Kia Europe has appointed Erhan Eren as director of Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV).
The Turkish manager brings nearly two decades of international expertise in commercial vehicles and mobility leadership and will strengthen Kia’s long-term PBV strategy across the European region.
Based at Kia’s European headquarters in Frankfurt, Eren will oversee the development and coordination of Kia’s PBV rollout in Europe, including market-introduction strategy and cross-functional alignment between headquarters, European markets and converter partners.
His responsibilities also include strengthening Kia’s dedicated PBV organisation in the region and ensuring that the brand’s modular PBV architecture is effectively adapted through conversion and homologation to meet the operational needs of European fleet operators.
Kia said the appointment comes as the company expands its purpose-built electric mobility ecosystem across Europe. In his new role, Eren will guide the strategic development and rollout of Kia’s PBV portfolio, supporting the brand’s global ambition to redefine commercial mobility.
Eren brings more than 18 years of experience across trucks, buses and vans, with leadership roles spanning P&L responsibility, international expansion and the rollout of battery-electric and fuel-cell technologies. His career has focused on building high-performance sales and service networks and developing customer-centric mobility solutions tailored to commercial sectors.
“Kia’s PBV strategy is redefining what businesses can expect from an electric vehicle, pairing a dedicated platform with modular flexibility and advanced connectivity,” said Eren.
“My priority is to ensure customers benefit from a seamless, reliable ecosystem – from strong product fundamentals to service, uptime support, converter integration, and parts availability. This role brings together everything I value: practical innovation, purposeful transformation, and creating real impact for customers.”
Eren joins the company at a time when Kia’s PBV programme is gaining momentum. The Kia PV5 recently won the International Van of the Year 2026 award, highlighting the brand’s growing presence in the light commercial vehicle market.
Kia’s PBV strategy centres on a dedicated electric platform with modular body architectures, scalable interiors and advanced connectivity systems designed for logistics, delivery, shared mobility and specialist applications. The ecosystem combines hardware, software and conversion partners to reduce total cost of ownership while offering greater operational flexibility.
The PBV rollout began in late 2025 with the PV5 Passenger (five-seater) and PV5 Cargo (L2/H1), followed by the PV5 Chassis Cab. Larger models, including the PV7 and PV9, are planned as part of Kia’s target to achieve global annual sales of 250,000 electric PBVs by 2030.