Kia 'continues to study' potential for EV1 city car

Kia will "continue to study" opportunities in the city car market, its European marketing chief has told Autocar, suggesting that an EV1 could join the petrol Picanto.

The Korean firm's president and CEO, Ho Sung Song, confirmed to Autocar last year that "homework" for a sub-€25,000 (£22,000) electric city car was ongoing.

That new model is tipped to arrive before the end of the decade and would rival the likes of the forthcoming Renault Twingo and Volkswagen ID 1.

Kia has just unveiled the EV2 crossover at the Brussels motor show, a model that will be sold only in Europe, due to its small size – and the same would probably be true of the EV1. 

The pair would play a key role in helping Kia to meet its ambitious planned sales growth in Europe.

Asked at the unveiling of the EV2 about plans for an EV1, European marketing boss David Hibbert said: "The whole industry is looking at how they make EVs more accessible. Of course we're doing that as well. We will continue to look at where the opportunities are and, obviously, it's called EV2 for a reason."

Hibbert added that the EV2 was designed largely with an urban focus but its near-300-mile range means it "can go beyond just being a city car".

He added: "Longer-term, we continue to study the A-segment. [The] Picanto is still an important model for us, and we continue to have a very important [sales] volume from that."

Notably, the EU is currently developing a new 'E-car' category for affordable small EVs made in the region. That could benefit both the EV2, which is built in Slovakia, and any future EV1.

Alex Papapetropolous, Kia Europe’s planning boss, said that the firm was "looking very closely at what the EU was doing."

Further details on the E-cars regulations are tipped to be released later this month, but Papapetropolous said: "I'm not worried, because we have in our product plan the toolkit that allows us to adjust and adapt to whatever is going to be announced."