KIA EV3 Review: Good things, small packages

HEURISTICS IS A funny old business. You know, those mental shortcuts or ‘rules of thumb’ that we tend to live by. There’s no shortage of them when it comes to cars and one of the most reliable is that you’re only setting yourself up for failure if you try to condense the contents and attributes of a big car into a small one. Thing is, nobody seems to have told Kia. Its new EV3 aims to distil much of what we loved about the EV9 and the EV5 into a more compact package.Countless car manufacturers have tried and failed with this. Lexus has never built a small car that rides like an LS. Audi’s A2 was an expensive failure when it tried to offer the aluminium build process of the A8 in a supermini body. And the less said about the Aston Martin Cygnet the better.That’s not to say that it can’t work in terms of aesthetic. For a long time, Audi, and to a certain extent BMW, employed this Russian doll philosophy across their ranges, corporate identity taking precedence over individual statements of character.The EV3 tweaks the formula a bit. Yes, it shares obvious design language with the EV5 and the EV9, but Karim Habib’s design team have given this baby SUV a stance and a look all of its own. At 4.3m long, it’s got some presence to it, and it’s 110mm shorter than Kia’s Niro compact SUV but, crucially, the wheelbase is a mere 40mm shorter, so buyers get some real bang for their buck when it comes to interior space. Hold that thought. We’ll explore that a little further later. 1 Price, range, rivalsHere in Australia, the car has been launched with four discrete versions. There are three ascending trim levels – Air, Earth and GT-Line – with the Air being offered with either a smaller 58.3kWh lithium-ion battery or the same 81.4kWh battery that the rest of the range gets. All versions drive through the front wheels only and make a peak power output of 150kW with peak torque rated at 283Nm. It’s all refreshingly straightforward.Range? That’s rated at 436km for the Air Standard Range, 563km for the Earth and the GT-Line, while the lighter wheels of the Air Long Range give it the longest legs of the lot, coming in at a WLTP-rated 604km. For many buyers pondering which Kia EV3 to choose, the discussion could be done and dusted right here.Drive-away pricing is pitched at $48,990 for the entry-level Air, $56,490 for the Air Long Range and $62,690 for the Earth, to which WA buyers will have to add $1000. The GT-Line is $68,490 drive-away in all states and territories other than WA, where it’s $70,490. So, adding that extra range to your EV3 Air is a fairly hefty $7500 impost. Or, to couch it another way, you’re adding 15 per cent to the price of the vehicle but you’re getting 30 per cent more range.Kia continually referred to the Volvo EX30 and the BYD Atto 3 when issuing benchmark vehicles for the EV3 to draw a bead on. Neither are a perfect overlap; the Volvo’s opening price is considerably higher and the BYD is a larger but cheaper vehicle. But then what else do you compare the EV3 to? Skoda’s Elroq and Renault’s Megane E-Tech are both worth consideration but, more than anything else, the EV3 merely demonstrates just how scratchy the intersection of a Venn diagram with three circles labelled ‘Electric’, ‘Small SUV’ and ‘Worthwhile’ is. 1 Ride qualityThe key problem to date has been threefold. Small electric SUVs have been too expensive, they’ve tended not to ride very well and they’re just not practical enough to stand up that high price against some very talented hybrid options. Many buyers who go through this process with all the best intentions end up at a place called RAV4 Hybrid and that’s a hard case to argue.Where the EV3 changes that particular script is that it rides well. Better, in fact, than the bigger EV5. It shouldn’t, but there’s a very good reason for that. The EV5 is made in China, and the EV3 is a Korean-built car. Because Kia Australia has a long and close relationship with the Korean mothership, it has been able to negotiate early access for local tuning. The chap on the cover of the February issue of Wheels, Graeme Gambold, has been allowed to work his magic on the EV3, whereas we got no such access to the Chinese-built EV5. 1 With changes to the springs, dampers and steering, the EV3 rides smoothly on Aussie B-roads. Even if you step from the 17-inch wheel and tyre package of the Air, up to the 19-inch combination on the Earth and GT-Line, there’s very little diminution in ride quality. Yes, the steering could be a little more feelsome, but that wasn’t helped by wet weather on the press launch and the fitment of low rolling resistance eco tyres on all models. This chassis tune is a refreshing and very welcome piece of good news that you’ll feel every single time you go for a drive, and which distinguishes this car from all of its rivals.By the standards we’ve become used to for electric cars, it’s not particularly rapid. It accelerates smoothly, with only frankly inadvisable throttle applications resulting in a bit of torque steer. Because it’s the lightest of the lot, the base model is actually the quickest at 7.5 seconds to 100km/h, the ritzier models gaining a bigger battery and some extra kit and losing out by a tenth or two. Whichever version you choose, it never feels under-endowed. Should you hanker for more, sit on your money until the dual-motor EV3 GT arrives. This will get grippier seats, bigger brakes