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Coming to you from just outside Windsor, Ontario, the automotive capital of Canada.
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Today on the show, we are flashing back to one of our most listened to episodes of the year,
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when we replay a May 16th conversation with Kia Canada Chief Operating Officer,
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He talks with Automotive News Canada publisher Tim Domopoulos about Kia's electrification
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strategy, EV incentives, affordability, and more.
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But first, a look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the week.
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Some Canadian auto suppliers say automakers based in Europe and Asia are looking at shifting
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vehicle assembly to the United States.
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They say that could be good for business, says Martin Rea International Chief Financial
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Officer Peter Cirillis.
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We are starting to see examples of production volumes being reshorred to the U.S.
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as well as inquiries from our customers regarding readiness plans for moving volumes or relocating
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next generation programs.
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Linnemar Executive Chair Linda Hasenfratt says her company is engaged in the same process.
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Says Hasenfratt, we are seeing customers looking at on-showing parts and systems
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they are currently buying from Asia or Europe.
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Both companies say U.S. auto tariffs are the reason for the inquiries, and both
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say they could benefit from higher North American vehicle volumes and higher local content.
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In related tariff news, BMW Canada plans to resume imports of several of its X series models,
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most importantly the top selling X3 and X5, that according to several Canadian dealers.
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Those vehicles are built at the automakers plant near Spartanburg, South Carolina.
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The luxury brand stopped importing those models in the spring after the Canadian
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government implemented 25% tariffs in response to the same ones levied by the U.S.
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Dealers say BMW built up a stockpile of the models in the United States
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and plans to resume limited shipments within the coming weeks, that despite the steep tariffs.
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Two dealers who spoke on the condition of anonymity say inventory for the popular
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X series models has been sold down to nearly zero.
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And finally, Canadian Java giant Tim Hortons will soon be offering a morning jolt of a different kind.
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The ubiquitous coffee shop chain has partnered with Quebec Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure
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Company Flow to install EV fast chargers at 100 restaurants across Canada.
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The first EV fast chargers have already been installed and are open to the public in Regina.
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The pair of companies plans to offer 100 stations, which is roughly 400 charging
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ports across 10 provinces by the end of 2028. And that's a look at some of the top Canadian
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automotive stories of the week. Coming up, a replay of a May 16th conversation between
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Automotive News Canada publisher Tim Domopoulos and he at Canada Chief Operating Officer,
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Eliash Elasham. This is Automotive News Canada and today I want to tell you about
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platform from Keyloop. Welcome back to the Automotive News Canada podcast. I'm your host,
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Greg Lason. We'll now hear that replay of a May 16th conversation between Automotive News
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Canada publisher, Tim Domopoulos, and Kia Canada Chief Operating Officer, Eliash Elashav.
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Hi Eliash, like that many OEMs, Kia has been charting a course for an electric future.
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How has this plan been adjusted and the change in your appetite and government support?
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Well electrification is still on the forefront for us and it's still the focal point of our
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future investment and our future in this country. We know the incentives have obviously helped and
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driven some of the EV adoption. So without these programs we do find it's going to be a
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little bit harder for consumers to get into the EV market and especially for some of the provinces
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that have ambitious EV penetration goals to try to hit their numbers. But frankly we feel
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that the industry is at a transition phase and so we need to have all hands on deck right now.
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So all stakeholders need to be participating to support the movement. OEMs have a role to
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play. We have to invest in R&D. We have to come all with the right product. Government has a role
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to play. They have to get the infrastructure in place and they have to help by providing
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the means to bridge the gap for the pricing in the short term.
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Still I mean it was a big surprise when the government pulled back at least BC and Quebec
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with their EV incentives and then the federal government as well. So what are your thoughts
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on the end of the federal incentives and the recent pullback from BC and Quebec?
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Well we think it doesn't go in line with the expectations that they're putting out there
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for the market. It's a necessary means in the short term. We have to have everyone participating
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to try to get the EVs in the hands of consumers as many EVs as we can. So BC pulling back I think is
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already showing a little bit of pain in their penetration. Quebec has come back with their
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incentive program so that's helping I guess things back in line and I think the federal government
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is going to frankly struggle to hit their numbers if they don't have some sort of support to try to
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help consumers. It's unfortunately it's a necessary evil.
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All right well with the change in EV market demand and the change in the incentive climate
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is there a change in expectations regarding the EV infrastructure investments your
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dealers need to make? So our dealers are in a pretty good place right now. So we do believe
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that EVs are still the future. Our dealers are believers in that as well. So our product portfolio
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is a testament to what's going to happen with EVs. Our future production is heavily geared
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towards new EVs and new segments for EVs. So dealer investment in my opinion is very reasonable
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and scalable the way that we've designed it. So because of that our dealers are already all in.
