- Kia brings three completely different variations of its PV5 van ideas and the bigger PV7 idea to IAA 2024 in Germany.
- The automaker desires to start gross sales of those electrical vans in Europe beginning with the PV5 in the summertime of 2025.
- Already making waves for its shopper EVs, Kia desires to deliver its electrical success to the industrial world too.
Kia has grown and developed significantly over the past decade, and it is aiming ever greater now with ambitions to take part of the sunshine industrial car phase in Europe. The producer introduced its PV5 and PV7 idea vans to the 2024 IAA Transportation commerce honest in Germany to showcase their design and options like over-the-air updates and a fleet administration answer.
These electrical vans are a part of Kia’s Platform Past Car (PBV) strategy, encompassing each autos and fleet administration software program developed with Ontario-based telematics specialist Geotab. We first noticed the ideas in the beginning of this yr at CES.
4 ideas had been delivered to the occasion held in Hanover: the PV5 idea, PV5 Individuals Mover idea, PV5 Excessive Roof idea and the PV7 idea. All of them are previews of electrical vans that Kia plans to launch in the summertime of 2025. Kia additionally beforehand confirmed a smaller PV1 van idea, however it wasn’t delivered to Germany.
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“As Kia PBVs would be the most technologically superior [light commercial vehicles] out there, we need to improve each side of the client expertise via superior connectivity,” mentioned Marc Hedrich, President of Kia in Europe. “This extends to having versatile knowledge options that allow simple integration in multi-brand fleets with out the necessity for extra {hardware}.”
The primary of those electrical vans to debut is the PV5, which has already been noticed whereas testing in Europe with camouflage hiding a lot of its physique. The PV5 is about the identical dimension as a Ford E-Transit Customized (and its sister car from Volkswagen) or a Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo. We presently don’t have many technical particulars apart from the truth that it will likely be out there with both single- or dual-motor powertrains.
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The Kia PBV ideas on the IAA in Hanover
Kia has talked about that each one these electrical vans could have bidirectional charging and DC quick charging at as much as 150 kilowatts, which is sweet for 10 to 80% in half-hour and suggests a battery capability of round 80 to 100 kilowatt-hours. They may even supply very fast AC charging functionality because of their 22 kW on-board chargers.
These vans may even be lined by the identical seven-year/150,000 km guarantee that Kia affords for all of its autos.
They are going to experience on a devoted EV structure specifically developed for industrial autos, which, primarily based on the introduced charging velocity, will run on 400 volts, not 800 volts like present passenger vehicles constructed on the E-GMP platform.
Kia says they may supply class-leading cargo room for his or her footprint (though it stays to be seen in the event that they surpass Renault’s upcoming 800-volt electrical van), and a number of other completely different variants for every physique type will probably be provided like a refrigerated van that’s being developed with specialists from the Petit Forestier Group or a model specifically designed for parcel supply.
Concerning the devoted platform, Marc Hedrich defined “Whereas this strategy will not be a primary for electrical passenger vehicles, it’s actually the primary time we see it for LCV. It is a benchmark second, and our PBVs are set to ship higher accessibility, greater volumes, and decrease working prices, to utterly change logistics and mobility.”
