Kia electric cars

A design-led Korean mainstream brand with one of the broadest dedicated-EV ranges in Australia.

Kia was founded in 1944 as Kyungsung Precision Industry, making steel tubing and bicycle parts, and built South Korea's first domestic bicycle before moving into cars. After bankruptcy in the 1997 Asian financial crisis it was rescued by Hyundai Motor Company in 1998 and is now part of the Hyundai Motor Group. Under designer Peter Schreyer it transformed into a globally respected, design-led brand and dropped 'Motors' from its corporate name in 2021.

Kia builds its dedicated EVs on the E-GMP platform shared with Hyundai, using a simple EV3/EV4/EV5/EV6/EV9 naming ladder. In Australia its EV line began around 2021 with the Niro EV and expanded with the award-winning EV6 in 2022, then the three-row EV9, mid-size EV5 and small EV3. Kia complements this with plug-in hybrids such as the Sorento PHEV.

mainstream design-led EV

Battery-electric: EV3 small SUV, EV5 mid-size SUV, EV6 crossover and the flagship six/seven-seat EV9, all on the Hyundai-Kia E-GMP platform. Plug-in hybrid: the Sorento PHEV large SUV (around 68km of EV-only range).