First announced at the beginning of this year, Kia’s ‘Plan S’ future strategy will be rolled out from early next year, according to Automotive News. The initiative driven by Kia CEO Ho Sung Song aims to develop the brand to become “more dynamic, stylish and inventive,” with plans to bring 11 electric vehicles to market by 2025, partly backed by a US$ 25 billion (RM104 billion) investment.
“We need something to initiate or drive that business paradigm into the new world… We will try to set up our new customer target together with our brand relaunch,” said CEO Song.
The brand relaunch will include a new logo that was unveiled with the Kia Imagine concept vehicle, where the typeface is less upright and the three letter are now connected to each other, also dispensing with the oval boundary around the brand lettering. This will arrive on a production car due next year, says Kia.
The EV thrust will ride on the Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) that is shared with Hyundai. In September, Song said that Kia will be launching seven new battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2027, the first of which is currently codenamed ‘CV’ and set to debut next year.
The company aims to have BEVs account for 25% of total global sales by 2029, the CEO said. Also part of the ‘Plan S’ strategy is the partnering with EV charging companies to ensure that infrastructure is secured for the brands’ customers in selected markets.
This will see the setting up of 1,500 EV chargers by 2030 in Korea alone, with 120 fast chargers set to be in place by 2021 in urban centres and along 12 highways connecting eight provinces across the country. More than 2,400 chargers are planned for Europe and 500 in North America, in partnership with the brands’ dealers in those regions.
GALLERY Kia E-GMP EV spyshots
GALLERY: Kia Imagine concept
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Always felt Kia logo is lame and uncool. Never too late to make a change
Plan S = Save?