Kia has a fairly expansive all-electric lineup, inhabited by the Niro EV, EV6 and EV9 and with the EV5 SUV soon to join them. And there are more are on the way.
In a bid to make EV ownership as enticing as possible, Kia Canada plans to propose a new EV home charging system that should spare homeowners a significant expense. It is partnering with Vancouver-based firm Variablegrid Adaptive Power, which has developed a technology that allows for the installation of home charging stations in older houses, without the high costs associated with updating the electrical panel to accommodate a charger.
The firm’s system uses an adaptive load management technology to monitor a home's energy consumption and automatically adjust the charger's output based on available capacity. This system spares homeowners an expense that can run into the thousands of dollars.
Kia Canada will sell the system at its dealerships and allow customers to include it in the purchase cost of their vehicle.
The Variablegrid Adaptive Power firm says it supports the Korean automaker's goal of making electric vehicles more accessible and affordable “by removing common barriers related to costs and infrastructure associated with home charging.”