Kia will not produce the EV4 in the USA
The product planner responsible at Kia confirmed to the US portal exactly what is already known about the EV4’s production locations: the sedan will only be built in South Korea, while the hatchback variant with a focus on the European market will roll off the production line at the Slovakian plant in Zilina. “For now, we are planning to introduce only the sedan for North America,” she added.
This means that importing a car from South Korea to the USA will be subject to the additional 25 per cent tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. As the EV4 was designed as a rather inexpensive model (and does not have the 800-volt technology of the EV6, for example), the US car tariffs could make it more difficult to price the vehicle competitively in the USA. In the US sedan market, the Kia EV4 would be competing with the Tesla Model 3, for example, which is built in the US and therefore does not have to consider auto tariffs. What’s more, as an imported vehicle, the EV4 would not qualify for the US tax credit of 7,500 dollars anyway, although this subsidy is in serious jeopardy under the Trump administration.
However, Kia has not yet confirmed how much the EV4 will cost in the USA. It is therefore still unclear whether Kia will pass on the tariffs directly to customers, or is prepared to forego part of the margin for an attractive price, or even accept losses. In Donald Trump’s unpredictable tariff policy, it is not clear whether the car tariffs or other import tariffs for certain countries, raw materials or components will apply in the long term at this level, whether they are a kind of negotiating tactic or what an agreement might look like.
Kia and its parent company, Hyundai Motor Group, have several plants in the USA that also produce electric cars, even on the basis of the E-GMP platform, which is also used by the EV4. The large EV9, for example, is built at the West Point plant in Georgia. Nevertheless, the South Korean company decided not to manufacture the EV4 in the USA. The company’s product planner has currently only confirmed this, but has not given a reason. InsideEVs speculates that Kia wants to save “precious U.S. manufacturing resources for the profitable, larger SUVs.”
Kia first unveiled the design of the EV4 in February and then presented the production model a few days later at the Kia EV Day. Like the EV3, the EV4 utilises the 400-volt version of the all-electric E-GMP platform. There are two battery versions: The standard range model has 58.3 kWh installed in the underbody, while the long range model has 81.4 kWh. Hyundai-Kia only provides gross figures, so the net energy content is not usually communicated. In the EV4 Long Range, 630 kilometres according to WLTP should be possible; Kia states 430 kilometres for the Standard Range model. Regardless of the battery, the EV4 has the familiar 150 kW electric motor mounted on the front axle. The EV4 has been on sale in South Korea since mid-March, with prices there starting from the equivalent of around 26,500 euros.
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