Preorders for Kia's EV6 in US fully booked in a day

Kia Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, said Thursday presale orders for its first all-electric model, EV6, have been fully reserved in one day in the United States.

Kia sold all of the 1,500 units of the EV6 First Edition in an online preorder event in the world's most important automobile market on Tuesday (US time), the company said in a statement.

The EV6 First Edition is equipped with a 77.4 kilowatt-hour (KWh) battery, an augmented reality head-up display, remote parking assist, 20-inch wheels and premium 14-speaker sound system, it said.

Kia unveiled the EV6 built on Hyundai Motor Group's own EV-only electric-global modular platform (E-GMP) in April and received 21,016 units of preorders on the first day of its launch in South Korea, which set a new record among the automaker's SUV models.

Early demand for the EV6 has already far surpassed Kia's EV6 sales target of 13,000 units for this year on its home turf.

The maker of the K5 sedan and the Sorento SUV aims to sell 17,000 EV6 this year in overseas markets.

The EV6 is priced at 45 million won-55 million won ($40,000 to $48,500) in South Korea. With government subsidies, it can be purchased at below 40 million won.

The model is available with two choices of battery packs -- a standard 58-kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery pack or a long-range 77.4-kWh one. (Yonhap)