Kia’s glow-up – from cheap alternative to desirable innovator

Kia had to take on Europe at its best and match or beat it. In 2007, the Cee’d was born, a Golf competitor literally named for the Community of Europe, with European Design. It arguably started a journey of transformation for the marque; one that feels like it’s come to a head in 2023 with Kia’s rebrand and the introduction of the EV9, a halo model that’s an all-electric semi-luxury family SUV.

It’s the furthest ‘upwards’ Kia has yet dared push, designed to take on BMW, Mercedes, Volvo and Tesla. As above however, it’s taken hard work, investment and commitment to the cause, to get to this point, where it can be genuinely confident that the market will respond positively to a Kia-badged SUV with prices starting from £60,000.

Along the way, we saw industry-shaking warranty offerings, swanky design, sports saloons, and disruptive innovation and a general portfolio shakeup that has put Kia into a position of power, reverence and confidence within the market that few could have foreseen two decades ago. At the heart of its evolution? Compelling and bold design, absolutely but crucially also, genuine engineering ambition and quality products: substance to back up the style. It's no secret too that unprecedented change within the car industry itself, with electrification and more, has given the marque opportunities to capitalise.

At the Kia Brand Summit and EV9 European debut in Frankfurt, we caught up with a character central to this journey, David Labrosse, Kia’s head of product planning. He gave us an invaluable insight into what the journey from that original Cee’d, to the new EV9 has entailed and how Kia will come full circle in the electric age.

“EV9 is a statement certainly,” he opens. 

“What drives us is that we are a challenger and we are motivated. We were motivated by the market, by customer expectations but also by us. We had ambition. We wanted to be better.

“For us, it was clear, if we continued how we were, it was not going to work. We were not going to appeal to Europe, because of the driving expectation. Our new cars needed better materials and more European driving attributes.

“We started this journey I would say 18 years ago, when we launched the Cee’d. It’s the first car I introduced, dedicated to the European market, built in Europe, with a multi-link rear axle.

“With the Cee’d we wanted to drive better than a Focus and be more comfortable than a Golf and offer more – at the time, I think 2005, we were so excited to uniquely bring bluetooth and USB connectivity in the segment. 

“With Sportage, we knew we had to reinvent the design. We knew if we wanted to make it in challenging markets, we have to look great, innovate and stand up.

“So once we were getting there we then introduced the Seven-year warranty, to say we are confident in the quality of our products and to say ‘come join us’.

"GT is a huge part of the story, of pulling Kia up"

“Then over the years, we introduced great diesel engines, we developed our style and we also introduced the GT performance line with the Cee’d and of course the wonderful Stinger that’s sadly no longer around.”

While we didn’t touch too heavily on the Stinger, what was perhaps a crucial car in the evolution of the brand’s perception needs a note. It was an absolute manifestation of that desire to create stylish, dynamic, disruptive and desirable cars – a flagship through and through. As evidenced by its departure, not the flagship Kia needs in 2023 but it was a guide for where the EV6 GT needed to go.

“We love driving cars and are super excited by GT,” Labrosse says, having lamented the loss of the Stinger.

“We have EV6 GT now of course, so we will continue to expand on the GT line-up as much as we can, halo models, to pull the GT Line design. This is a huge part of the story of pulling Kia out of the mass to give it a certain character and underline our desire for driving excitement. The journey to the EV6 GT began as we pushed into electrification.”

"We pushed to innovate, to make our products the best they could be"

“First we offered the Soul and then, the Niro, with a hybrid, plug-in and full-EV option. A rational, good efficient product but even though it didn’t excite the press, it gained market share. 

"A great car, but still we wanted to be better and offer more, so we worked on a dedicated platform, 800 volts to increase performance and efficiency and also charge faster, and rear-drive for better dynamics and traction. In E-GMP we also introduced silicone carbide in the inverters and we were the only platform to use that with 800 volts. Not even the famous German sportscar maker did this. This is how we have the EV6 GT.

“For EV9, we have been working strongly on our navigation to have a better routing system that's constantly connected. It means we can optimise the charging strategy, based on your journey, your speed, how busy it is. This is to solve the challenge of long journeys in EVs. Also, Plug and Charge [Kia's new automatic charging and payment system] means you can easily plug in, get charging and pay automatically.

"Everything we can do to help, to make the EV journey easier, is better. You want a peaceful, easy life, same with the key. Let’s have the key on your phone – one device for your communication, house key, car key. Simplify your life.

“We’ve pushed to innovate, to make our products the best they could be. The same in the design. We wanted our customers to be excited and delighted and surprised and attracted to our cars.”

"We’re very excited to offer lower-end electric models"

The EV6 and now the EV9 ride on a highly innovative platform and powertrain, using cutting-edge engineering and high-quality sustainable materials. The EV9 is future-proofed with over-the-air updates, twin-Lidar-powered autonomous capability and comes chock full of interesting solutions and ‘outside-the-box’ thinking. 

In short, it really is a statement and probably the best example yet of this journey of ambition in design and innovation, condensed on four wheels. So what about on the other end of the scale, where Kia made its mark initially? Certainly, Labrosse is cognisant that while Kia has taken a leap in quality, innovation and design, it is not inherently premium. Fundamentally, it still needs to offer cars for the people. The biggest challenge yet will be getting that premium-powered vibe to trickle down and answer the likes of the VW ID.2 and Renault 5.

“I am not 100 per cent convinced we have always been pushing for premium,” he says.

“Kia is not a premium brand. We’re super excited to offer the EV9 but this is the halo car, not the heart of Kia. The heart of Kia is still in the normal customer world. By 2035, piston engines are forbidden, worst case.

“We’re gonna go down but, to be clear, it won’t be on the E-GMP platform. We’re gonna try to downsize our technology, bring silicone carbide further down. We need to cascade this technology downwards. We’re very excited to offer these lower-end electrical models. It is also as much about building infrastructure, to support customers, so they don’t need the biggest batteries, the most expensive EVs.

“Batteries are getting better and cheaper – we have to work but we are excited. In the industry, there are thousands of engineers, billions of investment, new processes, new battery types – what’s coming in the next ten, 15 years, is impossible to imagine.”