Kia introducing 500km plus range EV in 2021

Kia will have a halo EV next year as it ramps up electrification.

The new vehicle will be the first built on a new, dedicated EV platform and will be based on the award-winning ‘Imagine’ crossover concept revealed at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show.

Designed to be a “super-high performance” model, the new EV is expected to deliver much greater distance than the company’s current Niro EV which has 455km range.

Kia says a production-ready version of the Imagine concept will go on sale by the end of 2021 and will sit above the Niro EV in the Kia range.

The new model will spearhead Kia’s plans to offer 11 fully electric vehicles by the end of 2025 that will be produced in sufficient volumes to take 6.6% of the worldwide EV market.

By that stage, the shortage of batteries that is currently limiting the supply of EVs across the market will have abated, allowing Kia to boost production to deliver more than 330,000 electric cars annually by 2025, it says.

Imagine, the concept vehicle on which the new production crossover will be built, has been awarded a 2020 iF Design Award in Europe. The ‘Professional Concept’ category award recognises Kia Motors’ design-led approach to product development and the brand’s evolution in an age of electrified mobility.

The four-door vehicle combines elements of a family sedan, a muscular SUV and a versatile, spacious crossover. It has a low-mounted, induction-charged battery pack that powers electric motors on each axle.

“It hints at something familiar, but is something entirely new,” Kia Motors Europe design vice president Gregory Guillaume says.

“I think of it as a category-buster, and a disruptor – it’s familiar and understood but at the same time progressive and new.”

When launched next year, the new Kia EV halo model will feature more powerful motors than currently used, as well as larger battery capacity and is expected to deliver at least 500km range.