Kia Niro EV Concept gives CES hints of 2025's 16 EV plan

Kia is laying out its electric vehicle plans at CES 2018 and it's not playing it safe, with a total of 16 EVs expected to be on the market by 2025. The automaker says its green line-up will consist of a mixture of different electrified powertrains, from entirely battery-electric through hybrids and even a fuel-cell car. It'll go hand in hand with the automaker's plans for connected and autonomous cars, too.

"By 2025, we will offer a total of 16 advanced powertrain vehicles, with five new hybrids and plug-in hybrids, five new battery EVs, and an all-new mass market FCEV," Dr. Woong-chul Yang, Vice Chairman and Head of the Kia R&D Center, said in Las Vegas today. "Due to launch in 2020, this FCEV will spearhead Kia's efforts to realize a zero-emission future for mobility."

The first signs of that push for EVs is the Kia Niro EV Concept, making its debut at CES today. A compact SUV that's fully electric, it's been designed with aerodynamic slipperiness in mind, though also serves as a test bed for some of Kia's other technologies in progress.

For instance, since the traditional grille is no longer required for cooling the engine, Kia's designers have replaced it with an interactive display panel. The lights have been shrunk down, courtesy of new ultra-slim lamps. While the existing production Kia Niro has donated some of its styling language to the concept car's profile, the rear is more streamlined for making sure airflow can cleanly pass across it.

A new Active Pedestrian Warning System (APWS) builds on the now-de-rigeur combination of front-facing cameras by throwing in object recognition software and speakers mounted at the front of the Niro EV Concept. If the system spots a pedestrian or cyclist, it can fire off an alarm sound targeted specifically at that person. The interactive display panel which replaced the grille, meanwhile, can be used to flash up messages.

Inside, there's a new wraparound design to the dashboard, finished in silver, grey, and bronze. It features a new HMI, with touch and gesture controls for the HVAC system and a touch-sensitive steering wheel. Swiping along different areas of the wheel can control volume, track skipping, and HVAC settings. A digital display shows speed, powertrain, and other trip information.

Kia also envisages face and voice recognition being used in preference to a traditional key. Powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), it can track who is approaching and getting into the house, and then selectively control which aspects of control are available to them. For example, the Niro EV Concept could theoretically limit its maximum power if it recognized a teen driver behind the wheel.

That power is a 150 kW electric motor, running off a 64 kWh lithium-polymer battery pack. Kia expects that to be sufficient for around 238 miles of range. Along the way you'll have 5G for streaming, and a Separate Sound Control System which has eight speakers in the headrests and noise-cancellation to allow different music to be played out loud in the front and back of the SUV. Kia says it could also use the system to boost passenger comfort in future production cars.

Before that, meanwhile, there'll be an expansion of Kia's WiBLE car sharing service. That's been running in South Korea since last year, but later this year will be expanded to new regions too. Kia says it'll start that process in Europe, offering one-way trips rather than demanding the car be returned to the same starting point.