1 day ago
21
Kia has ruled out two new European-made electric cars for Australia as even the smaller of the two could cost more than $60,000 drive-away.
Electric Cars
The pint-sized Kia EV2 electric SUV could cost more than the larger EV3 and EV5 – at close to $60,000 drive-away – if sold in Australia, the car giant has revealed.
It is for this reason – the high cost of building a new car in Europe and shipping it to Australia – that the EV2 and Kia's other Slovakian-made electric car, the EV4 hatch, won't come to local showrooms.
Kia built cars in Europe for Australia just a decade ago – the Pro_cee'd GT hot hatch and Sportage family SUV – but moved back to South Korea after two years.
All current Kia models except the Chinese-made EV5 are built in South Korea for local showrooms, which is closer in distance than Europe, and holds a Free Trade Agreement with Australia.
The EV4 electric sedan is due in Australian showrooms later this year, but the hatchback is made solely in Slovakia, so it is off-limits – much like the smaller EV2 that will open Kia's electric range in Europe.
"To manufacture an equivalent car in that respective [Slovakian] factory is a little bit on the higher side," Kia Australia head of product Roland Rivero told Drive.
"The initial indicative was that EV2, if we brought it in, would be actually more expensive than EV3 and EV5. So the math doesn't quite add up, and the customer won't understand that.
"Customers don't put all those equations into it, they just look at face value. What's the RRP and what's the drive-away price, and why is an EV2 dearer than an EV3?"
The EV3 is priced from $48,990 drive-away, and the EV5 from $56,770 drive-away, so selling a smaller car for close to $60,000 drive-away – on par with a Tesla Model 3 – would have been a very difficult sell.
"The logistics [cost] is definitely at least double what we have to pay to ship a vehicle out of Korea. At least double," Rivero said.
"There is no port in Slovakia, so it has to be put on a train to a port in Germany – and then from Germany it's trans-shipped via Singapore and can even land on the west coast [of Australia] first before it gets to the 90-percenter east coast.
"So overall, I think in our past experience, with Pro_cee'd and SLe [European-made] Sportage a couple of generations ago, it was a couple of months by the time it got here from when the build plate was stuck onto it.
"And I know that's normal, because [European] products – Skoda and whatnot – they go through all that as well ... but it's still a bit of a headache for us."
The higher cost to bring in the EV4 hatch compared to the Korean-made sedan would disrupt the brand's strategy of offering different body styles in the same model line for an identical price.
"It just creates a bit of a logic issue where it sits in the range relative to the other," Rivero said.
"Right now we've got K4, and even before that obviously on Cerato, our hatch and sedan equivalents were the same price. We like that strategy, so it won't work if we do EV4 hatch."
If the EV4 sedan is priced close to the EV3 SUV – at around $50,000 – Rivero's EV2 estimate suggests an EV4 hatch could cost close to, or more than $70,000, also a tricky sell when an MG 4 starts from half that amount.
The EV2 and EV4 hatch are geared towards the European market – where smaller cars and hatchbacks are more popular than other parts of the world – whereas the EV4 sedan is intended for Korea and the US, which prefer sedans.
In the medium term, it remains to be seen how US President Donald Trump's tariffs on imported vehicles impact where Kia produces its cars, but for now the EV4 sedan will continue to be built in South Korea.
The EV4 sedan is due in local showrooms by the end of this year, rated for up to 630km of driving range – more than the hatchback's 590km, thanks to its slipperier shape.
Electric Cars Guide
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
