[car home New Car Launch] On March 20th, Kia China’s new energy strategy conference was officially opened. At the event site, Kia China released a medium-and long-term electrification blueprint, announcing a comprehensive transformation to an electrification brand, and accelerating and strengthening the investment in electrification products and services. At the same time, the official also brought us two brand-new concept cars, namely (|) and Kia EV9. Among them, EV6 will be launched in May this year and listed in August, EV5 will be listed later this year, and EV9 will be listed next year.
[KIA EV5 concept car]
[Kia EV9 concept car]
【 KIA EV6 GT 】
◆ KIA EV5 Concept Edition
In terms of appearance, as a concept model, its overall design is very avant-garde and exaggerated. Specifically, KIA EV5 Concept Edition follows KIA’s brand-new design concept "Opposites United", with a fully enclosed front grille and a light group with rich lines, which makes the front face of this car look sporty. At the same time, the car uses a large trapezoidal air intake with a blackened front bumper similar to matte material, which is young and fashionable.
From the side of the car body, the new car has a straight roof line, thus obtaining better head space inside the car. At the same time, the front and rear fenders slightly protrude from the car body and are full of muscle. In terms of the tail, the car adopts a similar double J-shaped taillight group, with the central Kia brand logo, which greatly improves the visual layering of this car.
In terms of interior, the center console of this car adopts a minimalist design style, with a penetrating integrated screen and a unique three-spoke multi-function steering wheel, which is very personalized. At the same time, the air conditioning outlet of this car adopts vertical narrow banner type, which is full of youthful feeling with the interior color matching of double color matching.
KIA EV5 concept car adopts borderless design, and integrates the shape of seat and console to enhance the feeling of space use and comfortable atmosphere. When the door is opened, the design of the rotating seat breaks the space barrier inside and outside the car, forming a brand-new layout. At the same time, the panoramic sunroof of this car is embedded with solar panels and supports free adjustment of lighting to meet the different needs and emotional States of users. It is worth mentioning that the light bridge is located on the panoramic skylight, which can be used to adjust the light in the whole internal space, and can also focus or diffuse the light by folding the light bridge.
At present, the official has not announced the specific parameters of this car, but the long-life version of CLTC has a cruising range of more than 700 kilometers and supports the function of external power supply (V2L). At the same time, the second generation remote control intelligent parking assistance system (RSPA2) will be applied to Kia cars listed in China for the first time. At the same time, the expressway driving assistance system (HDA2) with semi-automatic lane change, front/side/rear parking collision avoidance assistance (PCA) and parking distance warning (PDW) will also be equipped.
◆ Kia EV9 Concept Edition
In terms of appearance, the car also follows Kia’s brand-new design concept "Opposites United", and adopts a distinctive vertical design. The special-shaped headlights on both sides and the matrix light source are very eye-catching, and also give the new car a certain sense of the future. In addition, the enclosed front grille also brings a tough style, and it is suspected that there is a vent design above the grille, which is helpful for heat dissipation and wind resistance.
Coming to the side, unlike many new energy SUVs that emphasize smooth lines, Kia EV9 is more square and more like a fuel SUV. In addition, the new car will be equipped with a hidden door handle design, and the traditional rearview mirror will replace the electronic rearview mirror on the concept car. At the rear of the car, the shape of the taillights echoes the headlights from a distance, and outlines the muscular feeling of the tail. The rear windshield did not see the wiper, perhaps it was hidden inside the spoiler, and the details were very careful. In terms of size, this car has a body length of over 5000mm and a wheelbase of 3100mm.
In terms of interior, this car uses white with low saturation and dark gray hue, and cooperates with many gun gray chrome-plated decorative pieces to create a simple and fashionable visual effect as a whole. At the same time, the car uses an unconventional steering wheel, and the connection with the steering column is located at six points of the steering wheel, and the rest remain suspended, which has a strong sense of science and technology. In addition, the large-size narrow-banner integrated screen and the unique hand pillow area have a prominent sense of fashion.
