Kia has just unveiled its newest car platform at CES 2024, the ‘Platform Beyond Vehicle’ (PBV), which the company says goes ‘beyond mobility’. That’s a fun tagline for the future of your cars, but I’m looking at these things and all I can see are Minecraft cubes.
That’s a little harsh, let me pull back a little – these are fun. What you’re looking at in the above image are, from left to right, the Concept PV1, two Concept PV5s, and the Concept PV7 – not to be confused with the EV6 and EV9, which currently make up Kia’s main line of EVs. Kia claims that the PBVs work in tandem with a multi-phase plan, developed in partnership with Hyundai. Part of that includes, as you may have guessed, autonomous driving, but also a more refined focus on software integration with cars, and how business and lifestyles use their vehicles flexibly.
Not to be a nag, too, but car companies love to carry on about the future of mobility – Hyundai certainly enjoyed it at CES 2022. where it went in with a metaverse angle. What that future often looks like in such concepts are big cars in big areas, and small cars in small areas, and this demo is no different – I can, however, get behind an electric kei car.
“Kia’s PBV business represents our vision of going beyond the traditional concept of automobiles by fulfilling the unmet needs of diverse customers and communities through optimized vehicles and services catering to specific market and business circumstances,” said Kia president and CEO Ho Sung Song.
Take the PV1 – the smallest vehicle Kia showcased in its CES presentation, and my new car-shaped best friend. This thing is designed for short-distance drives with “driving modules to minimize turning radius even in narrow spaces,” according to Kia.
In the above image, the PV1 is put beside the PV7 – the largest vehicle shown in the lineup, and one likely to be developed if Kia goes down the electrified van route. It’s shown with this ‘PBV modularity’ system, using integrated rails so that products can be quickly inserted, transported, and removed.
But, coming back down to Earth, Kia said that the pioneering model in the PV family will be the PV5, which the company plans to introduce as a hailing, delivery, and utility vehicle. It looks a little like a Mitsubishi Delica, and were it not for the existence of the Kia EV9, I’d say Kia’s flirting with an electrified version of the Kia Carnival here. It’s easily the most realistic car Kia has shown off here and the company may actually be onto something here, at least for fleet or business customers looking to decarbonise.
Here it is ‘in service’ as an autonomous vehicle.
Anyway, will these cars actually ever get made? Probably not, or at least not in these forms. These are concept cars after all, and Kia is still doing quite well with its ‘EV’ subtitled cars with electric-specific platforms. The brand will likely produce the Kia EV3 and EV4 next up, which are tipped to be more affordable electric options than the EV6. I love the aesthetics that Kia has been using with these cars, too – very cyberpunk.
I wouldn’t want to be cleaning the interior on the PV5, though.
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