Cox Automotive is a company that helps car sellers with software and data. They help dealers figure out pricing and manage inventory so cars get sold faster.
A hybrid uses a gas engine and an electric motor together. It can save fuel and reduce emissions, and you don’t have to plug it in like an all-electric car.
The electrification spectrum means there are different levels of electric help in cars. Some are hybrids, and some are fully electric—Kia wants to offer choices for all of them.
The Kia EV6 is one of Kia’s current all-electric cars. Bringing up EV6 shows Kia already has EV experience and is expanding it with new models like the EV3.
West Point, Georgia is where Kia has expanded EV production capacity. Local manufacturing can reduce logistics costs, support faster scaling, and improve supply reliability for new EV models.
They’re talking about making EVs easier to start with. A cheaper EV can get more people to try electric cars, and then they might buy a bigger or more expensive one later.
They’re describing the EV3 as the easiest EV in their lineup to afford. It’s meant to attract buyers who might not be able to pay for the more expensive EVs.
They’re talking about government incentives that can lower the price of an EV at purchase time. If that help goes away, the car’s sticker price matters even more to buyers.
The speaker uses “consideration list” in a marketing funnel sense: moving a vehicle into the set of models a buyer actively compares. Lower price and SUV practicality help shift EV3 from “interesting” to “actually on the shortlist.”
The discussion highlights that EV3 is an SUV, which matters because many buyers prefer the packaging, seating position, and perceived versatility of SUVs. The speaker frames EV3 as filling a gap for SUV shoppers who want an EV option.
This is a demand/penetration snapshot: the share of new-car sales that are electric has fallen from about 10% to 4%. That context supports the argument that affordability and incentives are critical for sustaining EV growth.
A ride-and-drive is an automotive marketing event where potential customers can test-drive vehicles, often with staff and structured routes. It’s commonly used for EVs because hands-on experience helps people understand charging, acceleration feel, and everyday usability.
This means using online ads and social media to show the message to the people most likely to want the car. Instead of advertising to everyone, they focus on the right group.
They’re saying the hybrid version is getting an updated power system. Hybrids use both a gas engine and an electric motor, and the update is meant to make it better and more appealing.
A hybrid car uses gas and electricity together. In this discussion, Kia is offering hybrids in several SUV models so more people can choose what fits their budget and driving needs.
The Kia Telluride is Kia’s larger SUV, usually with three rows of seats. The speaker says a smaller model can still feel like it “belongs” in the Telluride family, but without needing three rows.
A multi-powertrain strategy means the company sells cars with different kinds of powertrains, like gas and hybrid. The idea is to reach more buyers as tastes and fuel prices change.
Fragmented data means the dealership’s information is scattered in different places and not connected. That makes it harder to know what’s working, which can hurt ordering and pricing decisions.
Managing inventory “as a system” means using an integrated approach—data, tools, pricing, sourcing, and forecasting—rather than treating each decision as a one-off. The speaker contrasts this with fragmented, reactive decision-making.
Demand signals are clues that people want to buy certain cars. Dealers and automakers use those clues to decide which vehicles to have and how to price them.
Front recovery tow hooks are strong pull points on the front of the car. They’re meant for getting the vehicle out of trouble (like mud or snow) using a recovery strap.
Ground clearance is how much space there is between the bottom of the car and the ground. More clearance can help when driving on rough roads or trails.
HEV means hybrid electric vehicle. It uses gas plus an electric system, and you usually don’t have to plug it in to charge the battery.
Concept
used EVs that are coming with a lot of the off-lease vehicles
When leases end, the cars go back to the company and often get sold as used cars. That can make EVs easier to buy for people who were waiting for a better price.
It means a first step that helps people try something new. Here, used EVs could be the first EV purchase for someone who hasn’t tried one before.
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Hey, this is daily drive executive producer Jake Nier in Detroit.
Thanks so much for joining me for this bonus episode of the show.
At the New York International Auto Show earlier this month, Kia confirmed two major product
announcements, the EV3 Compact Electric SUV is coming to the U.S. and the redesigned Celtos
will offer a hybrid powertrain for the first time.
Our own Lindsey Van Holy spoke with Russell Wager, Kia's vice president of marketing,
about these announcements, the brand's multi-power train strategy, and what rising gas prices
mean for EV and hybrid demand.
Today we're bringing you that conversation with Wager, who explains how Kia is giving
customers more choices across the electrification spectrum.
Russell Wager, welcome to daily drive.
Thank you very much for having me.
So today Kia showed the EV3 confirmed for the U.S. and it's available elsewhere but
it's coming here.
Talk about that vehicle and just what that's going to mean for the brand and having an
EV at that price point.
Yeah, so it shows to everybody that we are committed to the electric market.
We've already got EV6, we got EV9, we brought that manufacturing to West Point, Georgia.
So that's a commitment.
We've got the Nero EV and this now brings another space that we hadn't had an EV in
and making it more attainable.
So we see it as an entry point for people that want to get into the EVs and maybe eventually
move up and throughout through others.
So it's a great opportunity for us.
