Kia confirms EV1 for 2027

Kia just confirmed it will launch a new electric city car in 2027, and the model is widely expected to wear the EV1 name as the smallest car in Kia’s electric lineup. The confirmation came at Kia’s April 9, 2026 investor day in Seoul, not at a flashy auto show. (kia.com) (autoexpress.co.uk) This is a Europe-first move because tiny battery cars make the most sense where streets are narrow, parking is tight, and buyers already shop for small hatchbacks like the Renault Twingo and Renault 5. Auto Express reported Kia’s target is the low-cost city-car class, and Car says Kia described it as its first electric hatchback in the European small-car segment. (autoexpress.co.uk) (carmagazine.co.uk) Kia’s problem is the same one every carmaker has in cheap electric cars: batteries are expensive, so the smallest cars have the least room to hide that cost. That is why the rumored price point around £20,000 matters, because it puts the EV1 near the part of the market where a city car can still be a mass-market purchase instead of a niche gadget. (evpowered.co.uk) (autoexpress.co.uk) Kia already has an electric ladder, and the EV1 would sit below the EV2 concept shown at Kia EV Day in Spain in February 2025. That gives Kia a staircase from very small urban cars upward, instead of asking first-time electric buyers to jump straight into bigger and pricier models. (worldwide.kia.com) (hyundaimotorgroup.com) The same April 9 plan shows Kia is not betting on one region to solve everything. Kia said it wants 746,000 annual sales in Europe, 1.02 million in the United States, and 1.48 million in emerging markets by 2030, which helps explain why a tiny European hatchback is being announced alongside American factory upgrades. (kiamedia.com) (kia.com) On the United States side, the company’s message was factory speed and automation, not micro-cars. Kia said Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot will begin deployment at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in 2028 and then expand to Kia AutoLand Georgia in 2029. (kiamedia.com) (htwo.hyundai.com) That Georgia footprint is already large. Kia’s West Point plant covers 2,200 acres, represents $3.2 billion in investment, and currently builds the Telluride, Sorento, Sportage, EV6, and EV9 at a rate of 350,000 vehicles a year. (kiageorgia.com) The wider Hyundai Motor Group push in the United States is even bigger than Kia alone. In March 2025, the group announced a $21 billion U.S. investment plan for 2025 through 2028, and its Georgia metaplant opened with capacity for up to 500,000 electric and hybrid vehicles annually for Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. (kiamedia.com) (htwo.hyundai.com) So the 2027 EV1 is not a side note. It is one half of a split strategy in which Europe gets a small electric car built for crowded cities, while the United States gets more capacity, more localized production, and more automation to build larger-volume vehicles more efficiently. (kia.com) (kiageorgia.com) Kia’s own targets show how much pressure sits behind both moves. The company now says it wants 14 electric models and 1 million annual electric-vehicle sales by 2030, up from 11 electric models today, so it needs cheaper entry cars at one end and faster factories at the other. (kiamedia.com) (kia.com)