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A few days ago, Yang Honghai, chief operating officer of Kia China, said at a media communication meeting after the static evaluation of Kia EV5 that it was impossible for Kia to withdraw from the Chinese market. These are all rumors created by the media for traffic. The whole Chinese R & D team has made painstaking efforts for the global model EV5, and we will firmly promote the route of EV electrification.

Kia EV5 is the first domestic pure electric SUV of Kia in South Korea. It has been pre-sold at the 2023 Chengdu Auto Show with a pre-sale price range of 15.98-229800 yuan. It is expected to be officially listed at the 2023 Guangzhou Auto Show. It is understood that Kia EV5 positioning compact pure electric SUV, length, width and height are 4615/1875/1715mm, wheelbase is 2750mm. In terms of power, Kia EV5 is equipped with a single front motor with a maximum power of 160kW and a maximum torque of 310Nm. In the battery part, the car will use lithium iron phosphate batteries produced by Xiangyang Fudi Battery Co., Ltd. In the suspension section, Kia EV5 will use front McPherson and rear multi-link independent suspension.

According to the plan, this year will be the first year for Yueda Kia to enter China's electric car market. Starting from 2023, Yueda Kia will launch at least one pure electric vehicle in the Chinese market each year based on the electrified global modular platform E-GMP. By 2027, it will launch a total of six EV models. By 2030, it is expected to achieve annual sales of 450000 units, of which the EV model accounts for 40% of the annual sales of 180000 vehicles.

In addition to the Kia EV5, the Kia EV6 has been listed at the 2023 Chengdu Auto Show, Kia's first electric car based on the E-GMP platform, with a guiding price of 28.28-419800 yuan. In addition, Kia plans to launch its flagship electric SUV-EV9 in 2024, followed by an entry-level all-electric SUV, a high-end electric car and a medium-sized all-electric SUV from 2025 to 2027, bringing more yuan and superior products to Chinese consumers.

The ideal is very plump, but the reality is still very bony. Although Kia promises not to withdraw from China, it is only a promise after all, and the current sense of existence of the Kia brand in the domestic market is not strong, which is the reason why it has repeatedly heard the news of withdrawing from China. Retail data show that Yueda Kia sold a total of 61681 vehicles in the first three quarters of 2023, ranking 18th among domestic joint venture brands, between Changan Mazda and Changan Ford.

In fact, the decline in sales in recent years is not only for Korean brands, but also for German, Japanese, American and Korean brands. Even Volkswagen and Toyota find it difficult to resist the upward breakthrough of their own brands, and the sales of these brands are still strong. It is also the expansion of discounts in the end market.

For Hyundai Kia, although its performance in the Chinese market is not satisfactory, it is also the world's third-largest auto company by sales, still selling 6.848 million units in 2022. Hyundai Motor Group attributed the sales bottleneck encountered in the Chinese market to the epidemic for three years because of the interruption of information communication, it was unable to better understand the needs of the Chinese market. Now, Hyundai Automobile Group has also noticed that in terms of smart cars, Chinese cars have been in the forefront of the world, and the intelligent competition in China's automobile market has been quite fierce.

At present, the transformation task of Korean cars is arduous, and if this transformation fails, it may face the situation of withdrawing from China. However, compared with some moribund brands, Korean cars still have a certain market foundation, including the supply strength of overseas groups, and there is still a chance to turn around. From the current market changes, Korean brands have gone out of two routes, on the one hand, Hyundai, Kia brand to high-end transformation, like Chinese brands, greatly improve the products, and targeted in the blank market. This is also accompanied by the elimination of old low-end models, and efforts to improve the brand image. On the other hand is the transformation of new energy, including power-generating electric vehicles and hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

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