Kia has now completely officially unveiled two new and one almost-new model. The Kia EV3, Kia EV4 and Kia EV5 are expected to cost between $35,000-50,000, the equivalent of 33,000-47,000 euros, to ease the transition to EVs for people in less wealthy countries. In addition to these models, the Kia EV6 or Kia EV9 will remain in the range. The Kia EV5 appears as an upcoming car, the EV3 and EV4 are at the concept stage for now.
The Kia EV3, pricing and everything we expect
To our surprise, we have already written virtually everything about the car, we even hit the approximate prices of the Kia EV3 claiming the car can start from around €33,000. From the description, it appears to be a crossover of the C-SUV segment, probably produced in Europe, as the Old Continent is to “focus on small-to-medium models” (B, C), while China will deal with medium and large cars (C, D, E). Electrics for emerging markets are to be manufactured in India.
All new cars are to use “innovative electric car platforms”, without precise information, after all, on whether it will always be E-GMP. There is also talk of recycled materials, including bioplastics and biofibres. The Kia EV3 is said to have a windscreen moved forward, a cabin promoting wellbeing with soft mood lighting and a clean cockpit design.
The concept’s seats are movable, and there are also to be small tables in the cabin configurable for different variants of human interaction (Focus, Social, Refresh, Storage). It is difficult to judge whether this feature will appear in the final version of the car, but it is possible, as Kia itself talks about the EV3 as embodying ideas from the EV9 in a compact form. In the renderings above, the ministools are likely to be foldable with ribbons on the doors and backrest of the rear bench seat.
Kia EV4
The Kia EV4, also currently at the concept stage, is supposed to be “a completely new kind of electric sedan”. This is also what we already speculated when we wrote about the extended lines at the rear of the car recalling the shapes of the Kia EV6. The Kia EV4 is supposed to be associated with sports cars through its low-set front end and gradually rising lines, as well as a rear spoiler on the roof. And although Kia has admitted that the ‘concept’ EV9 was only developed after the production variant, with the EV4 we still expect some solid interventions in the car’s shapes, as there is something about the very back of the car that doesn’t sit right with us.
On the other hand, the colouring of the paintwork with walnut shells (the green ones, we think) and the rhizome of dyer’s madder (lat. Rubia tinctorum) is intriguing:
The vertical lights at the front are meant to suggest that Kia is not afraid to “push the boundaries” to “accelerate the electric car revolution”. The air-conditioning management panel can be hidden in the centre console when not in use, the air vents are a perforation of the surface that, in addition, can change its shape. We can already hear the delight of Hyundai Motor Group’s accountants….
The cabin is supposed to take the form of a cocoon and allow the driver to interact with the EV4 in a new, non-intrusive way. The graphic designer was also keen to convince us of this by using warm lighting and visually soft-touch, texture-changing materials when you run your hand over them. The car is said to offer different ‘mind modes’ controlling the mood lighting and the shape of the patterns presented in the air vents.
Kia EV5 and other highlights
The Kia EV5, it is already known, will be built on the E-GMP platform. It is to have an all-new interior and will hit the Chinese range in November 2023. Production of the model is expected to take place in South Korea and China. We will write more about the model in a separate article, as the specifications of the Kia EV5 are already known.
In addition to the new model announcements, Kia has officially announced that it will start using the Tesla-developed charging connector standard, NACS, in the US in Q4 2024, allowing it to use the Supercharger network. In Europe, the cars will apparently stay with CCS2. In the first half of 2024, there will be a Kia App, which will allow potential customers to learn more about the cars, arrange test drives or purchase the cars (source).
A note from the editors: the latter sounds like going the way of Tesla, where the media and journalists are just unnecessary additions to the main course, which is to cost the car before buying it 😉
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