On Wednesday, during its CEO Investor Day 2023 in Seoul, Korea, Kia updated its electric car plan. By 2030, the manufacturer says it now plans to sell 1.6 million electric vehicles, up from its earlier forecast of 1.2 million.
At that time, Kia anticipates 4.3 million total sales, which would translate to a 37% market share for EVs.
Kia increases its EV sales target for 2030 to 1.6 million
Kia hopes to maintain the momentum after a milestone year in 2022 and a recent brand revamp. In 2020, the South Korean carmaker unveiled its “Plan S” plan, which aims to increase sales by transforming the business into an EV-focused brand.
In reality, Kia has fully revamped its identity, notably renaming the company name (from Kia Motors to Kia) and adopting a fresh logo.
In May of last year, Kia revealed the EV6, a high-flying crossover built on Hyundai’s E-GMP platform, which also underpins the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 vehicles.
The business formed its “opposites united” design strategy, which served as its guiding idea for the new EVs such the flagship EV9, Kia’s first seven-seat SUV, as well as the smaller EV5 electric SUV that will be released soon.
Ho Sung Song, the CEO of Kia, declared today that the manufacturer will quicken its progress towards becoming a “EV tier 1 brand.” Kia has created four pillars to achieve this:
1. As of 2027, release a full EV lineup with 15 vehicles.
2. Raise the target for EV sales to 1.6 million by 2030, up 400,000 from the prior projection of 1.2 million.
3. Develop Gen 3 to Gen 5 battery technology, which Kia claims will result in a 50% improvement in energy density, and provide a reliable battery supply chain.
4. As part of a global partnership to upgrade the charging infrastructure, deploy 3,500 ultra-fast chargers in Korea by 2025.
Kia is targeting the sale of over 1 million electric cars by 2026 as an interim goal, which would represent a 25% increase from its earlier projections. In 2024, the South Korean carmaker will establish its first factory just for EV production in Gwangmyeong, wherein two new EV vehicles will be produced.
As it attempts to carve out a place for itself in the new EV era, Kia’s first goal is to sell 258,000 electric cars by the close of the year.
E Auto Arena’s Opinion
Although Kia raising its EV sales objective is excellent, it still only accounts for 37% of the automaker’s overall 2030 sales plan.
While several automakers are already targeting double-digit (or 100%) EV sales by the end of the decade, legacy manufacturers like Ford, GM, and Stellantis are only aiming for that low of a number.
In 2022, Tesla alone sold 1.2 million zero-emission EVs, and the first quarter set a new record with more than 422,000 sales.
The head of sustainability at Polestar, Fredrika Klarén, criticised traditional manufacturers earlier this year, claiming that mass-produced non-EV cars would be obsolete by the year 2030.
Anybody promising to cure it by 2040 or 2050, according to Klarén, is not paying attention since by then we would have already fallen short of our objective. He went on to say:
There are just seven years left before global warming reaches 1.5 degrees. If we keep going in the direction we are, that is a fact. Thus, we have no interest in anything after 2030.
With only 37% of vehicles sold being electric, we don’t really have patience for waiting until after 2030. There is still work to be done, including the production of ICE vehicles.
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