The Kia EV3 is a car that offers very little in the way of surprises, and that’s true of its price, too. Full UK pricing for the smallest member of Kia’s family of bespoke electric cars have been revealed, and it’s pretty much bang on what we expected.
As with seemingly every other new car these days, the EV3 is a small crossover. In fact, its dimensions are remarkably close to those of the Niro, another little Kia crossover that’s already available as a full EV. That car can also be had as either a ‘self-charging’ or plug-in hybrid too, though – the EV3 is electric and electric only, based on the modular E-GMP platform that underpins pretty much every bespoke EV from Kia, Hyundai and Genesis.
Kia EV3 – side
£32,995 gets you into a base Air trim with a 58.3kWh battery. That’s the only version with the smaller battery, good for a quoted 267 miles of range. Everything else gets a bigger 81.4kWh item, which ups the quoted range to 372 miles. The most you can spend for now is £43,895 on a GT-Line S version with a heat pump, which should serve to increase range on chilly days.
Regardless of trim and battery, you get a single-motor, front-wheel drive setup producing 201bhp and 209lb ft of torque. That’s good for 0-62mph in 7.5 seconds, and a top end of 106mph. A faster GT version, potentially with two motors, is set to arrive further down the line.
Kia EV3 – interior
In addition to the usual suite of modern car tech, the EV3 gets ‘vehicle-to-load’ capability, meaning it can basically be used as a giant battery to power smaller electric devices, and there’s extra storage in the form of a 25-litre ‘frunk’.
We had a preview of the EV3 in the form of a concept version last year, and on the outside, the production car doesn’t differ drastically. It’s a bit less blocky, but still looks broadly the same, i.e. like a shrunken, rounded-off EV9. Go for the GT-Line and you get contrasting black trim on the lower body and chunkier bumpers front and rear. Drag coefficient is kept nice and low at 0.263Cd.
Kia EV3 – rear
The interior, apparently heavily inspired by nature, features an almost 30-inch wide screen, incorporating a 12.3-inch instrument cluster, a five-inch screen dedicated to the climate controls, and another 12.3-inch item for the infotainment. Luckily for touchscreen-o-phobes, there are hard-key buttons on the wheel and shortcut buttons beneath the infotainment display for various functions. One nature-inspired interior element that doesn’t carry over from the concept is the mushroom-based upholstery (no, really), but basically all the fabric and plastic in the interior is recycled.
UK order books open on 1 August, and the first EV3s in the UK should arrive around the end of the year, just in time for Christmas.
