Kia EV5: The Car That Is Bad At Nothing??
[Music] Hello and welcome to the second video from our little gallivant in Korea. We’re here to drive two of Kia’s latest and greatest new EV creations. Hopefully by now you’ve already seen our video on the PV5. If you haven’t, spoiler alert, it’s amazing. And today we’re driving this, the EV5. And spoiler alert, it’s it’s fine. Our [Music] three free YouTube channels on EVs and Clean Tech are funded by our fun-packed test driveastic events in Farmra, London, the Southwest, the North, Melbourne, and Sydney. Next up, Everythingele Electric Melbourne. And you for UK viewers, you can buy a batterylect electric vehicle or more at everythingleelectric.store. store. Back to the episode. You’ll forgive me if I sounded a bit uninfused in the intro there. This car is better than fine. It’s actually really good. It’s just that I’m still drunk on PV5. We were driving it all of yesterday, a little bit today, and it’s rocked my world. That is a proper disruptor. That’s a car that is going to turn its segment upside down. This is the exact opposite of a disruptor. It’s it rupts. But different car, different brief. What we essentially have here, the best way to think about this is electric sportage. The Kia Sportage is consistently one of the UK’s bestselling cars. Why? Because it’s bad at nothing. And that’s one of the best things a car can be. Just across the board solid, no weak points, no irritations. It’s something that Kia do very, very well. And this is the electric equivalent of that car. Similar size, similar dimensions, similar price. Alternatively, you could think of it as the sort of gap filler in the EV range. It’s larger and more practical than the EV3. It’s smaller and cheaper than the EV9. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken as long as it has for Kia to bring this car to us. A because this is one of the segments of the moment, isn’t it? Mediumsiz SUVs. It’s where it’s at. But B, because this car has existed for quite a long time in the Asia-Pacific region, they’ve already had this for a couple of years. Elliot reviewed it for us on the channel earlier this year, but it’s here now and it’s slightly different for the European market. We get a different battery, nickel, manganese cobalt instead of lithium ion phosphate, which is what they get over in Australia. Our cars come with better thermal management systems in the batteries because our weather’s worse, and a few other tweaks here and there, including some slightly less exciting seats than they get over there. Now, speedy walkaround. Given that Elliot’s already done a fine job reviewing this car, we’re doing a sort of mini review today. But it’s my first time seeing it, and I like the way it looks. I like my SUV’s boxy. I’ve said this many, many times. And the biggest compliment I can pay this car is it kind of just looks like a small EV9. Not quite as cool, I would say. light signature. A little bit funky for my liking, but it’s got nice strong shoulders and a really lovely boxy shape and some great color options as well. There’s a dark red you can have this in, which with the right wheels, sort of four-spoke arrow rims. Magnificent. The platform is the EGMP. We know it. We love it. It’s the same one that underpins the EV9, EV3, EV4. It’s great. It’s a proper EV platform. And that means you get more space inside and a bigger boot. And it means there’s more room for battery. Only one battery version at launch, which is 81 kwatt hours. That’s the big battery that you get in EV3, an EV4. Uh, and it’s perfectly adequate. In this car, it’ll give you 329 miles of range. In the smaller, lighter EV3, it gives you more. And actually, I really like the fact that Kia don’t feel the need to incrementally increase the battery sizes of their incrementally larger vehicles. They’ve just kind of said, “Here’s a battery. It’s big enough for all of them.” If you want a heavier car with more space, the range is going to be a little bit smaller. This launch car is single motor frontwheel drive, 214 brake horsepower, all-wheel drive variants, and a GT version to follow. Yes, you will be able to do farty downshifts in your EV5 very soon. Now, I think the biggest problem this car has is its little brother, the EV3, because it’s flipping brilliant, quite a bit cheaper, and goes further, as we’ve discussed, because it has the same battery and it weighs less. So, why would you have one of these? Why would you need one of these over the EV3? That’s a good question, and you should ask yourself it. The valid answer is, I need the extra space. My children are large, and I have many things. And if that is the case, you’ll be very happy to know. Leg room is excellent in the rear seats, substantially more than in the EV3. And this is a really decent boot as well. Let’s have a look. That’s 539 L. Almost the same size as the EV9’s boots, albeit there’s no third row seats, of course, but really big space, nice uh useful shape, flat floor. What we don’t get is the weird cool sort of two tier boot floor thing that Elliot was showing off in his video. That’s not fair. Why do we get the boring boot floor interior of the Kia EV5? And the news is that there is very little news. is if you’re familiar with EV3, EV9, EV6, this is going to be familiar, and that’s fine with me, cuz I think Kia are smashing it with interiors at the moment. I like these steering wheels with big, easy to hit physical buttons. I really like the touches of white in this interior. Actually, that is new to this car, and it’s fun. Although, someone has already got pen on this armrest. God, I hope that wasn’t me. I like having nice big toggles here for my temperature and my fan speed. I like these unnecessarily exciting cup holders, which are a dangerous combination of being really fun to play with and feeling a bit flimsy. I feel sure that if I owned a Kia, I would break these inside of a month. There are a few slightly