In this transition era for the automotive industry, barely a week passes without a manufacturer wheeling out a bold new electric machine with a flashy presentation that claims it brings tomorrow’s technology to today’s roads and will transform the fortunes of the firm that made it.
But those presentations don’t normally include extended sections on load-bed access, Euro-pallet capacity and bumper repairability.
Except they do when your transformative vision of future motoring is a van-although that perhaps undersells the significance of the new Kia PV5. The firm labels it a Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV), and it’s the first in a range of highly customisable bespoke electric models intended to disrupt the commercial vehicle market and help continue Kia’s remarkable growth.
Think of the impact of the brand’s bespoke EV line-up, but for vans. This isn’t strictly Kia’s first foray into commercial vehicles: the Bongo cab-over pick-up has been sold in Korea and other markets since 1981 and spawned the Pregio van and MPV.
But this is an entirely fresh business model, and one designed for volume: Kia is aiming to reach sales of 250,000 PBVs annually by 2030. “This is the next chapter of the Kia story,” says Sangdae Kim, head of the firm’s PBV division. “This is how we move forward as a leading EV brand.”
Kim – known as SD, which he quips stands for “Smart Device, just like our PBVs” – has been building the new division for around four years. He says Kia identified the commercial vehicle market as one with “room for meaningful innovation” through the development of a line of electric vans, adding: “Our PBVs are designed to adapt to people, not force people to adapt to it.”
The electric van market is small but growing fast, particularly because many businesses are being pushed to switch to zero-emission models for their own environmental goals. But most electric vans on the market are either conversions of combustion vans (think the Ford E-Transit or the many Stellantis models), while the Volkswagen ID Buzz uses a lightly modified version of the VW Group’s MEB platform.
For its PBVs Kia has developed a specially tailored version of the Hyundai Motor Group’s bespoke EV platform, named E-GMP.S (Electric Global Modular Platform for Service), which the firm says gives much more flexibility to create a range of modular and customisable machines. It’s a front-driven platform, and the PV5 features a variety of battery sizes – giving a range of up to 258 miles and 4.4 cubic metres of load capacity.
The 4.7-metre-long PV5 is the first of those, with Kim describing it as “our way into the LCV market”. It will be followed by the PV7, which will be around 5.2 metres, based on a concept vehicle, and the PV9. Those two will arrive in 2027 and 2029 respectively.