Kia Australia rejected first EV5s on quality grounds

Kia Australia has revealed it drew “a line in the sand” and rejected early examples of the Chinese-produced EV5 electric SUV on quality grounds to ensure suppliers understood the quality standards expected by the local operation.

That’s the latest word from CEO Damien Meredith who told carsales he now “very” confident the new EV5 is over the technical issues that delayed its local launch by four months.

“What you have to do is draw a line in the sand very, very early in regards to quality, in regards to supply and in regards to timeliness,” he said.

The EV5 was originally due to launch in Australia in June, but only days beforehand a delay was announced citing wheel imbalances and software issues.

The delayed release finally took place last week with 2024 Kia EV5 Air and Earth variants now in dealerships ahead of the flagship GT-Line’s arrival in December.

At the postponed media launch, it was clarified the two concerns were a vibration caused by a wheel imbalance and unsatisfactory tuning of the electric-assist MPDS power steering system.

The EV5 is built at Kia’s Yangcheng facility in China and Kia Australia is the first export market for both the new plant and the EV5.

Sourcing the new model from China and fitting it a BYD-sourced LFP battery pack helped cut the local asking price down below the market-leading Tesla Model Y.

Meredith, an industry veteran, made it clear retuning the EV5 was not a unique issue for Kia Australia or the wider motor industry.

“When you move from a country of origin factory to another factory there are always problems,” he said.

“Doesn’t matter if it was (Hyundai) i20 in India, short wheelbase (Kia) Sportage out of Slovakia … dare I say it, (Volkswagen) Golf out of South Africa.

“You have got to draw a line very, very early.

“So you have to make sure that they are well aware of what your requirements are.

“Sometimes it becomes messy and political and you jump on peoples’ toes that you probably shouldn’t and that might bite you back down the track.

“But you’ve got to do it. It’s the right thing to do.”

While the EV5 will also be built at Gwangju in Korea, Meredith was clear the plan was to stick with the Chinese supply chain.

“We are committed to the relationship,” he said.

Making it harder to shift plants, the Korean-built EV5 will use a more expensive NMC battery pack and is based on the Hyundai Group’s dedicated e-GMP architecture, while the Chinese versions use a different N3 eK platform designed around its LFP battery pack.

Meredith said the EV5’s return to sale only came once its issues were rectified, despite the financial pain it was causing to delay it.

“We were under pressure to launch because of commercial realities, getting cars to market, getting revenue in, making sure the dealers have got enough vehicles to hit their profitability targets and their volume targets,” he said.

“But we made the decision to delay to get the car right for market. I can assure you that was the right decision to make.

“And if we had to make that decision with TK (Tasman) to delay it, we’d delay it a month or two months to make it right for market. We’d do that with every car.”

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