Kia electrifies the K-Series truck.

Unless you are active in the local commercial vehicle sector, you probably don’t know that Kia trades a fair bit of bakkie volume in South Africa.

The Korean brand’s K-Series is marketed as a light-commercial vehicle and there are two locally variants, the K2700 and K2500.

Designed as a cab-forward mini-truck with optimal loadability without requiring a special driver’s licence, the K-Series is a popular workhorse. And now there is a battery-powered version.

As the proliferation of electrification continues in 2020, Kia has surprised many with its latest battery-powered vehicle.

Instead of providing an all-electric passenger car, they’ve electrified the K-Series. Although this design is hardly new (the current K-Series debuted back in 2005), it has great potential as a short-range logistics vehicle.

The K-Series EV is has a 58.8 kWh battery pack, which provides enough energy density to power an electric motor which produces a very potent 135 kW. Packaging for the battery pack is interesting asyou can see it has been placed where the traditional long-range fuel tanks would be on a truck, below the front section of the loadbed.

Kia’s unusual EV min-truck also features a rather decent cabin specification, with a touchscreen infotainment system and the brand’s latest passenger vehicle steering wheel design, featuring only two spokes with an array of satellite controls on each.

Initial distribution fo the Kia K-Series EV will be limited to Korea, but with 211 km of range and decent performance from its 135 kW electric motor, this could be a great inner-city workhorse for the South African market too.

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