SEOUL, April 9 (Reuters) – South Korean automaker Kia Corp plans to boost its investment plan over the next four years by 30% to boost vehicle electrification, software and other new businesses, according to an investor presentation on Thursday.
The company plans to raise its investments to 41.4 trillion won ($27.95 billion) from 2026 to 2029, it said.
The presentation also showed Kia cut its 2030 target for electric vehicle sales by about 20% to 1 million units, reflecting weaker demand and the scrapping of EV subsidies in the U.S. last year.
Shares in the automaker slid, trading down 4.2% after earlier having risen as much as 2.5%.
Kia also said it plans to introduce a test version of its so-called software-defined vehicles by the end of 2027, which would mark a one-year delay. Hyundai Motor Group had touted the SDVs, which allow vehicles to improve features and functions constantly similar to Tesla vehicles.
Kia also said it plans to launch a model equipped with semi-automated driving technology for both highways and urban driving environments in early 2029, followed by a fully autonomous robo-taxi model in 2030.
Kia joined sister firm Hyundai Motor in unveiling plans to deploy Atlas humanoid robots developed by Boston Dynamics. It will use them at a factory in the U.S. state of Georgia from 2029.
Hyundai plans to use the robots at a new plant in Savannah, Georgia, from 2028 and has said it aims to build a factory capable of manufacturing 30,000 robots annually by that time.
($1 = 1,481.1000 won)
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christian Schmollinger)
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