Kia’s large electric sports utility vehicle (SUV), the EV9, is having a surprise year-end sales promotion with nearly 30 percent off. Normally the margin rate of electric vehicles is within 10 percent, but this massive sales discount has made the price of a new EV9 lower than that of a secondhand EV9.
Since Dec. 4, some EV9 models have been sold at prices as low as the mid-50 million won range, according to industry sources on Dec. 7. On Kia’s website, the base price of the EV9 (6-seater Air Trim 2WD) was 77.28 million won (US$59,116), and some models were discounted by 22 million won, resulting in actual prices at the 55 million won range. The EV9 (Earth Trim 4WD) model, which has a higher base price of 85.98 million won, was marked down by up to 26 million won after receiving various benefits such as inventory discounts and electric vehicle subsidies. Thus the price dipped to the early 60 million won range.
The EV9 was launched with the title of Korea’s first large electric SUV. Its high price of up to 100 million won, when including various options and some quality controversies that arose after its release, limited the actual number of EV9s sold to only 3,685 units until last September. Compared to pre-order sales, this is a paltry figure. In September, Kia jumped into the price war, offering a 30 percent discount to employees (including close relatives) to clear out the stock of EV9s.
This struck EV9 buyers as a betrayal, as they had paid full prices and even pre-ordered the model because of a high price beyond the subsidized price range. Moreover, if a large number of cheap EV9s are released to the market in a year or two, it will inevitably affect the price of used EV9s in the future and such EV9 buyers have strongly complained about it.
In fact, EVs with this inventory discount are selling more cheaply than used EV9 cars. Currently, used EV9 prices on a used car trade platform are in the 70 million won range for the 2WD Earth model.