Kia to Adopt Hyundai's New Pleos Smart Cockpit System Starting in 2027

Kia is set for a major leap in intelligent user experience. Starting in 2027, new Kia models will gradually roll out with Hyundai's newly developed Pleos smart cockpit system — a highly integrated in-vehicle platform built on Android Automotive OS — marking deep software-defined vehicle collaboration between Kia and Hyundai.

According to South Korean media ETNews, Hyundai officially launched its software brand 'Pleos' last year and aims to deploy the system across more than 20 million vehicles by the end of this decade (i.e., before 2030), covering the Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis brands. Currently, Hyundai has already debuted Pleos on the all-new generation Grandeur launched domestically in South Korea; later this year, the refreshed Avante (Elantra) and Tucson (Tucson) will also adopt the system.

As a global software platform, Pleos emphasizes smartphone-like interaction logic: supporting app ecosystem expansion, highly customizable interfaces, and optional 12.9-inch or 14.6-inch center displays — plus an available fully digital instrument cluster. Its core components also include Hyundai's proprietary AI voice assistant, Gleo AI. Built on large language models, Gleo AI continuously learns and refines responses using real-time location, traffic conditions, and users' historical interactions — enabling natural-language commands such as "find restaurants nearby" or "navigate to destination," and even online retrieval of news, sports, and other information.

In Europe, the IONIQ 3 is the first Hyundai model equipped with Pleos — and made its public-road debut this month in Goodwood Festival of Speed. As for Kia, the first compatible models have not yet been officially confirmed, though industry consensus points to flagship models — namely the K9 sedan and battery-electric SUV EV9 — as the most likely initial candidates.