Kia’s Ray EV racks up 6,000 pre-orders in Korea, starting at $20,400
Kia launched its new entry-level urban EV on Thursday. As its cheapest electric model, the Kia Ray EV racked up 6,000 pre-orders in Korea with a starting price of around $20,400 (27.35 million won).
As demand for affordable all-electric options continues climbing, Kia is bringing back the Ray EV.
The Ray EV was Kia’s (and Korea’s) first 100% electric production car, introduced in 2011. As a close relative to the gas-powered Ray CUV, the model “marked a new era in Korean motoring.”
However, the mini electric car was discontinued in 2018 amid the nation’s lack of charging infrastructure and the vehicle’s limited range (86 mi / 139 km).
Electrek first heard Kia was planning to revive the Ray EV after an official told the Korean Economic Daily the new model “is the best choice for customers waiting for an entry electric minicar.”
Kia Ray EV pre-orders exceed 2023 target
Pre-orders for the new Ray EV began on August 24, and today, Kia revealed it has gathered over 6,000 interested customers.
Kia says the number already exceeds its target of 4,000 for the entire year by 50%. Powered by a 35.2 kWh LFP battery and improved aerodynamics, the new Ray EV achieves up to 127 miles (205 km) of range. When traveling in the city, the figure bumps up to 144 miles (233 km).
Although it may not seem like a lot compared to new EVs in the US, the Ray EV is designed for city travel. It takes around 40 minutes to charge from 10% to 80% with a 150 kW fast charger.
The Ray EV’s electric motor has a maximum output of 64.3 kW (86 hp) and 147 N m of maximum torque. Again, it may seem tiny in the US, but those numbers are 15% and 55% higher than the ICE version, respectively.
Inside, all seats can be folded flat, creating a spacious open-air environment. A dedicated “utility mode” enables electric devices, like air conditioning and audio, to be used while not driving for extended periods. The feature can be used for work, camping, resting, and more.
The new Kia Ray EV starts at 27.35 million won ($20,400) for the 1-seater variant. Other options include:
| Kia Ray EV trim | Cost | USD |
| 4-seater | Light: 27.75 million won Air: 29.55 million won |
$20,700 $22,000 |
| 2-seater | Light: 27.45 million won Air: 27.95 million won |
$20,500 $20,850 |
| 1-seater | Light: 27.35 million won Air: 27.80 million won |
$20,400 $20,700 |
The launch comes as automakers and startups are releasing cheaper electric models to grab market share.
With around 80% of the auto market in Korea, the Hyundai Motor Group, including Kia and Genesis, looks to protect its share from incoming competitors like cheaper EVs from China.
Nissan’s Sakura electric mini car looks like a “game changer” for the Japanese market, starting at 2,333,100 yen ($16,000). Nissan announced at the end of July that Sakura gathered over 50,000 pre-orders.
Industry sources predict the new Ray EV will help boost South Korea’s minicar segment, forecasting it will be a top-ten best-selling car.
Kia is expanding its lineup with plans to offer an EV in every segment, including the Niro EV, EV6, EV9, EV5, and expected EV4.
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EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
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Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
However, there’s essential context needed here, as we highlighted in our recent ‘Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous‘ article.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
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