Kia trademarks EV range under new name in the US

Kia has applied to trademark its upcoming range of electric vehicles in the US – but not quite in the way we had expected.

According to Korean Car Blog, The Korean manufacturer has filed an application with the US Patent Office to trademark the names IK1 through to IK9 and Kia IK1 to IK9, each with its own font and all included in the ‘car’ category’.

The move has led to speculation the carmaker is planning to change how it refers to its electric line-up in the US, as previously in its ‘Plan S’ business strategy the models were labelled EV1 to EV9.

This is not the first time Kia has registered these names as a trademark. The automaker applied for them in Korea in December 2020, but they were not registered with the US Patent Office at the time.

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Credit: Korean Car Blog

Whether Kia plans to rename its fleet for the US market as yet remains unclear.

Among its line-up of EVs is the EV6 all-electric crossover, revealed for the Australian market earlier this year, which will be the first of eleven EV models to be released by 2026.

As the EV6 has already launched in the US too, it remains to be seen whether it will keep its name or perhaps go by IK6 instead.

With some of its models referred to differently in America, such as the K5 (previously the Optima), K8 (replacing the K7/Cadenza) and K3 (otherwise known as the Forte or Cerato here in Australia), it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine its EV range could go the same way.