Kia EV4

Yahoo

23-06-2025

One of the many remarkable things about Tesla is that so much of its growth has been built on a bodystyle that had seemingly long since gone out of fashion.
The success the Tesla Model 3 has had as a fairly traditional – perhaps even old-fashioned – low saloon defies logic when every other car maker is packing its range full of crossovers and SUVs, backfilled by evergreen hatchbacks.
There have been other electric saloons, most notably the BMW i4, but among a sea of electric crossovers and hatchbacks flooding the market, the number of true Model 3 rivals barely makes a puddle.
The Kia EV4 is the brand's first electric saloon and, as a global model from a car maker with one of the industry's better electric car ranges in its breadth and quality, its big range and attractive price allow it to be considered a true Model 3 rival.
Even so, given Kia's global footprint and the need to tailor models to different markets, the company hasn't gone all in on the EV4 as a saloon and is also offering it as a hatchback. This will be built in Europe, the first Kia electric car to do so at its Slovakia plant.
Kia UK recognises that the Model 3 is very much onto something, so this saloon version of the EV4 will be offered in the UK as well to make sure Tesla doesn't have the electric saloon segment all to itself. It's the saloon we're testing in Kia's native Korea, where the EV4 has gone on sale first.
Even Kia design boss Karim Habib admits the design of the EV4 saloon is 'polarising' although he loves what his team has created and has set out to 'redefine what a saloon can be'.
It certainly beats the Model 3 for visual interest. The EV4 has echoes of a Lamborghini at the front end in how the angles of the windscreen and bonnet are almost parallel. Then, at the rear, there is more of a long-tail design, which helps give a super-slippery drag coefficient of just 0.23, a best-in-class figure.
Despite how atypical it is from a normal saloon, it is still recognisable as a Kia and fits within the wider range. Habib says the EV4 was originally planned to be only a hatch and the idea for the saloon came later.
I like the boldness of it. After a while, the shock factor subsides and you are left to admire so many little exterior design details; it's the kind of car you want to touch and run your hand over to follow the shapes and lines. It's certainly not a Toyota Camry.
The EV4 saloon is marginally longer than a Model 3, at 4730mm, and 30cm longer than the EV4 hatchback. The boot of the saloon is 490 litres to the 435 litres of the hatchback.
The interior is largely recognisable from the excellent cabin of the EV3 but with a few distinctive elements of its own. The nearly flat floor really comes into its own in the saloon to make it all feel so light and spacious, particularly in the rear.
The GT Line trim of our test car also brought with it some nice ribbed seat materials that act as a further point of difference and they're super-comfortable.
More broadly, Kia has found a nice balance between technology and screens and physical switches and buttons, with the EV4's switchgear and major controls all sited in intuitive places. There is a pleasing heft and quality to everything too and the materials look and feel modern.
The EV4 is a platform twin of the Kia EV3 and the two have very similar specs. It uses a 400V version of the firm's E-GMP architecture for electric vehicles (the larger Kia EV6 and Kia EV9 models use an 800V version) and is offered with either a 58.kWh or 81.4kWh battery.
A front-mounted electric motor with 201bhp and 209lb ft powers both options and the 0-62mph time is between 7.4sec and 7.7sec, depending on the battery and bodystyle combination.
The EV3 has a lot of objective qualities but to drive it lacks some sparkle. It doesn't do anything wrong; you're just looking for a bit more character. And that's what the EV4 provides – a bit more character – which is mostly a result of you sitting lower.
Given the vast majority of electric cars are crossovers of one shape or size, it is a novelty at first to sit much lower in the EV4. It comes across as a bit racier and you feel more connected to the road than in the EV3. You can nip and dart around the traffic more and find more pleasure even in suburban traffic.
The power delivery is just right and the accelerator pedal has a happy knack of knowing how much 'go' you're looking for. There are different driving modes – Eco, Normal and Sport – and this is a rare mainstream EV where Sport mode does actually make it feel a bit sportier, rather than simply faster with more heft to the steering, sharper responses and more power from the motor.
Our Korean test roads were flat and lacking in the kind of corners where you can really get to know the car.
The ride was comfortable, more on the soft side than the firm, and the limits of grip were never reached. It still felt that it had more of an edge than the EV3, although not exactly transformative in character.
The steering felt a bit springy and odd immediately off centre and it could have done with a more natural feel to it, yet it was precise enough and the EV4 proved an easy car to place.
A different chassis tune will be given to European-spec EV4s so some of these impressions should be taken with a pinch of salt.
The longest range on offer for the EV4 is from the saloon with the larger battery, which offers 391 miles.
With the smaller battery, the EV4 saloon has a 267-mile range. In the hatchback, the small battery gives 255 miles and the larger battery 367 miles. These are all claimed figures. A DC fast charge from 10% to 80% takes around half an hour.
The range is a real highlight of the EV4. We were getting an indicated 356 miles on a warm day over a route made up of largely of faster motorway driving. Its efficiency seems to be a notable improvement over the EV3's to that end.
There's no pricing for the EV4 yet but it's expected to be priced and positioned alongside the EV3 and with the same trims, starting at around £36,000 for the Long Range model.
The EV4 is a good electric car and a good car too. It has bold looks and an excellent interior – and it is some clever and more inspired chassis tuning away from being a car you'd recommend as much for the way it drives as the way it looks.
The hatchback is inevitably going to be the stronger seller, but whatever that car ends up being, even on looks alone the saloon feels like a model in its own right rather than a derivative.
However niche it may end up being, it is still one of the more notable and interesting additions to the electric car world.
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