Kia’s new Carnival RV rides on growing popularity of hybrid cars

Kia Corp., South Korea’s second-largest automaker, is riding on the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles as pure electric vehicle uptakes slow due to charging inconveniences amid weak infrastructure.

When Kia unveiled a revamped version of the Carnival, its flagship large recreational vehicle, on Wednesday, it introduced a turbo hybrid powertrain to its Carnival lineup for the first time to lure consumers to its hybrid models.

Industry data showed preorders for the Carnival hybrid reached 34,360 units on Wednesday, the first day the company took orders.

With that figure, the hybrid Carnival model recorded the second-highest preorders among Korean vehicles after Hyundai Motor Co.’s IONIQ 6, which won 37,446 units on its first day of preorders last year.

The Carnival hybrid model accounted for 93% of the total new Carnival preorder volume of 36,984 units. Preorders for the gasoline and diesel models stood at 1,052 units and 1,572 units, respectively.

“The consumer interest in hybrid models is rising as they offer better fuel efficiency than internal combustion engine vehicles and charge less frequently than battery EVs,” said an industry official. “Consumer preference for hybrid cars over pure EVs will likely continue for a considerable period.”

DECLINING APPEAL OF EVs

According to a tally by CarIsYou Data Research Institute, new hybrid car registrations in the first 10 months of this year reached 249,854 units, up 43.5% from the year-earlier period.

Over the same period, EV registrations fell 4.4% to 130,356 units from 139,218.

New EV registrations have been falling since May.

Industry watchers expect hybrid car sales in the domestic market to surpass sales of diesel models for the first time this year on an annual basis.

Sales of diesel-powered cars in the January-October period fell 24% year on year to 115,350 units.

Consumers have to wait for at least 12 months before they receive a new Hyundai hybrid Avante compact sedan, four times longer than Avante gasoline cars, which take three months.

The waiting times for the Hyundai Santa Fe hybrid and the Kia Sorento hybrid are 10 months and 12 months, respectively. The waiting time for pure electric models such as the Hyundai IONIQ 6, Electrified G70 and G80 Genesis cars and the Kia EV6 is around four weeks.

With the declining EV appeal, prices of secondhand electric cars are also falling.

The price of Hyundai’s latest electric sedan IONIQ 6 fell 4.9% to 38.4 million won in the first seven days of this month.

Write to Nan-Sae Bin at binthere@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.