cheapo feeling things in here. This isn’t very nice either, but broadly speaking, it’s a pretty nice premium feeling cabin. The seats are great. They’re so good at seats at the moment, Kia. And again, in that Kia way, it’s all just thoughtfully done. Everything is where it should be. proper buttons for the stuff you want. Proper buttons for very little to annoy you. And isn’t that all we’re looking for from a family car? One thing I would have loved to see and that they do get in other markets is the bench seat in the middle. I’m sure I’ve seen Aussies reviewing this car and it has a third seat in the front, a little tiny jump seat, which would have been fun. It’s a point of differentiation. If this car was a six-seater, that makes it unique in this segment. I don’t know. It just I like bench seats. Makes me feel like I’m sat in a 60s Cadillac. We don’t get that in Europe, which is a shame. But admittedly, what we do instead get is really comfortable seats and a really quite useful center console. OI. [Music] So then out on the road in the new EV5. First things first, business as usual in the Kia EV department. All the good stuff that we like about EV3 and EV9 and EV4, it’s all here, which means that the ride is very refined. It’s very comfortable, very light steering. It’s got proper regenerative braking, which I can set to maximum strength and then do full-on one pedal driving, which I really like. Relatively new is the auto setting for the regen braking, which I loved on the PV5. I think they’ve really upgraded it recently, and this is the first and second examples of automatic regen braking that I actually like. That’s when it decides for you how much regen you need based on the road ahead and your navigation and your driving behavior. Usually annoying gets it wrong, but it’s they’re starting to get quite good at this now. This is something Kia do so well these days. It’s what VW used to do very well. It’s just make a car that will work for almost everyone that has almost no irritations, just bloody competent. It’s got enough performance but nothing crazy. It’s good enough through corners without being overly stiff. It’s comfortable enough without ruining its handling. It’s got the right amount of range. I think I do think this is just the correct battery size for this sort of vehicle. Efficiency has been perfectly fine today. We’ve been getting pretty close to 4 miles to the kilowatt hour. If I compare it back to that Citroen I was just mentioning, that’s got a bigger battery, but this will go a little bit further on its battery. So, probably dead heat in terms of realworld range. I’d say you’re going to struggle to get less than 300 mi out of a charge unless it’s the dead of winter and you’re going really fast. And I will just say this, and this is a hill that I am willing to die on at any given opportunity. I’ve always felt that people would be better off in smaller cars than they think. I think most of us drive around in needlessly large vehicles because, you know, we like having that extra bit of space in the back seats and in the boot for whatever life might throw at us, but it’s at the cost of everything else. A bigger car is less pleasant to navigate through town. It’s less efficient. It’s often less fun to drive. And I do look at this and I think of the EV3 and I just think to myself, how many people really need the extra space afforded by this and wouldn’t be better off with an EV3? I think it’s a pretty small number. And of course, if you can make do with a slightly smaller boot with a tiny bit less room in the back, what you get with the EV3 is more range because it’s the same battery, but it’s a lighter car, so it’s more efficient. And actually, if you think, “No, I need space.” Space is very, very important to me. I’m all about extra space. Well, I’d suggest having a look at the PV5, the van, because that, well, it’s got more room than anything ever. It’s absolutely cavernous. You can have it as a fiveseater car. It’s not much larger than this on the outside and it’s cheaper. Ultimately, while it’s not changed my life, this EV5 is most certainly not the wrong answer. It’s a very, very talented allrounder. It’s got the Kia interiors that I’ve really grown to like. It drives beautifully. It’s got plenty of range. It’s competitively priced. I’m just saying. EV3, 9/10 of the car, more range, way cheaper. PV5, twice the space. If space is your thing, quite a bit cheaper. What is not up for debate is that with this joining the range, Kia now has a great electric car for just about any use case, and that is highly commendable. So, there we go. A speedy little review of the Kia EV5. Now, visit electric vehicles.expert where you can follow everything electric and keep current with Clean Technica. The driven, electric, and many
Jack Scarlett is in Korea to test the new Kia EV5 — Kia’s all-electric midsize SUV that slots nicely between the smaller EV3 and the big EV9. Built on the EGMP platform, it’s got great range, a comfy cabin, and the classic Kia practicality we’ve come to love and expect. In this quick drive, we see how it stacks up against the rest of Kia’s EV lineup and find out whether you should pick this over the EV3 or PV5.
0:00 – Introduction
0:37 – Everything Electric Advert
1:01 – First Impressions
1:22 – PV5 Comparison & Market Position
2:00 – Gap Filler in Kia’s EV Range
2:31 – European vs Asia-Pacific Differences
2:50 – Exterior Design Walkaround
3:31 – E-GMP Platform Benefits
3:47 – Battery & Range
4:17 – Power Options & GT Version
4:30 – The EV3 Problem: Why Choose EV5?
4:50 – Rear Seat & Boot Space
5:23 – Interior Overview & Design
6:19 – Missing Bench Seat Option
7:12 – A Quick Test Drive
7:41 – Regenerative Braking & Auto Mode
8:12 – Competence & Refinement
8:42 – Efficiency & Real-World Range
9:07 – The Smaller Car Argument
10:20 – Final Verdict
11:07 – Concluding Thoughts
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