Inside Kia

Kia’s latest electric-vehicle strategy doesn’t rely on groundbreaking tech or some Silicon Valley-esque software promise. Instead, it’s all about the oldest trick in the book: build a ton of cars and reap the rewards.

Welcome back to Critical Materials, your daily roundup for all things electric and tech in the automotive space. Also on deck: Tesla’s lawyers get their day in court to argue for CEO Elon Musk’s gigantic pay package, and Waymo crosses the Atlantic. Let’s jump in.

30%: Kia’s Plans To Make Cheap EVs Profitable Through Volume

Photo by: Kia

According to a new report from Automotive News Europe, Kia is planning to crank out a combined 200,000 units of its upcoming EV2 and EV4 models—100,000 of each—annually, beginning in 2027. The idea is to make its EVs both affordable and profitable, and that last part is something that Kia takes very seriously when it comes to lower-priced cars.

Automotive News shares the details:

Kia plans to increase its battery-electric vehicle production in Europe nearly threefold within the next two years, the automaker’s top executive said.

“The average annual production of the upcoming EV2 is expected to reach around 100,000 units at the Zilina plant in Slovakia in 2027,” Kia President and CEO Ho Sung Song told Automotive News Europe on Oct. 1.

He added that Kia plans to scale up EV4 production at the Zilina factory to more than 80,000 vehicles a year by 2027. “With additional output from Korea, the EV4’s combined global production is expected to reach approximately 100,000 units,” he said.

Kia is expected to begin production of the EV2 early next year. The tiny EV is poised to be the brand’s cheapest electric car yet, expected to slot in its lineup at around $35,000. In order to get it that cheap and also not lose money, the brand’s only option is to built it at volume.

Song said that by producing 100,000 units of both the EV2 and EV4, Kia would achieve “a high enough volume for suppliers and […] make the models profitable.”

2026 Kia EV4

Photo by: Kia

Kia began production of the EV4 in Slovakia back in August. While production is ramping up, the automaker is working to complete a $126 million investment in the plant, which will also support the production of the EV2. Together, the projected volume of both models could make up just over half of the plant’s “expanded” capacity of 350,000 vehicles per year. Approximately 20,000 units of the EV4 fastbacks will continue to be built in South Korea.

Of course, volume cuts both ways. Building 200,000 EVs a year only works if people are actually buying them, and with Chinese rivals aplenty, Kia will need to work hard to fight off some of its most capable competitors. Still, if any brand can pull it off, it’s Kia.

60%: Tesla Asks Delaware Courts To Pretty Please Approve Musk’s Pay Package

Photo by: Patrick George

Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick struck down Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package last year, calling it “unfathomable.” She deemed it unfair to the shareholders, claiming that they didn’t have “key information” when it was overwhelmingly approved by their votes in 2018. Musk’s share in the company at that time was 21.9%.

Tesla’s lawyers have been on the attack since the decision, petitioning the courts to reverse the ruling. That fight has now escalated to the state’s Supreme Court, which has now heard arguments about why it should overturn the ruling and restore Musk’s original pay package. Reuters explains how Tesla’s lawyers are presenting the case:

“This was the most informed stockholder vote in Delaware history,” Jeffrey Wall, an attorney for Tesla, told the justices. “Reaffirming that would resolve this case.”

[…] Tesla argued in Dover, Delaware, that the five justices on Delaware’s high court had three avenues to reverse the lower court ruling. They could find that Musk, who owned 21.9% of Tesla stock in 2018, did not control the board pay negotiations and that shareholders were fully informed when they voted to approve it that year.

They could determine that rescinding the pay was an improper remedy because it did not undo the work that Musk had done or the gains that shareholders had received.

Or they could determine last year’s ratification vote demonstrated that shareholders wanted to accept the pay deal, despite the legal flaws.
 
“Shareholders in 2024 knew exactly what they were voting for,” Wall said.

If the court fails to overturn the decision, Tesla has a backup plan that will still earn the CEO tens of billions of dollars, according to Reuters. If the pay isn’t restored, Tesla announced in August that it plans to hand Musk over a new package worth around $29 billion as a good-faith effort to retain his interest in the company.

Greg Varallo, the attorney for investor Richard Tornetta—the shareholder who originally sued Tesla over Musk’s pay package—warns that “lawsuits would be interminable” if the courts failed to uphold the decision. The biggest potential ramification of a reversal would be setting precedent that a decision made by the Chancery Court can be reversed by shareholder vote.

“There is nothing extraordinary about this trial opinion,” said Varallo. “What makes it truly extraordinary is that it addresses the largest pay package in human history, awarded to the richest man on earth, who is also one of the most powerful men on earth.”

90%: Waymo Heads To London In 2026

Photo by: Waymo

Good news for anybody who thought London traffic couldn’t generate more existential dread: the robotaxis are coming. More specifically, Waymo has its passport and is planning to set up shop in the United Kingdom next year, bringing its driverless cars to the land of high tea and double-decker buses.

Waymo confirmed its plans to go abroad on Wednesday, noting that the first step to launching in a new area is by performing the same ol’ song and dance it always does: mapping and validating. This is so the company can learn London’s “unique street layouts and driving conditions”—meaning that Waymo will use that data to train its Driver platform on how to operate safely and co-habitate the streets with other cars and vulnerable road users.

Over the next few weeks, it will begin deploying its existing fleet of left-hand-drive Jaguar I-Paces (with an actual safety driver behind the wheel) to collect data in the area 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This will allow Waymo to be prepared to roll out its commercial automated ride-hailing service by the Spring when the UK government officially flips the switch.

Waymo says that it’s working with fleet manager Moove on the backend to get things up and running. Historically, Moove has served as Waymo’s partner to “manage and dispatch” its fleet when launching in Phoenix and is set to do the same in both Miami and London. A similar partnership exists between Waymo and Uber today. Waymo handles autonomous operations and roadside support, while Uber operates and maintains the fleet of cars while also serving up rides on its app.

“We’re thrilled to bring the reliability, safety and magic of Waymo to Londoners,” said Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana in a statement. “Waymo is making roads safer and transportation more accessible where we operate. We’ve demonstrated how to responsibly scale fully autonomous ride-hailing, and we can’t wait to expand the benefits of our technology to the United Kingdom. ”

Eventually, the company will offer paid rides, but there’s no word on just how far away that might be or the size of its fleet. In fact, Waymo isn’t even saying when it can remove the human driver from its vehicles, or when those occupants will even turn off manual driving mode. A lot of those what-ifs depend on local regulations. Waymo still needs to secure permitting and permissions from the UK government, though it seems confident that won’t be an issue given its safety record.

100%: Is The Future Made Of PHEVs Or EREVs?

Photo by: Scout Motors

As America is expected to hit the slowdown button on EVs for a bit, there’s been a lot of hubbub from automakers about extended-range EVs recently.

Unlike plug-in or mild hybrids, which use a combustion powertrain to turn the drive wheels, EREVs use a combustion engine in a totally different way—more like gas-powered generators stuffed under the hood since they’re mechanically decoupled from the drivetrain (but still used to charge the EV’s battery). It almost makes traditional hybrids feel a bit antiquated in comparison.

Most recently, Stellantis decided it was buying in on the trend by introducing the Jeep Grand Wagoneer EREV. There’s also the upcoming Scout lineup and a number of other automakers investing in the tech globally.

All that said, do you see the industry looking more favorably on traditional hybrids or EREVs in the long term? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.