- Motability Operations and Kia signal MOU to reinforce accessible mobility and advance electrification of Wheelchair Accessible Autos
- Kia PV5 and its WAV variant can be launched within the UK below the Motability Scheme in first half of 2026, adopted by the launch of PV5 WAV later within the 12 months
- Strategic partnership to spice up Kia PBV’s high quality, marketability, and manufacturing effectivity enhancing the flexibility to transform automobiles for wheelchair entry
- The events will discover good charging options and power administration applied sciences, together with Car-to-House and Car-to-Grid methods
Kia Company (Kia) and Motability Operations Restricted, the corporate which runs the Motability Scheme within the UK, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), reaffirming their mutual dedication in the direction of electrification and enhancing private mobility by look after the surroundings.
The important thing goal of this collaboration is to deliver to market an inexpensive, totally electrical, side-entry Wheelchair Accessible Car (WAV), whereas advancing inclusive mobility by Kia’s Platform Past Car (PBV) lineup to satisfy the accessibility and electrification wants of all people.
The WAV can be designed, constructed and bought by Kia, and based mostly on its PBV structure. Motability Operations will help the event course of by offering buyer insights into the UK WAV market. The partnership goals to make sure disabled people who want WAVs may have extra inexpensive choices to select from, whether or not automobiles are in-built plant or transformed by specialists.
Kia’s first PBV mannequin, the PV5, can be launched as a passenger automobile within the UK market below the Motability Scheme, with domestically transformed WAV variants out there in first half of 2026. The PV5 WAV is predicted to enter the market in late 2026.
By this strategic collaboration, Kia goals to reinforce the standard and marketability of its PBV lineup, starting with PV5 and lengthening to future fashions resembling PV7, and potential WAVs produced immediately at Kia’s manufacturing amenities.
“There isn’t a higher demonstration of the dedication in the direction of Kia’s imaginative and prescient of ‘Sustainable Mobility Options Supplier’ than the progressive independence that the PV5 WAV presents to these dealing with mobility challenges,” stated President Ho Sung Tune. “The signing of this MOU with Motability Operations reinforces our dedication to main a future the place ‘Mobility for All’ is each sustainable and a fundamental human proper.”
“The eVITA idea was constructed to create a dialog about inclusive design. This new MoU with Kia reveals that imaginative and prescient is changing into a actuality, with manufacturing unit and conversion eWAVs which might be constructed with accessibility in thoughts from the start.,” stated Andrew Miller, CEO of Motability Operations.
“By sharing our buyer and WAV market perception with Kia’s design groups, we’re taking the subsequent step towards making a purpose-built electrical WAV. This collaboration helps our long-term objectives and helps us take the subsequent step in making a purpose-built electrical WAV to guard disabled individuals’s mobility by the EV transition.”
Past the automobile itself, Kia and Motability Operations are exploring good charging options that permit prospects to routinely cost when tariffs are lowest, serving to scale back working prices which is able to profit all drivers. The partnership may even take a look at how applied sciences resembling Car-to-House (V2H) and Car-to-Grid (V2G) can additional scale back complete value of possession and help the broader sustainability transition.
Kia’s PV5 WAV is designed to offer freedom of motion not just for wheelchair customers, however their households, caregivers and drivers as effectively. The automobile will allow customers to get pleasure from extra handy, snug and accessible journey whereas seamlessly transitioning to electrical mobility. A side-entry system permits simple curb-side entry to reinforce security and comfort. It can additionally function a quick-use, 300kg-rated wheelchair entry ramp and a specifically developed wheelchair belt fastening system, whereas a third-row tip-up seat permits caregivers to help wheelchair passengers from the facet.
The PV5 WAV side-entry variant can be manufactured solely at Kia’s Hwaseong EVO Plant in Korea, utilizing the corporate’s Made-In-Plant system. Your entire manufacturing course of has been designed to be ecologically sustainable and additional scale back obstacles of entry for individuals who want an accessible automobile. Past {hardware} improvements, the PV5 WAV may even combine mandatory functions for disabled individuals based mostly on the AAOS open software program platform.
This settlement builds on Motability Operations’ growth of the eVITA idea eWAV, which was created to interact automobile producers about alternatives for accessible design because the trade shifts to electrical.
Kia is the primary producer to make use of a few of these insights to introduce a completely electrical ‘made-in-plant’ Wheelchair Accessible Car to the market, step one in integrating wheelchair accessibility within the EV period.