and some fairly senior grunt, with figures in the region of 250kW/470Nm bandied about. Given the car’s weight, this ought to endow it with serious hot-hatch performance.Spacious interiorThe cabin of the EV3 is neatly styled with that long wheelbase giving it plenty of room both front and rear. I was able to get fairly comfortable behind my own driving position, which is something I wouldn’t manage in something like a Nissan Qashqai or a Volvo EX30. Legroom is particularly good in the back, with only very tall adults starting to feel pinched for headroom. In fact, because of the way that Kia have sculpted the front seats, there’s more space in the back of the EV3 than in many cars from the class above. Kia claims more rear legroom and rear headroom than in the ostensibly larger BYD Atto 3. Up front it’s airy and the ergonomics are good. One minor glitch we did notice is that when the air conditioning is blasting, condensation drops can form on the metal trim fillet that runs across the dashboard. 1 It shares the same haptic button strip as the EV5, which works well enough and the steering wheel controls are sensibly configured. The twist to select gearshifter (with its integrated start/stop button) isn’t the most intuitive thing and is hidden behind the right-hand steering wheel spoke, but at least it frees up oddments space in the centre stack. There’s plenty of space to stow gear in the EV3, with an enormous tray between the front seats and the door pockets can hold smaller drinks bottles, but will struggle with larger ones. The glove box is a decent size and there’s a pair of USB-C chargers in the dash and in the sides of the front seats for rear seat passengers.All models feature wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and we found the system to be fairly robust in connecting. None feature a spare wheel. Instead there’s a mobility kit between the deep but short 460-litre luggage bay. This features an adjustable floor height, and the rear bench splits 60/40 and folds to offer up to 1251L of space. 1 Colours and safetyA palette of eight exterior colours are offered, although Clear White is the only non-costs paint finish. You’ll need to dig out another $550 if you want Ivory Silver, Aurora Black Pearl, Shale Grey, Frost Blue, Snow White Pearl or the two new (to Kia) colours, Matcha Green and Terracotta. All models feature seven airbags, and Kia should be lauded for offering its full active safety suite as standard across the range.This encompasses Driver Attention Warning, High Beam Assist, Land Follow Assist, Autonomous Emergency Braking, Blind-Spot Collision Avoidance Assist, Multi-Collision Braking, Highway Driving Assist, Rear Cross-traffic Avoidance Assist, Navigation-based Smart Cruise Control, Rear View Monitor and Forward/Reverse Parking Distance Warning. The smart cruise control works well, holding speed adequately on downhill inclines and knocking a few klicks off your velocity when it knows a sharpish corner is incoming.All EV3 models allow you to tailor the amount of re-gen using the wheel-mounted paddles, while holding the paddle switches i-pedal 3.0 on or off. This also has three levels of re-gen, and even the strongest one isn’t unduly nausea-inducing. It’s something you’d probably grow to use quite a fair bit. Like all modern Kias, holding down the volume scroll wheel will mute the speed limit warnings. Only the range-topping GT-Line gets a head-up display as standard. For the rest you have to refer to a smallish display on the binnacle screen. 1 ChargingIf you’re using an 11kW wallbox at home, the Standard Range car will charge between 10 and 100 per cent in 5h 20m, with the Long Range models taking 7h 15m. Like the EV5, the EV3 is built around a 400V rather than the high capacity 800V charge architecture of the larger Kia models such as the EV6 and the EV9. This means that you won’t get the same lightning charge rates from a high-speed public DC charger. The 10-80 percent charge rates on a commonplace 50kW charger are 55 minutes for a Standard Range and 78 minutes for the Long Range. Best case scenario on a 350kW charger is 29 minutes for the Standard Range and 31 minutes for the Long Range models, reaching a peak charging speed of 150kW. 1 In summaryThe EV3 emerges as a good-looking car that’s well equipped, good to drive, offers useful range, more than adequate space inside, is competitively priced and comes with a strong warranty. In other words, it barely puts a foot wrong. Yes, it can sometimes feel a little vanilla in the way that it’s so inoffensive and charging speeds could be higher, but if those are the most serious complaints to be levelled at it, then there’s clearly a lot that’s right about it. It’s an important vehicle for the company here in Australia too, because part of its remit is to earn enough NVES credits to offset the debit column racked up by the new Tasman diesel ute.Straight to the top of the class? We tend to hesitate when making such proclamations based on a first drive, but its rivals should be taking this one very seriously indeed. 1 2025 Kia EV3 SpecificationsModel: Kia EV3 Air Long RangeMotor: Front-mounted permanent magnet synchronousTransmission: 1-speed reduction gearBattery size: 81.4kWh (gross)Max power: 150kWMax torque: 283NmKerb weight: 1930kg0-100km/h: 7.7secRange: 604kmPrice: $56,490 drive-away ($57,490 drive-away in WA)On sale: Now

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