I know the pricing is not announced yet but the announcement said that it's going to
be the most attainable electric model in the lineup.
Talk about that I guess and the importance of that, especially now without the tax credit
that has helped offset some of that purchase price up front.
Is that affordability, that entry price point, is that even more important now for some buyers
than it was maybe even six months ago?
I think so, but at the same time, our EV6 is at the 40,000 range, our EV9 is at the
higher 4950,000 and this ideally will be coming in under the 40,000 range.
So it gives a whole other set.
It's another cliff that somebody doesn't have to go over.
So now they can put it on the consideration list of like, hey, I was thinking about it
but I can't find something that I want.
It's an SUV so it gives people that want an SUV but now they have the option on the EV side.
It helps complete the choice that people have in our lineup.
And do you see it then?
Is there enough space I guess out there in the market where it's still small enough in that
segment where coming in with the EV3 might give you a good share of the market or a competitive
differentiation from the others that are out there?
So definitely we wouldn't bring it here if we didn't think it was going to help.
It's doing well in other parts of the globe where it's on sale, so that's encouraging.
And the market used to be 10% electric, right?
Now it's down to 4%.
We don't think it's going to stay at 4% forever.
We don't think it's tomorrow going to go up to 10%, but just recently global events have
made people's interest in EVs spike again, right?
So we see it growing and we're just going to give another choice for somebody that
hasn't maybe thought about EVs in a while and now is.
They're probably thinking about each EVs, but now they have this other option and
yeah, I think it's a little bit of a white space. There's not too many offerings in it.
Are you working on any kind of specific promotional campaigns for it or how you want to
introduce it to the US market here?
Yeah, so this one again is a very specific audience, right?
Not everyone's considering EVs, so I don't need to put it on a Super Bowl spot.
I don't need to put it in NBA Finals.
I got to be a little bit more targeted, so our promotional efforts will be,
A, getting people to experience it.
So we try to do a ride and drive so people can experience EVs,
because there's still a lot of people that haven't, don't understand it.
So that's one.
And then the second one is we'll do a lot of digital and social targeting efforts
so that we can talk to the right people that might be the best buyer for it.
It's more the experiential piece, getting people actually in behind the wheel and to try it out.
So the other big reveal today was the North American debut of the redesigned Celtos.
Also at the entry level, just on the internal combustion side,
what do you think about that vehicle and kind of where it sits and how important that's going
to be to have that right there at the entry crossover spot in your lineup?
So the really good thing we're excited about is we also brought a new powertrain in the hybrid,
right? So now it's in a gas and a hybrid. So again, choices.
And it completes our SUV lineup that now if somebody's looking for a hybrid,
they have Celtos, Sportage, Sorento, Telluride, all of them have a hybrid option,
all of them have a gas option.
And people's minds change as to how much they want to pay a little bit of a premium for a hybrid,
of course. But now with gas prices averaging over $4 a gallon nationwide,
more people are considering that, just like more people are considering EVs.
And it's got a great design that somebody that might want to Telluride but doesn't need three
rows, this car looks like it belongs with Telluride, just a smaller version.
So we heard a lot about that in our clinics that they thought it was a mini Telluride.
Oh, really? And so now having that hybrid option then makes that maybe brings in people
who would be looking for that that otherwise might not have been as interested in it.
And now it has one, maybe it gets them to take a look.
I think it does. It opens up to another audience in the segment, in addition to the gas audience.
And we sold a little over 50,000, 50,000, 60,000 of them last year.
With the next powertrain, we're looking to grow. Not going to talk about a specific number,
but looking to grow. And I think it's going to help us do that.
Running a dealership today isn't just about finding the right cars.
It's about finding the right cars consistently, efficiently and at the right price,
while the market keeps shifting around you. Inventory management has become more complex.
Vehicles come from more sources, margins are tighter and every buying decision carries more
risk than it used to. Yet too often, inventory decisions are still made with fragmented data,
disconnected tools and limited visibility into what's actually working.
The most successful dealerships are approaching inventory differently.
They're managing it as a system, not a series of one-off decisions.
They're looking at market data, demand signals, pricing and acquisition opportunities together,
so every move is more informed and more intentional.
When inventory is managed end to end, teams spend less time reacting and more time acting.
They can see what's selling, what's stalling and where the next opportunity is coming from.
That clarity helps reduce aging, improve turn and protect profitability.
The right vehicles are out there. The difference is having a smarter,
more connected way to find them, price them and move them.
Learn how dealerships are rethinking inventory management with V-Auto
and what a more confident, data-driven approach can do for your business.
We talk about why the agency is investigating the 2024 BlueCruise crashes,
including what's different about regulating hands-free level 2
and how camera-based driver monitoring was inadequate in these cases.
I'm Molly Boygon. Join me on SHIFT, available this Sunday, wherever you get your podcasts.
