Riyadh: Kia Corp., South Korea's second-largest carmaker, announced it will conduct tests of its purpose-built vehicle, the PV5, in Riyadh for potential integration into a local resort town. Kia has collaborated with Red Sea Global (RSG), a key developer of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 Giga Project, which focuses on economic diversification and fostering new growth avenues.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Kia's partnership with RSG involves providing customized mobility solutions for RSG's tourism operations. This collaboration follows a memorandum of understanding signed by Kia and RSG in March last year to deliver eco-friendly future mobility solutions for RSG's business locations.

RSG is engaged in creating eco-friendly resorts and wellness tourism complexes near the Red Sea and along Saudi Arabia's west coast, in alignment with the Giga project, which includes Neom, a futuristic smart city under development in the country's northwest. The PV5 is set to be tested at RSG's resort facilities and Red Sea International Airport. Kia aims to develop an optimized PV5 cargo model and other variants based on the test results.

Kia also expressed intentions to potentially deploy its flagship purpose-built vehicle, the PV7, at RSG's resorts, with a launch planned for 2027. The company plans to introduce smart city technologies, such as autonomous driving and robotics, in the mid- to long-term across areas being developed by RSG.