Kia EV3 (2024 - ) Electric review

We all know the script by now, electric cars like the EV3 typically more expensive to buy, finance or lease than purely combustion-powered or hybrid equivalents but potentially much cheaper for company car drivers given the tax advantages while private owners with the luxury of off-street parking to install a home charger can reap the benefits of charging on domestic electricity. Good news? For all its stylish looks and impressive range the EV3 is actually surprisingly affordable as well, coming in cheaper than the older (if slightly bigger) Niro EV and priced competitively against rivals like the Volvo EX30, Smart #1 and MG ZS EV even when factoring in the cost advantages of their Chinese engineering. If you’re buying as an everyday car for commuting or the school run the smaller battery option on the basic trim level is probably more than enough, and usefully cheaper at the outset.

Kia and its partner brand Hyundai have vast experience in building electric cars, and both have a strong reputation for reliability. This and their pooled engineering resources give great reason for confidence, the EV3 getting Kia’s signature seven-year warranty for the ultimate in peace of mind.

You know there’s a lot of safety kit on the EV3 from the cacophony of bongs, chimes and beeps it unleashes any time you try and merge onto a motorway, change lane or reverse into a parking space. This can be bewildering given you don’t necessarily know which alert refers to what hazard but you can at least silence the annoying ones like speed limit warnings by pressing the mute button on the steering wheel. There isn’t the space here to list all the features but, to highlight one, we were especially pleased to see blindspot alerts and steering interventions included as standard even on the entry-level trim. The calibration and way Kia’s systems work is also much slicker than in some of the newer entries to the market as well, the brand’s experience with the tech really showing.

The traditional definitions used to distinguish different categories of cars have become blurred in recent times, which actually makes it more important than ever to try prospective purchases for size. Top tip – when comparing cars if you only look at one number on the technical specification the wheelbase (the distance between the front and rear wheels) often gives you best clue as to interior room for passengers and here the EV3 is a little longer than a Hyundai Kona Electric, Volvo EX30 or Vauxhall Mokka Electric, on a par with the Megane E-Tech 100% Electric and a little shorter than a Smart #1. This and a flat floor in the back means rear passengers have decent leg- and headroom, as tested on the run back to the airport after the launch event with four six-foot plus adults and no complaints from any about feeling squashed. Boot space is adequate, and extendable via the two-level floor if needed while a small storage compartment up front is enough for stashing dirty charging cables away from your kit in the boot. On the road Kia has wisely set the EV3 up for comfort more than cornering speed, the suspension proving comfortable even over some nasty broken tarmac, cobbles and speed humps on the Portuguese roads we tested the car on.

In addition to those head-turning looks Kia knows which buttons to push with those motivated to go electric on eco grounds, the EV3’s interior packed with clever recycled materials that look good while projecting an image of sustainability. Compatibility with ‘vehicle to home’ two-way charging where energy stored in your car’s battery can go back into the grid is also baked in, futureproofing your EV3 for trends that will grow in importance as electrification becomes more widespread. Equipment levels look good as well, with even the entry-level trim including things like heated seats and steering wheel, a reversing camera and the paired screen-based instruments and central display. We were less taken by the third touch-screen between them for controlling heating and ventilation but there are at least physical buttons for this and basics like volume below the main screen. The EV3 gets snazzier as you work your way up the next two trim levels as well but, on paper, even the base one has all you really need other than the lumbar support included on the next model up. Something we’d venture is needed given the seats are otherwise lacking in support for the longer stints at the wheel the range makes possible.

Without getting too bogged down in technicalities the shared platform with the much bigger EV9 and forthcoming EV4 and EV5 gives Kia an impressively flexible ‘toolkit’ of battery and motor configurations for its new generation of electric cars. For the EV3 that means a choice of two batteries on the base trim, the 270 miles of the smaller one on par with class rivals while the bigger battery gives you a massive 367 miles to play with. Both share the same 204 horsepower motor driving the front wheels, the version with the smaller battery slightly sprightlier given it weighs a little less. Both feel fast enough for the kind of driving the EV3 is built for, with impressively smooth response to the accelerator, excellent refinement and effective control of regenerative braking (which is to say recovering energy when slowing down instead of using the conventional brakes) via paddles on the steering wheel. There are faster cars in the class, and likely to join the EV3 range in due course. But even four-up as mentioned above we never felt performance was lacking in this standard version.