The updated 2025 Kia Carnival car and the 2025 Kia K5 sedan were shown off by Kia last week. Kia has always been committed to customers who choose cars and minivans over SUVs, and their efforts are paying off as buyers become interested in these vehicles again. The Kia K5 has been improved for the 2025 model year so that it can be used as a midsize sedan until an all-electric form comes out. At this year’s Chicago Auto Show, though, executives said those plans might go differently than planned. Over the past year, the K5’s market share grew in the United States. Orth Hedrick, executive head of car product management at Kia America, says that the company is getting younger customers who grew up with SUVs and want something different. “No one wants to buy what their parents had,” he stated. They have never had a car before. For 2025, Kia moved toward the sportiness and performance of the K5, making the design a bit bold and keeping the GT with a 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that makes 311 lb-ft of torque and 290 horsepower when it goes on sale this spring. The Kia K5 is going out of business Does this mean this is the last K5? Russell Wager, vice president of marketing for Kia America, said that the company had set a goal for how long it would last, but now planners are still determining. In the future, most automakers, including Kia, will switch to making only electric cars. This means that cars with internal combustion engines will become less common. Due to lower-than-expected demand, many makers have changed their product plans and release dates. This is happening even though EVs are still growing in popularity and government requirements haven’t changed. As Wager says, the future is still being determined, which means that the K5’s durability is less certain. Another big problem is that even though Seoul is the center of world politics, sedans are still common in many Asian towns. They are currently made in Korea Kia will still sell the K5 for now, but the new car will be made in Korea. This will make room at the Kia Sorento SUV plant in West Point, Georgia. Also, the Kia EV9 three-row electric SUV, which will come out later this year, needs to make room at this building. Even though it’s getting smaller, the Kia Forte small car will still be available in North America and fight in the biggest market segment in the world. It still needs to be clarified if the next generation will be called K4 or not. As of right now, though, the future car has been shown to clients in clinics through photos, 3D models, and real examples. Wager would say something other than how well the new car was received. He did say, though, that because of how much people want reasonably priced cars right now, he would rather have it on sale tomorrow if that were possible. Does Kia Rio show up again? If cars and fuel-efficient models are becoming more popular, could the subcompact Kia Rio make a comeback? It was one of the last affordable small cars that was dropped last year. Not likely. The Rio and the bigger Kia Forte, which sold 11k cars last year, were both made in the same factory. Kia could indeed have sold every Rio it made, but choices have to be made because of limited room. This one was easy: it makes more financial sense to use the Forte, which is bigger and costs more. The Forte also did well as a starting point for recent college graduates and other first-time car buyers who planned to move up to a Kia in the future. On the other hand, Wager says that Rio customers often moved brands instead of moving up in the Kia lineup because they were looking at used cars from other brands next to Rio. The gap left by the Rio is filled by Kia’s pre-owned program, which sells used cars with guarantees. The Kia EV4 is an electric car The Kia EV4 electric midsize car will be sold in the next few years. An idea for this next-generation, cheap EV was shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show last year. There was talk on the show floor that it might be made as early as 2025. Wager told us that Kia usually only shows concepts for things it plans to make in answer to our question. He would not say when it would be offered in the United States, though.
