Kia Europe has appointed Erhan Eren as Director of Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV), effective 1 March 2026.
He will reinforce the company’s leadership as it expands its purpose‑built electric mobility ecosystem across Europe. In this role, Eren will guide the strategic development and rollout of Kia’s PBV portfolio, supporting the brand’s global ambition to redefine commercial mobility.
Based at Kia’s European headquarters in Frankfurt, Eren will oversee the development and coordination of the overall PBV ecosystem in Europe, including market‑introduction strategy and cross‑functional alignment between headquarter, European markets, and converter partners. His responsibilities also include strengthening Kia’s dedicated PBV organisation in the region and ensuring that Kia’s modular PBV architecture is effectively adapted through conversion and homologation to meet the operational needs of European fleet operators.
A career built on international commercial vehicle leadership
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. Throughout his career, he has focused on building high‑performance sales and service networks and developing customer‑centric mobility solutions tailored to diverse 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 Erhan Eren, PBV Director of Kia Europe. “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.”
Kia’s PBV momentum across Europe
Eren joins Kia at a pivotal moment: the company’s PBV programme has rapidly gained traction through several milestone achievements. The Kia PV5 has earned the prestigious International Van of the Year 2026, underscoring Kia’s rising influence in the light commercial vehicle sector.
“Kia is emerging as a game‑changer in commercial electric mobility and our PBV approach offers the B2B market a new standard in purpose‑built solutions” said Sjoerd Knipping, COO of Kia Europe. “With his extensive experience in commercial mobility and electrified fleets, Erhan Eren will play a vital role in driving the next chapter of Kia’s PBV strategy in Europe.”
Transforming commercial mobility in Europe
Kia’s PBV strategy is built on a dedicated electric platform featuring modular body architectures, scalable interior concepts, and advanced connectivity systems designed for logistics, delivery, shared mobility, and specialist applications. This holistic ecosystem integrates hardware, software, and conversion partners to reduce total cost of ownership while offering high operational flexibility.
The PBV rollout began in late 2025 with the PV5 Passenger (5‑seater) and PV5 Cargo (L2/H1), followed by the PV5 Chassis Cab unveiled at SOLUTRANS 2025. Larger PBV models, including PV7 and PV9, will follow as part of Kia’s long‑term aim to achieve global annual sales of 250,000 electric PBVs by 2030.
