Pure-petrol hatch unable to stay on sale past 2030 when only electrified new cars can remain
Kia will be forced to axe its long-standing Picanto supermini in the UK if the rules surrounding the ZEV mandate are not amended, according to the firm’s UK boss.
Under current ZEV guidelines, new combustion vehicles must feature some sort of hybrid element to remain on sale beyond 2030. From 2035 all new UK cars must be fully-electric.
Kia UK CEO Paul Philpott warned that this means the Picanto, which uses a 1.0-litre petrol engine, may have to be phased out in the run up to 2030.
A government review into the mandate will take place next year with the aim of relaxing the rules, but the changes aren’t expected to impact non-electrified cars. Autocar understands that Kia is not planning to add a hybrid element to the Picanto.
“We cannot sell the Picanto as a petrol car beyond the end of 2029,” said Philpott, who added that the brand would need to replace it with something else or “give up as many other brands have done in the small car market space”.
Philpott explained that another reason for axing the Picanto is because sales of the pure-ICE model are hurting mandate compliance. At present, 33% of new cars sales must be fully electric in 2026, however the rules do take into account various flexibilities allowed by the system, including CO2 emissions reduction from hybrid vehicle sales.
So far Kia is on track to achieve this target, but as this will climb to 38% in 2027 and then jump significantly to 80% by 2030, most pure-ICE cars will likely need to be phased out of the line-up. Indeed, Philpott said the brand would need to make some “hard decisions” with its model line-up between 2027 through to 2030 due to the rapid increase in these requirements.
“When you can only sell 20% non-EV, you can’t be selling seven ICE cars, so at various points, you’re going to have to drop some of them and that will be a difficult task to get right,” said Philpott.
“Looking at it now, the number one priority would be to keep the Sportage because it’s a big volume seller for us, but that could take up the remaining 20% of our new car sales, and it’s already 40% today. Does that mean we can only sell the Sportage alongside our EVs, and what happens to all our other cars?”
The Picanto has been on sale for more than 20 years and surpassed 250,000 lifetime sales in 2023. Last year it remained a strong-seller for the brand in the UK, with more than 13,500 cars sold. If it is axed, it would be a huge blow to the car maker.
Rival Honda was forced to make a similar decision earlier this year with the big-selling Jazz, although the Japanese firm is in a worse position than Kia given it currently sells no EVs in the UK after axing the e:Ny1 SUV. A dramatic 65% drop in sales for the Jazz across the first three months suggests the company is having to limit sales of some ICE models to avoid fines inflicted by missing its EV target.
If the Picanto does go, its place in the line-up will likely be absorbed by Kia’s incoming small electric hatchback, which the Korean brand announced last month would land in Europe next year.
The new model will give Kia a competitor in the growing small electric vehicle class which would see it go up against an array of rivals including the Renault 5, Citroen e-C3 and Peugeot e-208. As it will sit below the Kia EV2 in the brand’s electric line-up, it is expected to take the EV1 name.
