Officials from Kia's dealerships around the world pose for a photo during the 2023 Kia Global Distributors Convention at the YES24 Live Hall in Seoul, Oct. 10. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group

Kia invited global dealers to Korea for the first time in five years to share business strategies, including the expansion of its electric vehicle (EV) business, the carmaker said, Friday.

Kia said it hosted 390 people from 140 countries, including regional headquarters, subsidiaries in each country and chiefs of dealers to the Global Distributors Convention, which ran for four days from Oct. 10.

The event is the first to be held since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the company's name change from Kia Motors to Kia and corporate identity refresh in 2021, the company said.

On the first day of the convention, Kia CEO Song Ho-sung told participants, “we need to transform our entire business structure to achieve sustainable growth.”

Kia CEO Song Ho-sung speaks during a meeting with officials from the carmaker's global dealerships in Seoul, Oct. 10. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group

“First, we need to expand our business scope, second, we need to become a company that takes on environmental and social responsibility and third, we need to become a customer-centric brand,” the CEO said.

In particular, Song emphasized the company will become a company that provides optimized mobility solutions such as purpose-based vehicles, ride-sharing cars and ride-hailing cars.

Executives shared with dealership owners the company's mid- to long-term EV acceleration strategy, which aims to sell 4.3 million vehicles globally by 2030, including 1.6 million EVs.

To that end, Kia plans to convert its Autoland Gwangmyeong plant 2 to an EV-only production facility and increase the number of EV models produced at its Autoland Hwaseong plant for international markets.

In addition, the company also shared detailed business strategies such as strengthening the global supply chain, software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and design philosophy. Participants joined Kia's EV Day event that introduced new EV models such as the EV4 and the EV5.

In terms of becoming a more eco-friendly corporation, Kia told participants that it will strengthen its EV lineup and implement various campaigns to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. The company added that it will proactively respond to climate change through the Ocean Cleanup project to collect and recycle ocean-bound plastics and the Blue Carbon project to restore domestic tidal flats in collaboration with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.