'The Golf of EVs' || New Kia EV3 review || The best new electric family car?

This is the new Kia EV3, an electric crossover that's Volkswagen Golf-sized in its footprint, but also, costing from £32,995, Golf-priced. If it's good enough, it could just be the kind of car that buyers default to.

A base EV3 comes with a 58kWh battery with 267 miles of range. An extra £3000 gets you an 81kWh battery with 372 miles of range. That's the model tested here by our Editor, Mark Tisshaw.

Its single motor makes 201bhp and 209lb ft, good enough for 0-62mph in 7.7sec and a top speed of 105mph. It should return 4.2 miles per kWh of energy efficiency. It can charge at up to 128kW.

[urbanstrencan]

Great work by KIA and the whole Hyundai group 😊😊

[jonothanhayman]

They're knocking it out of the park at the moment.

[michaelgreen]

Top class review that covers the main points under 5 minutes.
Well done.

[SK-HD]

I think your review sums it up best of all reviews on EV3 in the initial days.

[fervidmuse]

Super excited about this. Shame about the relatively slow charging speeds, although I suppose something has to give to have this level of kit at an ICE price. At least from reading other reviews the winter range shouldn't be as affected as the EV3 has a "heat pump and resistive Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) heating system".

[ISuperTed]

The model you should compare it to really is the Golf EHybrid and that starts at £37k, so already considerably cheaper. If you go up the range, the more powerful and longer range EV3 is still cheaper than the Golf EHybrid GT. The fact that it’s virtually the same price as petrol/diesel shows how the days of ICE cars are numbered.

[martinreid]

We conduct road tests on many EV3's, and they are an experience all in their own, they feel smooth, solid and very controlled even with all the regen features enabled. Loaded with features and useful tech.

[dusandestanovic]

That's the smartest smaller EV choice.

[Andy-ziwj]

Why do they feel the need to give UK car's stiffer spring's most owners of this type of car would prefer a smoother ride

[GlitterGuru]

I like Kia but Hyundai seems to take a little extra time to bake in the oven to deliver an ultimate better product. Makes me excited for the Ioniq 3!

[ullsp]

Is the launch taking place
In 🇰🇵?? Where is all the traffic and prople ;)

[chasf]

My only real moan is the porky 1850 width due to being on the Ev6 platform, which is a bit wide for UK roads, parking spaces etc. This is not really an SUV rather an estate car sitting on a huge battery pack which is the only way with current battery tech they can build EVs.

[rxonmymind]

267 miles? Elon Musk Tesla miles? If that's the case you can knock off 50 me off of that and you will get 220 MI.
I hope they come out with real world miles.

[markgeller]

Please. Great review, except that no review is complete without seeing you sit in the back seat with the front set to your spec and telling us your height! No other way to understand the back seat packaging.

[gregdk]

Everybody mentions the QR code. Kia must have spent s lot of time on that at the journalists briefing. As well as the laptop workspace. Although the EV3 seems appealing to me, those features aren't the reason.

[kedelbach]

I'd give up 5 miles of range in exchange for normal door handles. Otherwise this finally seems to be a true Soul EV, without being burdened by the need for an ICE variant.

[pauln]

Shame that it looks like a Crossover/ small SUV. Why cant they just do a Hatchback???

[nv]

Comparing this with a golf ?😂 dude come on...

[markbate]

Seems much more expensive with pcp than many others?

[ians]

Shame the version I would want goes to just over £40k (hence "luxury tax") if you choose anything but the standard orange paint. So that is a no then.