In terms of seat layout, KIA EV9 concept version adopts 2+2+2 seat layout, in which the second row of seats has massage function and the third row of seats can be electrically adjusted, which greatly improves the practicality. At the same time, thanks to the UWB digital key/digital grid/panoramic display screen/large-size HUD head-up display system and the installation of indoor atmosphere lights, EV9 will realize innovative interaction between drivers and vehicles.
In terms of power, the car provides a variety of power combinations, such as basic version/endurance version, single motor/dual motor, etc., and is equipped with an 800V high-voltage fast charging system. Through the fourth-generation battery and the second-generation battery management system, the charging speed is improved. Colleagues have also strengthened their cruising range performance. At the same time, the car will also be equipped with the highway automatic driving system (HDP), which is expected to achieve L3-level automatic driving. At the same time, EV9 comes standard with 10 airbags and is equipped with collision safety performance to improve safety. In addition, the KIA EV9 Concept Edition has a consignment performance of 2.5 tons, and is equipped with V2L external discharge function and a large-capacity front compartment up to 90L.
◆ Kia China’s medium and long-term electrification blueprint and product planning.
According to the official, from 2023, Kia will launch at least one pure electric vehicle based on the electrified global modular platform E-GMP every year, and by 2027, a total of six EV models will be launched; By 2030, the annual sales volume of EV models will reach 180,000, accounting for 40% of the sales volume. Specifically, first of all, we are expected to welcome the launch of the Kia EV6 model in August, and in November, the Kia medium-sized pure electric SUV——EV5 will be launched; In 2024, Kia will launch the flagship electric SUV——EV9；; An entry-level pure electric SUV； will be launched in 2025; In 2026, a high-end electric car developed based on a special platform for new generation electric vehicles will be launched; In 2027, a medium-sized SUV will be launched to cope with the market trend of EV segmentation in China, bringing more electrified products to consumers in China.
At the same time, Kia will cooperate with large domestic dealer groups to strengthen the dealer network and further expand the sales channels of brands and electric vehicles. It also cooperates with domestic charging suppliers to jointly build an ultra-high-speed charging network; At the same time, through cooperation with third-party charging enterprises, the basic charging network will be expanded and improved in advance.
In addition, the official said that it will plan to launch the Kia brand App in the second half of this year. As a comprehensive platform, the brand App will optimize and upgrade the customer experience in all areas of car life such as car purchase, car use, service, information and entertainment. As the port of the user ecological chain system, KIA brand App will open up all private domain ecosystems such as KIA’s WeChat applet, service number and Kia Connect App with the concept of "one-click service" to build a complete user ecological chain system.
In terms of sales channels, in order to make users enjoy Kia’s products and services more conveniently and easily, Kia is also undergoing renovation. Kia will build an online and offline integrated sales channel of "Brand App+ Dealer Store /City Store+OMO". In terms of offline sales, Kia will gradually upgrade the dealers to the globally unified standard of SI 2.0, and set up a new energy zone in the exhibition hall. In addition, KIA will also cooperate with large dealer groups such as Simami, Jinlong, Xinhanma, Tongli, and Bradley to establish KIA City Store urban exhibition halls in the core business districts of first-and second-tier cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. In the future, the official second-hand car replacement service will be launched. Kia will provide online evaluation, door-to-door inspection, door-to-door pick-up and delivery services for all brand owners, and Kia owners can also enjoy additional allowances and benefits.
◆ Edit comments
The new energy strategy conference of KIA China was full of dry goods, which not only released the product plan and the new energy operation plan in China in the next few years, but also brought two brand-new concept cars and a brand-new pure electric vehicle-KIA EV6 to consumers. It can be seen that Kia is determined to make a desperate effort in the domestic new energy market, which will further expand its target consumers and let Kia formally join the competition related to new energy vehicles.
It is worth mentioning that in recent years, China brands have gradually gained a firm foothold in the field of new energy, and have launched the latest research results in the fields of pure electricity and hybrid as well as flagship models with upward brand. It is foreseeable that in the future, with the addition of various KIA models, the domestic new energy market will be more lively and consumers’ choices will be more abundant. Let’s look forward to the answers given by the market. (Text/car home Zhouyi)