South Korea's Kia cuts 2030 EV sales target

: Battery materials, Metals
26/04/09

South Korean major automaker Kia has slashed its 2030 annual battery electric vehicle (EV) sales target to 1mn units, after cutting the target to 1.26mn in 2025 while expanding hybrid lineups.

The company is lowering its EV sales target and expanding its internal combustion engine (ICE) and hybrid models considering the speed of the electrification transition, it said on 9 April. The carmaker previously targeted a relatively ambitious 1.6mn units/yr of EV sales, which was announced in 2024. Kia plans to launch up to nine new ICE models and operate 13 hybrid models in 2030.

It aims to sell 3.35mn car units in 2026, including 691,000 hybrids and 400,000 EVs, which would mark around 7pc of year-on-year sales growth. It has also set a global target of 4.13mn units/yr in 2030, comprised of 1.98mn ICE cars, 1.15mn hybrids and the remainder being EVs.

Kia's factories in South Korea, China, India and Mexico will supply ICE and hybrid cars to meet corresponding expanding demand in emerging markets, said Kia. But it also plans to further localise EV production strategies in response to market demand and policies in certain regions, such as producing EV2 and EV4 models in Europe, EV6 and EV9 in the stagnating US, as well as the Syros and Carens EV models in India.

Growing European and ex-China Asian demand partially offset a rocky start to the global EV market this year, given slower Chinese and US demand owing to policy changes in China and the US, according to South Korean consultancy firm SNE Research.

Global EV deliveries came in at 2.28mn units in January-February, down by 7pc compared with the same period a year earlier, with EV receipts for China and the US falling by 23pc and 30pc, respectively.

But a resurgence in the push for electrification following the Middle East war has since prompted at least southeast Asian countries to back a swifter EV transition. Global EV demand will see a "dramatic recovery" this year given oil price uncertainties, accelerating the EV penetration rate by 9 percentage points by 2030, according to SNE Research.

By Joseph Ho

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26/04/09

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26/04/08

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26/04/08

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26/04/07

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