Kia planning tiny electric city car

Monday, 25 May 2020

Kia is planning for the post-COVID world with a tiny, affordable EV.

The car doesn't have a name yet but Kia revealed its existence in an interview with Auto Express after identifying a new niche for markets around the world.

“People want to feel safe today. We saw that very clearly from a survey that was done after coronavirus in China, which showed people had moved from public transportation to private transportation,” said Kia’s European chief operating officer, Emilio Herrera in the interview.

Kia's small EV will go up against the likes of the Citroen Ami EV, in stature and price.

Herrera pointed out that it was very clear shift - 34 per cent of those surveyed before the pandemic favoured private use, but this jumped to 65 per cent after the worst of it in China. Herrera said the reason is that they feel safe in their car and they feel unsafe in public transportation, saying 'I think if people had a choice in London, they’d choose to drive their own car.”

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Kia took notice of this feeling, largely replicated across the world, and set to work building its baby EV.

The only detail we know about the city car is that will have a 'small range,' designed to operate only within an urban environment. Its sticker price will be kept down by leveraging Hyundai's planned small car collaboration with Los Angeles-based EV maker Canoo. The connection would give Kia access to a scalable electric architecture and an electric powertrain.

Any similarities would end there, though, with Herrera saying that Kia would lead the development of the small car, possibly eventually sharing the platform with Hyundai.

Herrara told Auto Express that the idea with the project was for it to be global, not just for Europe and that it would have the synergies of scale to ensure that the vehicle would be 'available at a very cheap price for consumers.”

Kia is considering selling it both conventionally and through a subscription service.

“Subscription services are something we’re investigating at this point in time because we believe it could be an alternative to public transportation, providing we can deliver it at a very similar cost to public transportation,' Herrera told Auto Express.

“So that means a subscription model, or you can rent it for a week or month, so it needs to be pretty flexible like public transportation. We’re looking at very low monthly prices for subscription, so it can really compete.”