The CEO of Kia Europe has shared the company’s vision of the next few years on the European market, with the emphasis on hybrid and fully electric cars.
Two plug-in hybrids – the Ceed SW estate/wagon and the XCeed crossover/hatchback – will enter production in Slovakia in late November 2019 and hit the showrooms in January. The Ceed hatchback will be offered as a mild hybrid at first, but might get a completely electric version later.
In 2020, Kia will unveil the new Sorento SUV. In its next generation, the diesel-powered car will also ship in two hybrid variants. In 2021, the Imagine by Kia Concept (see the Geneva IMS video here) will become a production EV.
New emission standards entering legal force in Europe in 2021 make the transition to electric power an urgent necessity for the South Korean marque. That said, it fares quite well, especially thanks to the electric models e-Soul and the e-Niro. In some countries, production quotas for both have already been exceeded. Overall, Kia sales in Europe grew 1.6% over the first half of 2019, contrasted by the car market as a whole shrinking by 3.1% over the same period.
In the more distant future, the company considers switching its entire product range to pure electric power. This would include all demo and car-sharing vehicles.
Kia currently sources the batteries for its EVs from South Korea and motors from Geneva, Switzerland. By the end of 2019, the company expects electrified cars to constitute 15% in the total sales volume (around 75,000 out of 500,000 in absolute numbers). The e-Niro and e-Soul should sell 12,000 more copies before the end of the year. In 2020 and later, Kia intends to maintain annual EV sales at 40,000 units.