Kia's new electric crossover could become brand's top-selling EV in Europe

Kia's first vehicle built on parent Hyundai Motor Group's new E-GMP modular electric platform is likely to quickly become the brand's best-selling full-electric car in Europe.

The EV will be a crossover with design cues from the Imagine concept unveiled at the 2019 Geneva auto show.

Kia expects to sell 10,000 to 15,000 units of the model in Europe this year, following its launch in September, Kia Europe Chief Operating Officer Emilio Herrera told Automotive News Europe.

The crossover will offer European buyers of compact cars a battery-powered vehicle with SUV styling. Current compact EVs sold in Europe include the Volkswagen ID3 and BMW i3 hatchbacks. Renault will join the segment with a production version of its Megane eVision at the end of the year and Citroen already offers a battery-powered version of its new C4 compact called the ë-C4.

Herrera did not disclose forecasts for the crossover's expected sales in 2022, but it could outsell the two full-electric vehicles in Kia's European lineup, the Soul and Niro small crossovers.

The Soul is offered only as a full EV in Europe and its sales were 8,021 last year, according to data from JATO Dynamics. The full-electric e-Niro accounted for about 31,000 of the model line's 77,638 sales last year.

Herrera said the new EV platform would boost the range and speed up the charging of Kia's next wave of battery-powered cars.

The E-GMP platform will be first underpin the Hyundai Ioniq 5 midsize crossover, which is expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks. Hyundai has said that the platform promises driving ranges up to 500 km (310 miles) and sports-car level acceleration.

The platform is geared toward larger vehicles from the compact segment and above to a large seven-seat crossover. Its rear-wheel- and all-wheel-drive layouts accommodate a range of body types, from sedans and crossovers to performance cars.

Hyundai has said that the E-GMP platform will be available with an 800-volt electrical architecture, which enables a recharge to 80 percent in 18 minutes. Current group EVs are built on a 400-volt architecture.

The crossover is the first of seven vehicles Kia will launch on the E-GMP platform globally by 2027, according to its recently announced Plan S midterm business strategy.

They could include a large SUV that would have be too inefficient in terms of fuel economy and CO2 emissions if it were sold in Europe with an internal combustion engine, Herrera said. A large SUV with an electric drivetrain would be more acceptable, he added.

An electric minicar similar in size to the current Picanto is also in Kia's plans, Herrera said. That vehicle would be built on a smaller EV-only platform.

Kia plans to have a total of 11 full-electric vehicles in its global lineup by 2025, including those built on the E-GMP architecture as well as battery-electric derivatives of existing models, such as the e-Niro. The brand hopes to capture 6.6 percent of the global battery-electric vehicle market by 2025 and reach 500,000 EV sales a year by 2026.

EVs could make up 20 percent of Kia’s worldwide sales by 2025 and a quarter in 2029, the automaker said.

The crossover will be built in the Hyundai Motor's plant in Hwasung, South Korea.

Herrera said 30 percent of Kia's European sales would be full-electric vehicles in 2025. That figure translates to about 200,000 EVs a year, a level that will require some to be built in Europe, Herrera said.

He said there were "concrete plans" to build full-electric vehicles derived from a multi-energy platform in Europe, similar to the way sibling brand Hyundai now builds the full-electric Kona at its plant in the Czech Republic. Kia now builds the Ceed range and Sportage compact SUV at its factory in Slovakia.

Kia will continue to offer vehicles such as the Niro that are available with either internal combustion, hybrid,  plug-in hybrid or full-electric powertrains, Herrera said. He said having those cars will give the brand more flexibility to react to market trends.

"In case the EV market really takes off and we have to produce even more EVs, we need to be sure that almost every model has not only been electrified, but also has an electric version," he said.