Kia is joining the electric car game, at least in Korea. Kia will build 2500 of the all-electric Ray EV for the Korean government. As of now, there aren’t any plans to sell the Ray EV to the public. My guess would be that this is a test run to get their feet wet. Using the government as a guinea pig is a much safer bet than using the general public.
The Ray is a small boxy type vehicle – similar to the Soul or Nissan Cube. Here are some quick specs:
- 86 mile driving range
- 16.4 kWh lithium-ion battery pack
- 50 kW electric motor
- 0-62 MPH in 15.9 seconds1
- 123 lb-ft of torque
- Fast charge in 25 minutes
Nothing ground breaking here. As planned, the Ray would not work in the United States. However, I see now reason why it couldn’t work elsewhere, giving Kia some experience with electric vehicles. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that Kia learns quickly.
Kia Ray EV Gallery
- In the United States, we consider this dangerously slow. In the rest of the world, they consider it slightly pokey but perfectly livable. ↩
