On behalf of KIA’s all-new electric compact SUV, the EV5, the South Korean carmaker announced the KIA EV Day, an event where they will give more details about the EV5 availability (to be on sale in China before end of 2023) and upcoming dedicated electric sedans line-up. Despite the event will be held in October 2023, today we can share with you the first details about KIA EV3 and EV8.
It will be the first time we known officially the South Korean carmaker about the future all-electric sedan that are internally known as GT1 and CT1. The GT1 will be Hyundai Motor Group’s first electric vehicle to be equipped with next-generation electric vehicle-only platform (known as “eM”) developed by HMG following the E-GMP (used for the EV6, EV9, Hyundai IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 and Genesis GV60). This model will correspond to an E-segment and will also serve as Kia K8 successor.
The GT1 Stinger is expected to achieve a range of 700 to 800 km on a single full charge thanks to a new 113,2 kWh battery pack. For the current largest battery, the Mercedes-Benz EQS (107.8kWh) runs 770 km according to the European World Standard Automotive Test Method (WLTP).
The KIA GT1 will have maximum output of 450 kW (612 hp) thanks to the combination of a 200 kW front engine and a 250 kW rear engine, so it will be more powerful than the EV6 GT (that has 430 kW). KIA will also use another configurations for base and medium model. Its base spec will have a single rear engine with 160 kW (218 hp) and another with 160 kW dual-motor (320 kW and 435 hp).
Detail of KIA’s eM platform
South Korean media already mentioned that Kia has the KIA CT1 on the roadmap. The Kia CT1 will have global aspirations and will take on Toyota BZ-3 Sedan. The new Kia electric compact sedan should use the Hyundai Motor Group’s Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) instead of the eM platform, which is expected to be used by larger to premium vehicles.
The South Korea carmaker already started working so they’re undergoing some upgrades to its AutoLand Gwangju Plant, specifically the Plant 2. Kia shut down Plant 2 on June 1, 2023 in order to transform into a dedicated EV plant, and it will stay closed till December 31, 2023.
Plant 2 was home of the Rio hatchback, a model that was discontinued. It is expected that the updated plant will be ready to built two all-new electric models, the KIA EV4 (known internally as SV1) and the aforementioned KIA EV3 by June 2024. It is expected to see some sightings of the KIA EV3 prototype before the end of the year.
