This year, Kia has made a strong mark on passenger electric vehicles and shared what it hopes to do for businesses looking to adopt electric vehicles. The Korean automaker just unveiled its upcoming electric van and other similar models at CES 2024, which will be built on a new modular platform.
Not only will the underlying electric powertrain be a modular design (similar to other skateboard-style designs popular in the industry), but the tops of these vehicles will also be modular. In practice, the cabs of these vehicles are fixed, but the rest of the cabin is replaceable, according to Kia.
These cabins (which Kia calls "living modules") are connected to the chassis via mechanical couplings and electromagnets, but Kia is unclear on the details of how they work.
Kia is also mum on most other details. It did not identify a price range or any target specifications for the vehicle. The company has also not made any promises about when these vehicles will start hitting the road, although it said it is building a factory in South Korea dedicated to producing these vehicles, which it claimed will be operational by 2025. Kia expects annual production to reach 150,000 vehicles.
The first model will be the Kia PV5, a futuristic three-row van. Kia also showed off a larger model (PV7) and a smaller, more smart-car-like model (PV1).
These vehicles have a rather dull appearance. None of them are as cute as their sibling, Hyundai's Staria van. Design-wise, they're not that different from what struggling EV startup Canoo has been promising for the past few years. Hyundai Motor and Canoo had a tie-up, but the EV startup's CEO abruptly called it off, vaguely hinting at protecting his company's intellectual property.