Automaker Kia plans to focus heavily on robots and automation as part of its new five-year plan.
The brand, part of the Hyundai Motor Group, held its 2026 Investor Day in the South Korean capital of Seoul last week, at which CEO Song Ho-Sung said: “EVs, HEVs [hybrids], autonomous driving and robotics will serve as key drivers for Kia’s fastest growth to date.”
Among a number of takeaways from Ho-Sung’s presentation were details of specific deployments of robots made by Boston Dynamics, the U.S. company owned by Kia’s parent company Hyundai Motor Group.
Kia confirmed that Atlas — Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot that was showcased at CES earlier this year — will start operations in factories in two years.
Boston Dynamics plans to deploy Atlas at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, near Savannah, in 2028, with a phased extension to Kia AutoLand Georgia, in West Point, Georgia, in the second half of 2029, as well as other production plants around the world, according to Kia.
Automakers are increasingly rolling out humanoid robots in their manufacturing plants, with BMW having already done so in North Carolina and Germany, and Xiaomi in Beijing, China. Kia says it will use Atlas in 16 manufacturing processes, although in the longer term, the automaker intends to introduce other applications using AI learning.
Kia also provided more detail about how it envisions using two other Boston Dynamics’ robots, Spot and Stretch, in the near future. The company said it is looking at developing last-mile delivery systems from its electric Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) light commercial vehicle range that would include a full-stack platform featuring the robots.
Kia’s PBV vision is based around the concept of a basic platform being able to accommodate multiple different vehicle body types for a diverse array of uses, and the range was launched last year with the PV5. The bigger PV7 and PV9 are set to follow in 2027 and 2029.
The trio will offer a range of customized mobility solutions across 40 different body types. Among these will be PV7 and PV9 options, which promise to integrate Spot or Stretch, allowing the robots to autonomously provide “last-mile” deliveries in urban areas that the vehicles can’t reach.
Kia also provided an update to its autonomous vehicle plans, stating that it will build on its existing partnership with Nvidia to establish a “Data Flywheel” that accumulates data from the millions of vehicles it sells globally to inform its proprietary end-to-end self-driving models. At the same time, it will standardize sensor suites across its vehicles, aiming to develop a first software-defined vehicle with Level 2+ “hands off, eyes on” automated capability on highways by 2027.
The growing importance of robotics and autonomous driving to operations was underscored by the fact that Kia has revised global vehicle sales targets for 2030, from 4.19 million to 4.13 million, but is still targeting the same $114 billion in revenue.
The brand confirmed increased investment of $33 billion from 2026 to 2030, of which $14 billion is earmarked for areas such as robotics, software-defined vehicles and autonomous driving.