By David Shepardson and Kalea Hall
NEW YORK, April 1 (Reuters) - Kia said Wednesday it will begin selling a lower-priced electric vehicle in the United States later this year as automakers work to recharge EV sales.
The Korean automaker said at the New York Auto Show it will offer the EV3 in the U.S. market starting later this year. Automakers are facing a tougher EV market in the United States after Congress repealed the $7,500 EV tax credit last year but higher gasoline prices in recent weeks prompted
new interest in the EVs.
"The market is going to come back for EVs -- maybe not as quickly as we all would have liked," said Russell Wager, vice president of marketing at Kia America. "We're committed to it."
Kia said the US EV market could return to where it was in the next three or four years.
David Christ, general manager of the Toyota Division at Toyota Motor North America, noted the Japanese automaker is introducing three EVs in the U.S. this year, and said higher fuel prices will give EVs a boost but unclear how much.
"I don't think they're going to get a boost back to the incentivized government money levels, but it'll be higher than it would have been without the gas price shock," Christ said.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing General Motors, Ford, Toyota Motor, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Stellantis and other major automakers, said EV sales were 9.6% of all U.S. sales in 2025 but fell to 6.5% in the last three months - the lowest since early 2022 - after the $7,500 EV tax credit expired on Sept. 30.
EVs are now 2.5% of total light-duty vehicles in operation in the United States. EV sales were 10.2% of all vehicles in 2024.
President Donald Trump has taken a series of steps to disincentivize EV purchases and production and make it easier to produce gas-powered models.
(Reporting by Kalea Hall and David Shepardson)
