- Kia wants to become a leader in electric commercial vehicles and is teasing a slew of “purpose built” vans that will start arriving in 2025 when a new factory gets up and running.
- The first electric van, code-named SW, is described as mid-size, and it will be followed by smaller and larger vans, with the teasers showing distinctive lighting elements and clean surfacing.
- Kia launched the Niro Plus, a purpose-built taxi and ride-hailing vehicle, last month for the Korean market.
Last month, Kia showed off the Niro Plus, a taller, stretched version of the first-generation Niro that will serve as a purpose-built taxi and ride-hailing commercial vehicle in Kia’s home market of South Korea. The Niro Plus is part of Kia’s push to become a global pioneer in electric purpose-built vehicles by 2030, and now Kia has revealed plans and teasers for a series of electric vans that it hopes will end up dominating this space.
Kia will begin building a new factory exclusively for purpose-built vehicles at its Hwaseong manufacturing site in Korea next year, and aims to start production in the second half of 2025. While the Niro Plus is adapted from an existing car, this new factory will assemble dedicated purpose-built vehicles, the first of which will be “mid-size” and is presumably the van with the L-shaped lights pictured above. The teaser shows a clean, angular look with geometric wheel designs. Kia says the model, code-named SW, will ride on Kia’s new scalable eS electric skateboard platform.
After the SW, Kia plans to introduce unmanned “micro size” vehicles, as well as larger shuttles and vehicles that can be turned into mobile offices or shops. The teaser images also show a puny, boxlike vehicle and a larger van with C-shaped lights. Kia says that plant will at first be capable of producing 100,00 of the vehicles a year, with the ability to scale up to 150,000 units. It’s not yet clear which, if any, of these vehicles will make it to the United States, but we’re looking forward to seeing Kia’s foray into vehicles designed around specific markets.
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Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