You talked about the Tell Your Eye 2. The hybrid of that is being introduced right at the time
that hybrid interest generally is just growing. Talk about that, I guess, in kind of how
you're thinking about that, how you're positioning and how you're going to go
to market with that one too. Are there any kinds of promotional messages and campaigns that you want
to get out there in that regard? Tell Your Eye, first of all, the X-Pro version gas is doing great
and we made it even more capable and gave it front recovery tow hooks and 9.1 ground clearance.
That's great. In the hybrid, usually when you're talking about a hybrid,
you have a trade-off. Most of the time are going for a hybrid because they want
fuel economy and range. In order to get that, usually you lose power.
This Tell Your Eye hybrid gets the best of both worlds. It has more than 70 horsepower
than our outgoing V6 on our previous generation. It gets up to 35 miles per gallon,
so there's no sacrificing in this one. It can do what you want SUVs to do. Maybe you're not going to
take you to the campsites, take you long journeys, and I think consumers have been looking for that
for our Tell Your Eye. It might be the one area that we hadn't tapped yet, even though it was
great demand for the previous generation. Once again, now choices.
The idea of customer choices and the multi-power train strategy, does that help you when you go
to market with customers? Is it that you're giving them options, that there's almost like a bridge
now to electrification? You have your gas engines, your hybrids. There's been talk of EREV technology,
full electric. Does that change how you go to market with customers or the messages that you
send them, or how you think about promoting that lineup across that spectrum? I think the
keyword you use right there is the lineup. We are not just offering one electric vehicle or
one hybrid. We have a full lineup of them now. Besides the SUVs I talked about in the HEV,
we've got the Carnival hybrid as well. We've got the Nero hybrid. We've got a full lineup.
I think that when people see that you have that many choices, it's like, wait a second.
If they're offering that many options, maybe I should consider this.
As before, people are very comfortable in gas, and there it is. Then there's the early adopters
go into EV, and now you're no longer an early adopter. You're part of the mainstream.
Whether it's a hybrid or an EV, there's a lot of them out there. There's a lot of proven
stories that they're good products, and there should be nothing to be feared about.
I think this is going to help grow our hybrid mix as a percentage of our overall sales.
When you're talking about that multi-power train strategy and really getting customers
across that lineup, I'm thinking too about just the used EVs that are coming with a lot of the
off-lease vehicles that are going to be returning to the market. Do you see an opportunity there as
a brand to help as another entry point for customers? Do you expect a lot of them to
come back first of all this year? Do you see it as a way to get consumers who haven't tried an EV
before into one? A lot of the brands, including us, leased a lot of our EVs. It helped with the
tax credit elements, getting more people to have that. Yes, when they come back, I'm going to look
at it in our discussions as it's another trim. I talked about our EV9 being at the high 40s,
50s starting, our EV6 at 40, this car ideally coming in under 40, and now we have used EVs
that maybe they're in the 20s. It's another way of getting people into the electrified space.
They get to also see one of their concerns, battery degradation. People are always like,
what happens? I got an iPhone after two years, the battery is not... But our products have the
10-year, 100,000 mile warranty, including on the battery. We take that one away and now all of a
sudden you just have a less expensive option. It's one to two years new. I think it'll bring
more people into the market. It's an interesting mix and scenario because obviously that is an
entry point for people. They're gently used, probably haven't been driven that far, maybe a
couple of years old. But then it seems like it could also potentially put pressure on the new EVs
if you have the same model, maybe a few years newer. How do you find the right balance between
selling a new one and selling a used version, maybe one or two years, maybe three years at most
old? One helps the other. Right now, let's take Telluride, the outgoing Telluride model.
It's got an extremely high residual value. Even a two-year old one, so to speak,
retained its value. It's not dragging down the new price of the 2027 that just came out. It's
actually helped propping it up. We see that in a lot of our models. For now, it's working in our
favor. You'd think that that would continue. That way the new EV price or the ability to
sell the new EV is not as challenged. The only challenge that happens is if somebody got the
$7,500 tax credit, they don't get it now. There's that difference. Us and other OEMs have to make
up a portion of that. We're trying to make it so there's not that much of a gap on the old versus
new just because of that. It has nothing to do really with the residual value of elements.
Government's not giving $7,500 anymore. Kia Vice President of Marketing, Russell Wager,
spoke with our own Lindsay Van Holley at the New York International Auto Show.
Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of Daily Drive. We'll be back on Monday with a brand
new full episode of the show.
About this episode
Kia marketing VP Russell Wager breaks down the brand’s multi-powertrain push, spotlighting the upcoming U.S. EV3 compact electric SUV and the redesigned 2025 Kia Seltos adding a hybrid for the first time. With EV adoption down to about 4% globally and U.S. gas averaging over $4, Wager argues affordability and “choice across the electrification spectrum” matter more than ever. He also discusses targeted EV3 launch tactics, hybrid positioning, and how certified used EVs from off-lease returns can serve as a lower-cost entry point—while managing the new-vs-used pricing gap after tax credits.
Russell Wager, Kia’s vice president of marketing, discusses the brand’s newly announced EV3 compact electric SUV coming to the U.S., the redesigned Seltos with hybrid powertrain and how Kia’s multi-powertrain strategy is helping the brand navigate changing consumer preferences.
