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Kia Motors Corp. confirmed off it new emblem tattoo this week. All of the cool youngsters are doing it.
The South Korea-based model says its black-and-white emblem symbolizes the corporate’s transformation to a mobility firm with a better ethical function targeted on sustainability and transportation options. The company rebranding echoes an analogous emblem change by Basic Motors Co. earlier this month. Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Moor Corp. and Volkswagen AG have additionally not too long ago modernized their logos.
Kia is dropping “Motors” from its identify to turn into merely Kia Corp., signifying its intent to maneuver past auto manufacturing to give attention to a way forward for “versatile, environmentally aware, and built-in types of transportation.”
“At Kia, we imagine that transportation, mobility, and motion signify a human proper,” CEO Ho Sung Music mentioned. “Our imaginative and prescient is to create sustainable mobility options for shoppers, communities, and societies globally.”
Seven new electrical automobiles by 2027 will headline Kia’s “Motion That Evokes” mobility marketing campaign, a part of a $25 billion company funding in new merchandise. Kia’s pink oval emblem is gone — changed by a extra aggressive, black and white font.
“We are going to see a much bigger transformation within the subsequent decade than now we have seen within the final 75 years,” Arturo Martins, Kia’s Senior Vice President for Model & Buyer Expertise, mentioned of the 76-year outdated producer. “It is a transformation to electrical and autonomous automobiles. Electrification is an inevitability.”
Equally, GM’s “All people In” marketing campaign is a part of the sweeping plan to spend $27 billion by 2025 bringing battery-powered and autonomous automobiles to market beneath the corporate’s new, lower-case emblem formed like an electrical plug.
Shoppers, nevertheless, have been hesitant to embrace battery-powered automobiles as lower than 2% of latest automotive gross sales within the U.S., for instance, are pure EVs. Solely Norway, with large subsidies, has seen substantial EV adoption.
Kia says its new emblem will first seem within the U.S. market on the gas-powered, 2022 Kia Carnival minivan coming later this yr. The Carnival’s V-6 engine is shared by Kia’s hottest U.S. vendor, the Georgia-made Telluride SUV.
Trade insiders say the frenzy to EVs is being pushed not by shoppers, however by authorities mandates as most main governments — significantly China and the European Union — are utilizing new laws to push EV drivetrains.
Key to Kia’s progress are industrial prospects. The model says so-called “purpose-built automobiles” (PBVs) are anticipated to develop five-fold by 2030 in e-commerce and car-sharing companies. Bespoke Kia PBVs will probably be tailor-made to satisfy the wants of car-sharing companies and fleet supply automobiles.
Predictions of EV adoption have overestimated buyer acceptance. In 2011, the Obama Administration predicted 1 million EV gross sales within the U.S. by 2015, with GM’s pioneering Chevy Volt main the best way. Final yr, EV gross sales have been about 250,000 models and the poor-selling Volt was retired.
Kia’s preliminary objectives are extra modest. The Korean automaker says it expects world EV gross sales of 500,000 automobiles by 2026. In 2019 (the final yr information is offered), the corporate bought 2.8 million automobiles worldwide.
However producers are making huge bets for the lengthy haul. Reasonably than adopting current chassis to make use of batteries as previously, automakers are making separate “skateboard” platforms for full-line EVs. Corporations like GM, Tesla Inc., and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz are investing in battery manufacturing. Kia and company cousin Hyundai are teaming with Korea’s largest chemical producer, LG Chem, on battery know-how.
Kia mentioned its EVs will share a platform with Hyundai and the primary car will probably be just like Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 SUV. The Ioniq line of hybrid and plugin automobiles bought 13,570 within the US final yr.
Autonomous improvement, too, has lagged expectations, with main automakers delaying 2020 rollouts.
Norway, which imports all of its automobiles, has dedicated to electrification and different governments are learning its subsidy mannequin. EVs have been some 60% of Norway gross sales final yr with client incentives that embody: exemption from 25% value-added (VAT) tax on new automotive purchases; exemption from emission charges, parking charges, street tolls, automotive ferry charges; and cut-rate insurance coverage.
Consequently, a gas-powered VW Golf prices about $57,000. Its electrical peer, the e-Golf, prices $30,200.
“Take away authorities mandates, subsidies and different incentives, and EVs are a gentle 0.1% of the automotive market — whether or not we’re speaking about Laos, Louisiana, or Luxembourg,” mentioned Anton Wahlman, Searching for Alpha auto analyst and investor.
VW introduced its remade emblem in late 2019 with strikingly related buzzwords to Kia and GM. “The brand new model design marks the beginning of the brand new period for Volkswagen,” mentioned board member Jürgen Stackmann. “The model is present process a elementary transformation in direction of a future with a impartial emissions stability for everybody.”
Like GM’s car-sharing ventures Cruise and (now defunct) Maven, Kia can also be diversifying its enterprise to supply inexperienced, autonomous mobility companies in main world cities. Kia plans to roll out its first EV product for the U.S. market within the first quarter.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit Information. Discover him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
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