Kia’s PBV programme: vans yes, but not as we have known them

In early 2023, Kia announced it had reached agreement with its unions regarding staffing levels at a new EV plant it was planning in Hwaseong. Full production will begin in early 2025 and the output from this plant will be revealed to European audiences at the upcoming IAA Transportation (commercial vehicle) show in Hanover, with an earlier reveal having taken place at the CES show in Las Vegas in January 2024. The US, however, will not be a major market for these new Kia vehicles, at least not initially.

The new plant in Hwaseong will make a very different kind of vehicle to those which Kia has produced until now. To date, Kia has focused almost entirely on passenger cars, with a few vans made for the domestic market. It has stayed out of the van market in Europe and elsewhere. Its sister company Hyundai has followed a similar path, although in Europe Hyundai has sold a small number of H350 and i800 vans, the former assembled at Karsan in Turkey, the latter coming out of Korea.

Kia now plans to take on established players in the van market with a series of custom-built vehicles made on an all-new flexible electric platform, known as PBV