Kia Corporation described its roadmap to 2030 at the company’s 2022 CEO Investor Day virtual event. The roadmap builds on Kia’s successful Plan S strategy first announced in 2020. Kia also announced its four key business targets for 2030. These core business aims include:

• Accelerating electrification and achieving annual sales of 1.2 million battery electric vehicle (BEV) units by 2030;

• Reaching 4 million annual vehicle sales by 2030, including more than 2 million eco-friendly models;

• Expanding the application of connected car feature and autonomous driving technologies to all new vehicles; and

• Becoming the number one brand in the global purpose-built vehicle (PBV) market by 2030.

Starting with an annual global sales goal of 3.15 million units in 2022, Kia aims to continue its quantitative growth by building on the company’s product quality. The aim is to achieve 4 million units in 2030, a 27% increase from Kia’s target for 2022.

As part of this quantitative growth, the company will also expand sales of eco-friendly vehicles (including BEVs, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs)) through enabling and accelerating its electrification efforts.

The company will make the sales of these vehicles the focus of future business growth. Kia will expand the proportion of eco-friendly cars from 17% of global sales in 2022 to 52% in 2030.

In major markets with strong environmental regulations and a growing demand for EVs, such as Korea, North America, Europe and China, Kia plans to increase its proportion of eco-friendly car sales by up to 78% by 2030.

BEV line-up expanding to 14 BEV models in 2027. Starting in 2023, Kia plans to launch at least two BEVs per year and build a full line-up of 14 BEVs by 2027. Compared to its previous plan to release 11 models by 2026, Kia will add two electric pickup trucks—a dedicated electric pickup truck and a strategic model for emerging markets—and an entry-level BEV model.

Kia plans to launch ts flagship electric vehicle the EV9 in 2023. Although the EV9 is a large SUV with a total length of around 5 meters, it features excellent acceleration of 0-100km/h in 5 seconds, and range of approximately 540 km (336 miles) on a full charge. It can also provide 100 km driving range on just a six-minute charge.

A first for Kia, the EV9 will also feature OTA (Over the Air) and FoD (Feature on Demand) services that will allow customers to selectively purchase software functions. In addition, it will be the first model to be equipped with Kia’s advanced AutoMode autonomous driving technology.

Kia to achieve 1.2 million BEV sales in 2030. Starting with 160,000 BEV sales this year, Kia aims to sell 807,000 units in 2026 and 1.2 million in 2030—a 36% increase from the 2030 EV target announced during last year’s CEO Investor Day.

Kia projects that more than 80% of its BEV sales in 2030 will come from Korea, North America, Europe and China, with BEVs taking a 45% share of total Kia sales in these major markets.

To accommodate this expanding volume of EVs, the roles of individual production sites will evolve. Korea will serve as a global hub for research, development, production and supply of EVs, while other global production sites will produce strategic EVs for each market.

In Europe, for example, small and medium-sized EVs will be produced starting from 2025. In the United States, where mid-sized SUVs and pickups are popular, electric versions of these models will be produced locally from 2024. In China, Kia plans to introduce mid-size electric vehicle models from next year, and India plans to produce entry and mid-size EV models from 2025.

Kia is planning to establish a battery supply and demand strategy and upgrade battery technology as demand is expected to increase significantly from to 119 GWh in 2030 due to increased EV sales.

Kia plans to supply batteries from the Indonesian battery cell joint venture and will simultaneously establish a stable battery supply and demand system by outsourcing to global battery companies.

In addition, the company plans to increase battery energy density by 50% by 2030 and reduce system costs by 40%, thereby enhancing both performance and price competitiveness.

Connected car and autonomous driving technology. Kia has highlighted four key product areas in which the company can mobilize its capabilities to the fullest to lead the future mobility industry: connected car services, autonomous driving technology, performance and design.

From 2025, all new Kia vehicles will be equipped with connected car features. With the availability of OTA software update (Over-the-Air) and FoD (Feature-on-Demand) services across the Kia line-up, customers will be able to keep their vehicles up-to-date with various features and technologies.

This is part of Kia’s efforts to find new business opportunities based on software and connected car services. Kia expects connectivity services to play an important role across various mobility areas such as car-sharing, car-hailing, and delivery services.

Kia's range of autonomous driving technologies, branded “AutoMode”, will be rapidly expanded throughout the line-up starting with the EV9 in 2023.

Kia AutoMode supports performance optimization through wireless updates and will be improved as the technology develops. It will also include Highway Driving Pilot feature which would enable driving without driver intervention on highway sections.

By 2026, all new models launched in major markets will be available with AutoMode autonomous driving technology, with an adoption rate expected to surpass 80 percent. Long term, the company plans to further upgrade AutoMode technology and implement fully autonomous driving technology.