NEW DELHI: South Korean carmaker Kia Motors on Saturday announced details of a planned move towards electric cars, named ‘plan S’. The plan calls for launching 11 battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) with an aim to carve out a 6.6 per cent share of the global EV market (excluding China).
The carmaker also wants a quarter of all its global sales to come from environmentally friendly cars. Kia Motors is aiming to sell 500,000 EV cars annually out of a total of one million eco-friendly cars all over the globe, excluding China. Kia invest a total of $25 billion by the end of 2025.
With more countries’ promoting alternate fuel run vehicles to curb pollution and reduce dependency on fossil fuels, share of internal combustion engine run vehicles is expected to come down drastically. Major automaker around the globe are forming alliances and making radical changes in their operations, with Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess recently saying that the German car giant has just ‘one shot’ to survive shift to digital era. “The time of the classic car manufacturer is over,” Diess has said, adding that Volkswagen’s future lies in becoming a digital technology company.
Volkswagen, like other carmakers, is also acknowledging the fierce competition they are facing from many new rivals including Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla. Kia also believes that industry is going through a difficult phase and believes it needs to change strategy. “As the auto industry undergoes turbulent changes, today is also an opportune time for Kia Motors to radically transform itself into a global enterprise dedicated to spearheading customer value-led innovations,” said Kia Motors president and CEO Han-woo Park.While Kia specifically did not mention its plan for the Indian market, it said that it would nurture key developed markets as major bases for EVs and selectively introduce EV models in emerging markets; and raise sales of ICE vehicles. Kia entered the Indian market last year and achieved success with its first product Seltos SUV.
While Kia’s parent company Hyundai had launched Kona EV in India last year, it is the home-grown automakers such as Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra that have till now come up with concrete plans to launch EVs for the domestic market.