage all charging invoices differentiated according to the various charging processes such as public charging, charging at home or charging at a depot.

“As Kia PBVs will be the most technologically advanced LCVs available, we want to enhance every aspect of the customer experience through advanced connectivity,” said Marc Hedrich, President of Kia Europe. “This extends to having flexible data solutions that enable easy integration in multi-brand fleets without the need for additional hardware.”

Kia is relying on a specially developed battery vehicle platform for its future light commercial vehicles, which can be adapted to different wheelbases and can therefore be used for many vehicle sizes, body types and conversions. A warranty on the PBVs of seven years or 150,000 kilometres is intended to create confidence. To manufacture the vehicles, Kia began building a special plant in Korea last year as part of an investment of over three billion euros. According to Kia, PBV production capacity will initially be 150,000 units per year and gradually increase to 300,000 units worldwide.

press.kia.com (PBV), press.kia.com (Geotab)