KIA starts series production of the EV2 urban SUV

The first series-production units of the EV2 urban SUV have begun rolling off the assembly line at the Slovak plant in Žilina. It is the second fully electric model that the South Korean brand produces in Europe, with the EV4 being the first. KIA has announced the news with satisfaction, as it believes that this new model marks a further step forward in its regional electrification strategy.

The EV2 is currently the smallest and most affordable electric SUV in the South Korean manufacturer’s European lineup. Its market launch should allow the company to reach new customer segments that until now have remained out of reach of electric mobility due to price or size considerations.

Belonging to the B-segment, the KIA EV2 made its world debut at the Brussels Motor Show held in January 2026. Reservations for this model have been open in Europe since mid-March. In Germany, the entry-level version equipped with a 42.2 kWh battery pack starts at a price of 26,600 euros and offers a range of up to 317 kilometres under the WLTP homologation cycle. Likewise, the version equipped with the higher-capacity 61 kWh battery pack, which enables it to cover up to 453 km on a single charge, has a base price of 33,490 euros.

Unlike the Hyundai Inster, which is based on a combustion-engined model, the EV2 has been developed from scratch on the dedicated electric platform E-GMP, the same one used by the EV4, although with components and batteries adapted to its smaller size.

The higher versions of the EV2 will arrive this summer

For the time being, production is focused exclusively on the version with the 42.2 kWh battery pack. Production of the versions with the 61 kWh battery pack, as well as the top-of-the-range GT-Line trim, will begin in June. This launch has been made possible by an investment of more than 200 million euros made last year at this Slovak plant, which was inaugurated in 2004. With these modernisation works, including the installation of new state-of-the-art robots and the optimisation of the assembly lines, KIA now has the capacity to produce electric, hybrid and combustion-engined vehicles simultaneously in Žilina.

The Žilina plant accounts for 9.3 per cent of KIA’s global production, and the vehicles that leave there are exported to 73 countries. In 2025, the plant’s output reached nearly 300,000 cars and 470,000 engines.