Kia: the latest South Korean hybrid cars on sale

Reading time:

1 minute

Kia sets itself the goal of 1.6 million electric cars sold per year from 2030. At the same time and facing the uncertainty of this market, the Korean car manufacturer prefers to accelerate the sale of new hybrid models, according to its strategic plan launched. April 9.

Don’t go too fast. This is what we should remember from the presentation of Kia’s new road map to investors on Tuesday April 9 in Seoul. The South Korean manufacturer, which registered almost 50,000 cars last year in France (a record), was nevertheless one of the first to believe in the future of electric cars. It is also paid for its efforts with a clear increase in sales of electric vehicles in 2023 (+ 6.3% compared to 2022), after winning the European title of the Year for the EV6 in 2022 and the same price, this time in the world, for the EV9 in 2024 , two electrical models. Last year, Kia even announced a sales target of 1.6 million electric vehicles sold per year from 2030, out of a total of 4.3 million units sold in this period.

>> Don’t miss any car news by subscribing to our car newsletter

You don’t need as much power as expected for electric cars

But a year later, the manufacturer is starting to change, according to its new strategic plan, launched on Tuesday April 9, which aims “respond fully to the uncertainty in the mobility industry environment, including changes in the electric vehicle market”. The decline in electricity business is true almost everywhere in Europe and especially in Germany. Kia adds that “While the demand for electric vehicles is expected to remain stable through 2030, its growth rate may be abnormal in the short term. Demand may be affected by various factors such as weakening global economic growth, reductions in government procurement subsidies, and decrease in payment infrastructure deployment..

Others under this ad

Others under this ad

So the manufacturer wants to stay “changing”. Indeed, it sets its sales targets for electric vehicles, but sees fit to focus on parallel hybrids. In addition to the sale of EV3 and EV2 electric compacts and city cars, and the EV5 electric SUV, Kia will gradually complete its hybrid models, offering 6 on the list in 2024, 8 in 2026 and 9 in 2028. , Sportage, Sorento and Niro are offered as hybrids.

These hybrids could represent around 900,000 sales per year in 2030 worldwide. This figure represents a three percent increase from last year’s original plan.