Kia EV5 (2025 - ) Electric review

As usual, if you’ve got home charging this is potentially the cheapest car in the world to run, and if you would rely on public charging the margin between it and a petrol SUV narrows considerably. Representative leasing deals examples look attractive at under £400 a month for such a large family car, and you still get an enormous tax advantage if you can run this as a company car. There are three trim levels – Air, GT-Line and GT-Line S (the only way to get a big sunroof, if that’s a deal-breaker for you). There’s lots to recommend the base Air level, which is good news for those who get annoyed by constantly being upsold.

Kia has an excellent record of reliability and was the first to market with a seven-year warranty, which shows long-term faith in the quality of its build, engineering and technology. We hear few reported problems from owners of the EV6 or EV3, so we’d hope for plain sailing for the majority of owners. Of course, electric cars have fewer complicated moving parts to go wrong, which helps.

The base Air version gives you a reversing camera as well as front and rear sensors, safe-exit warning, a collision-avoidance system for pedestrians and cyclists as well as cars, cruise control and steering assistance so long as you keep a hand on the wheel. There’s also blind-spot warning (still the most useful thing on a car), hazard-light activation when you do an emergency stop, tyre-pressure monitor, and hill-start assistance. That’s a lot for a base-spec car. The other trims don’t give you noticeably more. All versions also give you different drive modes, including one for snow, with more traction. In theory, at least.

We’ve never seen so much rear leg space in a medium-sized SUV. The boot has room for a small elephant, too! Handshakes all round to Kia on that one. Stretch out, and enjoy. You also sit higher up on the road than in the Sportage, which gives and extra sense of chunk and heft. You do have to get used to the fact that this car feels heavier and wider than it actually is, but a week of driving around will restore your confidence behind the wheel. It’s incredibly quiet and smooth while moving, however, which is restful on long journeys. If you want electronically moving seats, you’ll have to step up from Air to GT-Line, however, and ditto if you want fake leather rather than cloth seats – we like both!

It’s a sad truth that in this category, everything must now be weighed against incoming Chinese brands like Omoda, Jaecoo and BYD for they offer everything, all at once, on every car. Kia isn’t far behind, although immediately gets an extra point for providing physical buttons for the temperature controls and fan, and DAB radio that actually works. We also love the wellness soundscapes such as birdsong, rain on windows, and the sounds of the forest. Sounds twee, but actually does calm you down. Strangely, the graphics for the flow of air are blocked by the steering wheel, which seems a glaring oversight. On the other hand, the digital display’s graphics are still too small and fiddly. Kia should copy Renault, which lays out its functions simply and beautifully. We also don’t like the fact that the tray for mobiles is on the floor of the car, so if you need to plug it in to the front USB port, you’ll have a long ugly lead trailing down, which doesn’t fit with the tidy interior styling. Oh, and if music is your thing, you’ll want to upgrade all the way to GT-Line S, which gives you an eight-speaker Harman Kardon stereo.

Hmm, it doesn’t charge as fast or go as far as some of its competitors such as the Skoda Enyaq or Tesla Model Y, and the steering doesn’t feel as sharp. Overall it feels comfier, smoother and more composed than both, though, with a more protected ride and sense of high build quality. That range, however, could be an issue for some. The best mileage offered is 329 miles maximum in the base Air version, so expect around 290 miles in the real world. Although that is far better than the shocking 190-200 miles we’re getting from our current long-term Lexus RZ. Still, the landscape is changing and drivers parting with £40,000 or the monthly equivalent have every right to expect 350 miles now.