The Korean Herald News outlet is reporting that South Koreas second-largest automaker Kia will start production of their full-size EV9 SUV in the first half of 2023 after Kia's labor union (Korean Metal Workers) and Kia management fame to agreement on production, strategy and future employment security.
According to the new source, the Kia EV9 will be produced at the company's Gwangmyeong factory in Gyeonggi Province. The EV9 SUV is expected to officially start taking pre-orders in April. The specifications of the EV9 Concept that Kia has stated has been kept close to the concept are 194 inches long, 122 inch wheelbase, 81 inches wide and 70 inches tall. This has it on the smaller side of the fullsize SUV market but on par with the Ford Explorer.
Comparison of Full Size SUVs provided by carindigo.com.
The Kora Herald is also reporting that this same production site will start producing two more EVs next year in 2024. These will be global EVs filling in the Small Car and Mid-sized car categories. The projects are labeled as "CT" and "SV" with industry watchers predicting this is the EV3 and EV4 as Kia stays with their EV naming scheme.
The agreement with the unions have confirmed that Kia will build a new plant in the province and will be the first new plant since 1997. The new factory will produce only EVs with the addition of the PBV's products at this plant which will be Kia unmanned subcompact cars for delivery and robot taxis.
Kia has previously unveiled its plan to release two new EVs every year expanding their global lineup of EVs to 14 by 2027 as released at last year's 2022 investor's event held in March.
Details of the EV9 at the time of the reveal was as follows:
- Battery Range options of 220 to 290 miles or 354 to 467 kilometers
- RWD versions would have 150 kW output (201 HP)
- AWD versions would have 300kW output (402 HP)
Kia had stated at the time of the reveal that the EV9 would sell for between $56,000 and $73,000 U.S. dollars and that additional specifications would be released just before pre-ordering was opened, so more should be coming in April 2023 about the EV9.
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