BoardGameArchiveKanban EV
Kanban EV explained: train across factory departments, design and assemble cars, manage parts and certifications, and score through meetings and production goals.
Kanban EV explained: train across factory departments, design and assemble cars, manage parts and certifications
Work through five departments of an electric-vehicle factory, balancing training, parts, designs, assembly and testing while Sandra evaluates performance.
Why We Love It
Kanban EV turns worker placement into a sequencing puzzle. Department order, certification timing and meeting goals all reward planning several turns ahead.
About Kanban EV
Kanban EV is a heavy strategy game published by Eagle-Gryphon Games and designed by Vital Lacerda. Its core systems include Worker Placement, Action Selection and Production, creating a mix of tactical timing and longer-term planning.
This guide focuses on the edition and rules scope identified in the source notes below, with the main decisions separated from the factual rules overview.
Game at a Glance
Worker Placement
Commit workers to contested action spaces and time placements around opponents.
Action Selection
Choose actions not only for their reward but also for timing and denial.
Production
Use this system efficiently and connect it to your broader scoring plan.
Training
Use this system efficiently and connect it to your broader scoring plan.
Who Kanban EV suits
Kanban EV suits players who enjoy Worker Placement and Action Selection, with enough room to build a plan while still reacting to changing shared incentives. Its heavy weight makes it a better fit for groups comfortable tracking several connected systems.
Rules overview
Players move managers between factory departments and take actions in training, logistics, design, assembly and testing. Cars and parts flow through production while certifications improve efficiency. Sandra moves through departments and triggers evaluations. Meetings create additional scoring opportunities tied to achievements and collected speech tokens.
Key decisions
Editorial analysis: Department timing is the core puzzle. Training early can make later actions more efficient, but spending too long improving one area may leave another department unprepared for Sandra’s evaluation.
Five Kanban EV departments: what you do in each
Kanban EV is not simply placing a worker on an action space to gain resources. Your one manager visits a department and spends available shifts there. A new location changes the actions you can perform and also changes your position in the order for future department choices.
| Department | Core purpose | Planning question |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Acquire designs used for vehicles and related upgrades. | Which models should I prepare to build or upgrade? |
| Logistics | Place orders and gather car parts. | Will the required parts be available when assembly acts? |
| Assembly | Supply needed parts so cars can be manufactured. | Can I complete a car that matches an upcoming goal? |
| R&D | Claim completed cars and upgrade designs. | Which upgrades benefit cars I already have? |
| Administration | Work with factory goals and overall planning. | What achievements and meeting points can I support? |
These are summaries of functions, not the complete permitted action list. Consult the publisher and the game’s rulebook for shift costs and all departmental tasks.
How a workday flows: an example
On the first day, players select empty workstations following the certification-track order. On later days, you must move to a different department from the one in which you just worked. Workstations grant shifts, which you allocate among tasks available there and training. You may add banked shifts, but the total workday cap still applies.
Illustrative choice: you enter Logistics with two shifts. You could devote both shifts to collecting or ordering parts, or invest a shift in training so a future Logistics visit yields a certification benefit. The better choice depends on the supply pipeline and Sandra’s location.
Two-player exception: the rules restrict entering Sandra’s current department. Do not use the unrestricted multiplayer example in a two-player session.
Training and certification: why they matter
Each department has a training track. Spending a shift to train advances your marker; crossing the track’s certification threshold unlocks benefits. Training can improve future efficiency, but it competes with the time you need to obtain parts, designs and cars.
Example: if you are close to certification in Design, a training shift may be more valuable than obtaining a less useful extra design. However, if Sandra is about to evaluate your department and your production objectives are incomplete, focusing on only training may delay urgent work.
Move your marker and take certification rewards according to the printed track instructions. Certification order also affects meeting procedures; it is not merely a private points meter.
What actually scores at meetings and at week end?
Meetings use Performance Goal cards and the speech tokens you collect from factory achievements. They are a public competition over what each employee has accomplished, not just an automatic score for arriving in Administration.
End-of-week scoring is different: when Sandra completes her Administration task, each car in a player’s garages scores based on upgrades to that model made by any player and that player’s own tested designs of that model.
Illustrative example: you have two cars of one model. That model has three upgrades on the board, and you hold one tested design of that model. Each car earns 3 + 1 = 4 PP, so those two cars score 8 PP that week. Do not treat all upgrades as personal upgrades; shared model development is part of the game’s tension.
For exact timing of meetings and the final score, see our Kanban EV meetings and scoring guide.
Five beginner mistakes in Kanban EV
- Choosing a department solely for immediate actions: your position also affects future movement and workstation availability.
- Ignoring certifications: training is expensive early but can unlock future benefits.
- Claiming cars without developing model scoring: garage cars may score repeatedly according to the production timeline.
- Hoarding parts that do not advance current plans: focus on the vehicles, designs and goals you can actually complete.
- Confusing a meeting with end-of-week scoring: they use different triggers and scoring systems.
These are editorial recommendations, not new rules. For a full set of procedures, refer to How to Play Kanban EV, the strategy guide and the official publisher’s rulebook.
Related games
Satisfactory: The Board Game is an upcoming 1–4 player production-network engine builder; unlike Kanban EV, it is framed as a sandbox factory race.
Learn Kanban EV in depth
Sources and edition notes
Facts checked September 17, 2026.