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90% of our dealer network is already EV certified and have the required charging infrastructure in
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place and the remaining 10% should be done by the end of this year. We even have two dealers
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actually that partnered with us to open EV inspiration centers one in Vancouver and one
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in Quebec City and those have been separate locations dedicated to providing kind of a
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EV education for the public in a non-sales environment where consumers can be comfortable
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to just talk about EVs and the impact of EVs on their lives. All right now you mentioned product
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before EV 3 won World Car of the Year the World Car of the Year award that is and are presumably
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affordable cars like the EV 3 the key to rekindling broader interest in EVs in this country
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and beyond. Yeah I think that's that's a fair assessment I mean EVs have not been affordable
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in the last few years that they've been out and that's you know partly due to economies of scale
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and some of the precious metals required to build the batteries but the price points have
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been a bit of a barrier and the government incentives have helped offset some of that
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cost. We talked about that earlier so that helps bridge the gap and get people into the EV
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market but frankly the EVs are not running at the same price range that some of the more affordable
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ICE engine vehicles are so we think that EV 3 will be a great example of a product that's already
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being recognized around the global markets that's going to come to Canada in the next year or so
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that'll give accessibility price points for EV buyers and for vehicle buyers in general so
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that they can consider EV as an option not as an alternative at a higher price but as an
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even keel option and just go for the better technology that makes more sense for them.
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All right let's talk a little bit about sales. How is the year shaping up overall? We saw
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declines in sportage and big gains in Sorento so what's happening over there regarding sales?
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So it's been a wonky start to the year but it's been actually it's been changing quite a bit in
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the last couple of months so initially we had a little bit lower inventory in sportage and more
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in Sorento and that helped drive that Sorento sales up but in the last 30 days we had our
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best sales month ever in the history of KCA in April and we recorded almost 10,000 sales
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which is a 28% increase year over year and leading the way was sportage so that's coming
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back around and the sales numbers are shooting back up. Sorento was the second best selling model
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last month and then K4 was actually the third so that puts us in a very good place for the year
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we're up almost 5% and hitting on all cylinders. All right let's talk about contingency planning
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for Kia Canada regarding the tariffs so what is Kia Canada doing to address tariffs here in Canada
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on US vehicle imports? Well I think Kia is in a relatively good position overall for the situation
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that we're in. Over 80% of our production occurs outside of the United States so that doesn't
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get impacted by the tariffs. We have three models that come out of the US market and they're
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currently I guess not being imported because we have enough inventory on ground we had
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quite a bit come in earlier this year so we're still in good shape. Those car lines are
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Telluride, Sorento and EV6 and so we have the inventory on ground none of that inventory has
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been hit with the tariffs so we're still in good shape to have an effective pricing
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but at this point it's probably too early to tell what we would do next it's going to depend on
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how long the situation continues and what other surprises we get in the coming weeks.
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Okay so do you think overall pricing will rise in account of these tariffs for
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for vehicles that you have an inventory and even vehicles that are on the way what's
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going to happen with pricing? I think vehicles that we have an inventory are protected and
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they're safe. We're still monitoring to see what would happen for vehicles that come out of the
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US specifically. As I mentioned most of our product is not coming from there so we'll have to
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it's a bit of a wait and see position at this point that we also have some potential
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to move some production even for those models out of the US and into Korea so we would consider all
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our options before making any decision. I know we've seen some OEMs already start to incur some
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pricing for some of the tariffs that are coming that are affecting their inventory that's coming
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from the US so I think it's going to be different by OEM and it's going to be a little bit of
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wait and see for us. Okay now looking ahead what excites you the most about Canada's journey over
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the next year or two and you know whether it's new models or dealer initiatives or innovations
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that Canadian drivers can that can look forward to? We have a lot of exciting things coming
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actually the next one or two years is actually 12 to 18 months even it's super exciting for us
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we have three all-new EV models that we're launching in Canada including Canada unique
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model that Yuna has spoken about before the EV5. We have the PV5 the first
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purpose-built vehicle for us that's also coming next year and we have some complete
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redesigns for some of our ICE and hybrid models that are also coming in the next
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6 to 12 months so there's a lot of new product coming for the Canadian market for the Canadian
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consumer and it's each time this product comes out sleeps and bounds ahead of the last generation
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so we're super excited for that frankly we're going to have a hard time trying to
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be able to keep up with all the product launches but on top of that there's lots of
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other technology that's coming that we're more excited about our connected car services
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is going to be coming out with an updated app and some more features and technologies that are
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going to be added to that that's going to really make consumer life much more integrated with their
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vehicle and much more convenient overall. Lots of fun lots of exciting stuff happy customers happy
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dealers. Absolutely. Alice really thank you so much for your time appreciate appreciate it
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always good talking to you. Same here Tim hope to see you around some more. I'd like to thank
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Eliosh for his time and Tim for conducting the interview if you'd like to be a guest
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have a suggestion or simply want to comment email me at glasen at autonews.com and remember
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you can listen to all our previous podcasts on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play or on our website
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automotivenews.ca just scroll to the podcast hub in the middle of the home page and don't
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forget you can follow Automotive News Canada on X where we're at Auto News Canada and you
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can find me there too under at glasen a n c finally look for us on LinkedIn just search
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Automotive News Canada that does it for this episode of the Automotive News Canada podcast
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have a happy Labor Day weekend we hope you'll join us next time so long everybody
