Can Kia EV4 Help Kia Become A Top 10 EV Auto Brand Globally? – CleanTechnica

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When people talk about legacy automakers and electric vehicles, they normally aren’t very kind to the old, established auto brands. However, Hyundai and Kia have been exceptions. Even a decade ago when most automakers were criticized for putting in very poor efforts designing electric cars, Kia and Hyundai were seen as doing a pretty good job. In fact, on the back of its hard work, Kia was the 13 best selling auto brand in the world last year for plugin vehicles.

Now, Kia’s got a new competitive electric car coming, and I’m wondering how far it can take the brand. The Kia EV6 is been a pretty popular car, and the larger EV9 has won a lot of awards for its leadership in its category, while the smaller EV3 has been warmly received in the markets it’s hit. However, the EV4 is right in a super sweet spot, and just adds one more mass market choice for buyers — between the EV6 and the EV3.

The unveiling is coming in a week and a half, but Kia just yesterday put out a long press release on the elegance and futurism of the EV4’s design. You can read that for all kinds of design lingo, and you can view the many pictures above and below to let your eyes tell you more. We don’t yet have specs and pricing, of course, but we can expect the EV4 to slot somewhere between the EV3 and EV6, which means it’s going to have decent specs at attractive mass-market pricing. So, my question is, how much can this boost the Kia brand and can it propel Kia onto the list of the 10 top selling plugin vehicle auto brands?

Well, looking at the full year 2024 results, Kia’s nearly 269,000 plugin vehicle sales were more than 100,000 units behind #10 Mercedes’ nearly 376,000. That’s a big gap to make up.

And it’s even tougher if you look at December sales. Kia was 19th in December, with just under 24,000 sales. Furthermore, as far as the ranking goes, a handful of Chinese auto brands leaped ahead of Kia — such as Xpeng, Deepal, AITO, Zeekr, and super hot Xiaomi. So, just in terms of climbing the rankings, the challenge seems to be getting bigger fast.

So, perhaps even with the EV4, Kia can’t climb into the top 10 — unless the Chinese EV market crashes. However, one would think that Kia could sell at least 37,000 units a month of the EV3 plus EV4 plus EV6 plus EV9, right? 37,000 sales would have put Kia in the top 10 in December. Come on, Kia, with just essentially the Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla sold more than 200,000 vehicles in December. Surely the EV3, EV4, EV6, and EV9 could combine for 40,000 a month, right?

In that regard, one does have to wonder how Kia could get there. Could the company better put itself against that Tesla competition in advertisements and on social media? Could Kia run a more compelling ad campaign that tries to set itself apart for the best EV lineup on the market? Could Kia convince its dealers to do a better job selling its EVs over its gasmobiles in more markets? Surely they can all see the EVs offer a much better driving experience, better tech, and lower operational costs.

What do you think? How many units of Kia’s expanding EV lineup could it realistically aim to sell in a month/year, and how could it amp up its sales?