Kia's modular PV5: one EV platform designed to become many different vehicles

Kia is expanding its Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) lineup with the PV7, whose world premiere is set for IAA Transportation in Hannover. Against that backdrop, the PV5 serves as the point of reference for the strategy. It is Kia's first dedicated PBV, and automotive journalist Jack Scarlett—who spent time with it in Seoul and the UK—describes its defining trait as modularity. The design is meant to turn one platform into many vehicles, not to make an existing van adaptable afterward.

Scarlett reaches back to the early days of motoring for an analogy. Wealthy customers would buy an engine and rolling chassis and commission a coachbuilder to craft the body, so a standard mechanical package could offer more doors, more luggage space or greater opulence. He sees the same principle in the PV5, now available to everyone. “Kia is able to offer a level of automotive tailoring far beyond that,” he says, “except this time, it's not just for the rich and famous.”

The PV5's flexibility starts with its structure. Unlike an electric van based on a combustion-engine architecture, it is built on Kia's PBV-dedicated E-GMP.S platform. A low floor eases entry and exit, efficient packaging creates more usable interior space relative to the vehicle's footprint, and the low battery position improves dynamic performance. Scarlett also highlights the low beltline and visibility, summing up the experience as “It might look like a van, but it drives like a car.”

Scarlett's impressions have since been backed by external validation. A jury of 26 commercial-vehicle journalists unanimously picked the PV5 as the 2026 International Van of the Year, making it the first Korean vehicle and the first electric van from Asia to win; the judging considered innovation, operational efficiency, safety and environmental performance. A PV5 Cargo also earned a Guinness World Records title by covering 693.38 km on one charge while carrying its maximum payload of 665 kg, on German roads that mixed urban, extra-urban and elevation changes.

The PV7, arriving at IAA Transportation in Hannover, Germany, on September 14, 2026, shows how that thinking extends. Where the PV5 was Kia's first dedicated expression of the PBV concept, the PV7 carries it into a broader vehicle family. The ambition, in Scarlett's words, is “much more than a line-up of electric vans” — adaptable, connected vehicles for future transport systems.