Kia To Reveal Its First Dedicated EV, New Design Direction Next Month

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is about to get some company. Next month, Kia will introduce its first dedicated battery electric vehicle, built on the same Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) as its corporate cousin. What’s more, the company formerly known as Kia Motors will now officially bear a one-word name: simply “Kia.”

The South Korean automaker announced its newest EV product in a global presentation on its new corporate identity, comprising both the name change and a new slogan: Movement That Inspires. Kia says it will focus on more diverse transportation solutions, including electric vehicles, mobility services, and purpose-built fleet vehicles (think zero-emissions cargo vans and the like).

What’s more, the new brand ethos will accompany some styling changes, which will first arrive on that aforementioned EV. Kia will adopt a simple naming scheme for its electric vehicles, EV1 through EV9. It’s not clear what the first vehicle to be revealed will be called, but the company showed us a teaser image of nine distinct vehicles, including closeups of two of them – a midsize crossover and a small hatchback. We’d assume that one of those vehicles will be the company’s next reveal.

As far as styling, it’s difficult to make out any details on the teaser images, but both featured vehicles appear to wear crisp, sharp-edged bodywork, the crossover featuring a large greenhouse and flat beltline that remind us of the Seltos and Telluride, while the hatch gets a lower, sleeker roof. Both wear a rising D-pillar akin to the Kia Soul small crossover, so it appears that’s a Kia design feature that’s here to stay.

Each future Kia EV is expected to ride on E-GMP architecture, which offers up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) of range and fast-charging capability. The platform is scalable, and it defaults to rear-wheel drive with all-wheel drive capability.