Kia brings three different versions of its PV5 van concepts and the larger PV7 concept to IAA 2024 in Germany. The automaker wants to begin sales of these electric vans in Europe starting with the PV5 in the summer of 2025. Already making waves for its consumer EVs, Kia wants to bring its electric success to the commercial world too.
Kia has grown and evolved considerably over the last decade, and it's aiming ever higher now with ambitions to take a part of the light commercial vehicle segment in Europe. The manufacturer brought its PV5 and PV7 concept vans to the 2024 IAA Transportation trade fair in Germany to showcase their design and features like over-the-air updates and a fleet management solution.
These electric vans are part of Kia’s Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) approach, encompassing both vehicles and fleet management software developed with Ontario-based telematics specialist Geotab. We first saw the concepts at the beginning of this year at CES.
Four concepts were brought to the event held in Hanover: the PV5 concept, PV5 People Mover concept, PV5 High Roof concept and the PV7 concept. All of them are previews of electric vans that Kia plans to launch in the summer of 2025. Kia also previously showed a smaller PV1 van concept, but it wasn’t brought to Germany.
“As Kia PBVs will be the most technologically advanced [light commercial vehicles] available, we want to enhance every aspect of the customer experience through advanced connectivity," said Marc Hedrich, President of Kia in Europe. "This extends to having flexible data solutions that enable easy integration in multi-brand fleets without the need for additional hardware.”
The first of these electric vans to debut is the PV5, which has already been spotted while testing in Europe with camouflage hiding much of its body. The PV5 is about the same size as a Ford E-Transit Custom (and its sister vehicle from Volkswagen) or a Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo. We currently don’t have many technical details other than the fact that it will be available with either single- or dual-motor powertrains.
Kia has mentioned that all these electric vans will have bidirectional charging and DC fast charging at up to 150 kilowatts, which is good for 10 to 80% in 30 minutes and suggests a battery capacity of around 80 to 100 kilowatt-hours. They will also offer very quick AC charging capability thanks to their 22 kW on-board chargers.
These vans will also be covered by the same seven-year/150,000 km warranty that Kia offers for all of its vehicles.
They will ride on a dedicated EV architecture specially developed for commercial vehicles, which, based on the announced charging speed, will run on 400 volts, not 800 volts like current passenger cars built on the E-GMP platform.
Kia says they will offer class-leading cargo room for their footprint (although it remains to be seen if they surpass Renault’s upcoming 800-volt electric van), and several different variants for each body style will be offered like a refrigerated van that’s being developed with specialists from the Petit Forestier Group or a version specially designed for parcel delivery.
Regarding the dedicated platform, Marc Hedrich explained “While this approach is not a first for electric passenger cars, it’s certainly the first time we see it for LCV. This is a benchmark moment, and our PBVs are set to deliver better accessibility, higher volumes, and lower running costs, to completely change logistics and mobility.”
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