Kia is Bringing a New Kind of PBV to the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show
Kicking off the auto shows every year is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Okay, not officially an auto show, more focused on consumer electric products, but automobiles are also consumer products, so automakers tend to show up every year anyway. For the 2024 year, the Kia Corp will be coming to the CES with a new concept to talk about. PBV used to be the acronym for purpose-built vehicles, and Kia even opened a new facility called “E-FOREST” to jump-start the production of such vehicles, like the Niro Plus. For 2024, Kia is redefining PBV as a “Platform Beyond Vehicle”, and we’re really interested to see what they mean by that.
Part of a new business strategy, PBVs were once the second part of a two-way path for the Kia Plan S Strategy. We’re not sure if the new meaning for PBV will be a part of Plan S, but it seems the new business vision will bring with it new Kia PBV concept models and technologies during the 2024 CES. Called the “EVs for All”, many of the battery-electric vehicles (BEV) has shown us this year will also be on display, including the EV6 GT, EV9, Concept EV3, and Concept EV4 –what happened to the EV5? We really liked that one. Maybe the PR forgot about it. According to Kia, the new PBV is focused on making purpose-built BEVs with advanced software solutions. It sounds like the same thing.
With most of the heavy lifting done under the guise of the Hyundai Motor Group (HMG), the parent group of Kia, the Kia Corp hasn’t returned to the CES as a standalone automaker for several years, but this time, it has a lot to talk about. A series of keynote speakers will be there to expand on the brand’s future business strategies for the new PBV, including some technology already teased. These include Easy Swap and Dynamic Hybrid modularization technologies that could make it easier for consumers to swap out old batteries for new ones and the breakdown of BEVs into independent parts to do virtually the same – make it easier to replace old parts with new ones. Didn’t Google have the idea to do that with mobile phones, but eventually scrapped the idea? Some automakers think it will only hurt sales in the long run if consumers can just buy a new replacement part instead of a new car, but perhaps Kia is more consumer-focused these days.
In terms of the new PBVs, a total of five concept models will be on display, including the first PBV for mass production in 2025. If anyone remembers Niro Plus, it was the first robotaxi from the automaker, but was reserved for South Korean taxi drivers. The other Niro Plus designed for personal and commercial surfaced in April 2022 and then never again. Perhaps this new PBV for 2025 is what we’ve been waiting for. We’re just curious what a “Platform Beyond Vehicle” would look like in terms of mass production for consumer retail.
We’ll know more when the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show takes off, starting January 9, 2024. Follow along with us on Miami Lakes Automall social media.