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It ain’t easy being green.
Kia has just announced an ambitious plan to launch seven new electric vehicles by 2027, with the first one to break cover later this year.
To support the environmentally friendly new range of cars the South Korean maker is going to implement increased use of recycled materials and renewable energy into its manufacturing process.
But the cost of this green revolution is massive. According to Kia’s chief the company will be investing $US25 billion ($32b) by 2025.
Kia’s enormous investment will help them chase the increasingly large appetite for electric cars around the globe.
The South Korean brand is targeting 500,000 sales of electric cars by 2025, which it believes will comprise only 6.6 per cent of the global market for electric vehicles.
All future electric vehicles will be built on the brand’s new modular electric platform, which it shares with sister company Hyundai.
The new platform will form the base for a wide range of vehicles in all shapes and sizes.
The first one due in the coming months will have more than 500km of range and can be charged in under 20 minutes.
Hyundai, too, will reveal its first electric car – the Ioniq 5 – this year, but Kia said its vehicle will be quite unique and unlike the Hyundai.
Kia said the vehicle’s focus will be Europe, North America and Korea, but didn’t rule out expanding to other markets.
The company doesn’t sell any of its current electric vehicles down under.
Kia is also planning a high-performance version of its electric cars, with the first EV due this year said to spawn a sporty variant.
The brand’s new platform design and modular nature will give it sporty characteristics. The low-mounted motors and batteries under the car’s floor giving it a stable and low centre of gravity.
Kia is also setting its sights on build bespoke electric vehicles for corporations. It believes this is necessary due to the massive increase in online sales and ordering now and in the future.
It isn’t the first company to have this idea. American electric car start-up Rivian boasts some big time investors, including Amazon, which the company will build electric delivery vans for.
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