Kia EV4, Kia PV5 and Hyundai Motor Group’s MobED mobile robot platform have been recognised at the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026. EV4 received Best of the Best, the competition’s highest product design honour, while PV5 and MobED were each named Winner.
The EV4 award covers Kia’s electric vehicle line-up, including the new fastback sedan and the hatchback variant aimed at European customers. Kia developed the EV4 under its rather naffyly named “Opposites United design philosophy”, with the Red Dot result adding another award to a line that already includes EV6, EV9 and EV3 Best of the Best wins. You’ll note that Niro is not on that list and we think its days are numbered.
GCB followed the EV4 rollout here Kia EV4 612km range and pricing story. The Red Dot win adds design recognition to the same car’s launch story. EV4 took Best of the Best for product design in 2026., and with recent repositioning of Kia’s pricing policy, it seems that battling the Chinese subsidised models is now an issue after all. Awards help, pricing cements.
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ABOVE: Kia EV4, Kia PV5 and Hyundai Motor Group MobED.
PV5 was named a Red Dot Winner for its Platform Beyond Vehicle design strategy. The van uses a shared front design with different rear modules, covering Passenger, Cargo, WAV and Crew versions. The PV5 package is built around flexibility, space and consistent design identity across the range. The Red Dot result follows PV5’s Gold award at the 2026 iF Design Awards.
Karim Habib, Executive Vice President and Head of Kia Global Design, said the awards reflected the effect of Opposites United on vehicles designed to combine emotional appeal with everyday practicality. He pointed to the EV4’s reinterpretation of the sedan and the PV5’s user-centred PBV layout as examples of that work.
Hyundai Motor Group’s MobED was also named a Red Dot Winner. Developed by HMG Robotics LAB, MobED is a mobile robot platform designed for varied terrain and different applications. It uses Drive and Lift technology with an Eccentric Wheel mechanism to move over uneven surfaces, inclines and curbs. AI-based control systems help the platform adapt to different environments.
MobED was first shown as a concept at CES 2022, with the production model introduced in 2025. The Red Dot result puts MobED in the same product design award round as Kia EV4 and PV5, despite it being a robot platform rather than a car.
The Red Dot Award was established in 1955 and is run by Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany. Product Design awards are judged by an independent panel of international experts, with Best of the Best reserved for the most advanced designs in the competition.
On Pricing
Kia is having a quiet little sweat. Leftover 2025-build stock is gathering dust on dealer lots, and head office knows a tidal wave of cheap Chinese metal is about to crash onto Aussie docks. The importer has quietly rolled out national drive-away discounts on its website to flush out these stagnant cars before they become total dead weight.
By swallowing dealer delivery fees, registration costs, and state stamp duties, Kia has chopped the entry-level EV5 Air Standard Range down to $49,990 drive-away. A matching push on the entry-spec EV3 Air Standard Range drops its real-world transaction point to $46,990 drive-away. While upper-spec variants like the EV5 Earth and flagship GT-Line miss out on direct cash cuts, they get drive-away pricing that absorbs variable on-road levies.
This aggressive slashing is a pre-emptive swipe against a major incoming sea shipment from chief rival BYD. The Chinese automotive giant has dispatched its own roll-on roll-off carrier, the BYD Zhengzhou, from Shanghai with 4,810 vehicles bound for Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Over 2,000 units on this single vessel consist of the fresh Sealion 7 and new compact Atto 2, landing directly inside the segments occupied by Kia’s aging 2025 showroom stock.
With BYD operating a vertically integrated supply chain and backing a broader commitment to land 30,000 extra vehicles locally, Kia tracked the shipping manifests and panicked. Leaving older stock at premium launch points while a dedicated Chinese fleet unloads thousands of fresh, aggressively priced alternatives on local docks would completely stall showroom sales. The website promotions represent a tactical firebreak to clear the older metal before the new volume dynamic completely upends the market.
Data from the Electric Vehicle Council isolates pure battery-electric cars to highlight the exact scale of this market shift, confirming that standalone battery-electric vehicle registrations hit an all-time record of 16.4% of the total Australian automotive market last month.
Kia Australia Official Website Drive-away Campaigns
| Model Variant | Previous Retail Price (Before On-Road Costs) | Current Kia Australia Website Drive-away Price | Approximate Real-World Value Drop |
| EV3 Air Standard Range | $47,600 | $46,990 | ~$5,500 |
| EV5 Air Standard Range | $56,770 | $49,990 | ~$6,780 |
| EV5 Air Long Range | $63,990 | $59,990 | ~$4,000 |
| EV5 Earth AWD | $64,770 | $64,990 | Absorbed statutory charges |
| EV5 GT-Line AWD | $71,770 | $75,990 | Absorbed statutory charges |
More Stories
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Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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