Kia EV3 Review & Prices

The Kia EV3 is one of the best electric cars you can buy. It’s a small SUV with a big battery, a practical interior and superbly well thought-out features, making it an absolute corker of a choice even when you put it against pricier alternatives.

Though Kia’s own model lineup includes the brilliant EV6, the massive family-friendly EV9, and now the hatchback or saloon-shaped EV4, the EV3 still stands out thanks to its many clever qualities and its desirable, compact SUV body. It’s like the one hairdresser’s that’s stayed put in the same premises while new salons and Turkish barbers spring up all round - the new entrants are flashier and have plenty to offer, but there’s something to be said for sticking with a simple recipe done right.

We certainly back the EV3 as a brilliant buy - it’s so good we named it ‘Highly Commended’ in the Family Values category of the 2026 Carwow Car of the Year Awards.

Competition isn’t exactly lacking. The Skoda Elroq, Cupra Born, Volvo EX30 and Nissan Leaf all have their own qualities to offer, and run the EV3 very closely on price. Meanwhile, new entrants such as the Jaecoo E5, Leapmotor B10 or MG S5 EV promise much of the same ability for even less money. So why opt for the Kia?

Kia EV3: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 270 - 375 miles
Efficiency: 4.6mi/kWh
Battery size: 58kWh - 81kWh
Max charge speed: 128kW
Charge time AC: 8hrs 20 - 11hrs 30 (0-100%, 7kW)
Charge time DC: 29 - 31mins (10-80%, 128kW)
Charge port location: Right front wing
Power outputs: 204hp

Well, the funky styling could be a good reason - though it’s not unlikely that you might be turned off by it too. It’s certainly eye-catching, with vertically-stacked LED head- and tail-lights, angular, boxy bodywork and clad wheelarches with cool blocky alloy wheel designs. It’s part rugged, part futuristic, part Blade Runner and makes most alternatives look pretty dull.

That tall shape has benefits beyond the styling too, as the EV3’s interior will easily accommodate four tall adults in comfort. The boot is big too, on a par with the Skoda Elroq and the MG S5 EV, plus you get a frunk capable of storing your charging cables out of the way.

Up front, it’s typical Kia - which means you get a widescreen display with three separate screens for infotainment, driver information and climate control. The climate control screen is obscured by the wheel, so it’s pretty much useless - but not to worry, as Kia’s included a set of physical buttons to adjust it on the fly.

Base models make do with some fairly nasty materials but that disappears as soon as you go one further up the range, and all EV3s feel incredibly well-built and solid. With Kia still offering one of the longest warranties in the business, you can expect the EV3 to be a car that really lasts.

Out on the road, the EV3’s strong point is comfort. It rides comfortably over lumps, bumps and potholes, and the light steering and great visibility makes driving in town a breeze. The payoff is, naturally, that it’s not quite so much fun on a twisting back road as a Cupra Born or MG S5 EV.

It’ll go further on a charge than any alternative, though. The basic ‘Air’ model with the small battery can do 270 miles (officially) while the larger battery returns up to 375 miles. That’s a superb figure for an affordable electric SUV and among the best on sale - though it’s a shame that Kia only offers an energy-saving heat pump as an optional extra on the very top-spec model.

Verdict

Though there have been plenty of new electric SUVs launched since the Kia EV3, very few are anywhere near as good. The EV3 feels like Kia doing what Kia does best - offering the latest and greatest technology in a family-friendly package, making it superbly usable everyday, and making it just a little bit cheaper than seems right. You get more metal for your money buying a car from one of the newer Chinese brands, and the Skoda Elroq runs the EV3 pretty close in terms of practicality and value - but the Kia EV3 should definitely be way up your shortlist if you’re looking for a new electric SUV.

If the EV3 ticks your boxes for an electric car, you can browse Carwow’s Kia EV3 deals here. You can also check out more new Kia deals or consider other used Kias instead. Carwow can even help when you decide to sell your car, too.

The Kia EV3 starts at around £33,000 in Air trim with the smaller battery, climbing an extra £11,000 for the top of the range GT-Line S with the heat pump. That means the base-spec Air undercuts the Cupra Born by almost £1500, whilst still having plenty of standard kit.

The triple-screen dashboard is standard, as are heated front seats, flush door handles, a reversing camera, all-round parking sensors and a suite of safety aids. If you’re after a long-distance cruiser, the Air with the larger battery will be the one to go for at almost £36,000 - but with 375 miles of range.

Air-spec EV3s come on 17-inch wheels, with heated seats and steering wheel as standard. Upgrading up to GT-Line adds 19-inch wheels and artificial leather seats with an electric driver’s seat and sportier bumpers. GT-Line S trim has electric, reclining and cooling front seats as well as rear seat heating, plus a Harman Kardon sound system and 360-degree cameras.

Not exciting to drive, but quiet, refined and comfortable all the same

In town

The EV3 has the same benefits when it comes to driving around town as all electric cars do. The silent powertrain is smooth as butter when it comes to accelerating, and there’s plenty of power available low-down to allow you to nip out of junctions smartly and exploit tight gaps when you need to. There’s no gearbox to worry about either, so your left leg gets a welcome rest - and it's even smoother than a good automatic in this regard.

Kia also gives you loads of different options for regenerative braking, which is nice considering the Volvo EX30 and Peugeot E-2008 only give you the option to turn it off or on. You can select three levels of strength, and toggle ‘i-Pedal’ mode, which takes the car down to a full stop just by lifting off the accelerator, so you don’t have to touch the brake at all. There’s also an auto mode, which chooses the level of regen based on what’s in front of you - but we didn’t find this mode particularly reassuring.

No matter what mode you’re in, the EV3 deals quite well with lumps and bumps around town. It’s quite a heavy vehicle and has fairly soft suspension, so it can feel a little lumbering when you get lots of bumps one after the other. But the payoff is that it’s fairly smooth over rough surfaces. Visibility is pretty good, too, with nice square dimensions that make parking easy - and all-round sensors as standard make it easier still.

On the motorway

The Kia EV3 doesn’t have the ballistic performance of something like a Volvo EX30 Twin Motor or a Tesla Model 3, and so you have to put your foot down a little more than those cars when it comes to joining a faster road. But with 204hp on tap, it’s hardly slow, and you can get up to speed without any drama.

Once you’re cruising, there’s a little more wind noise than you get in some alternatives, but it’s not obtrusive. The automated driving features work quite well, and adaptive cruise control helps take the sting out of long journeys - especially as Kia’s system detects the presence of your hand on the wheel, not just the pressure, so you don’t have to worry about giving the helm an occasional wiggle.

On a twisty road

This is where the EV3 feels like it loses some ground to its best alternatives. It’s not bad in any way, with plenty of grip and responsive enough steering. But it’s front-wheel drive and set up for comfort rather than cornering, so compared to rear-wheel drive alternatives with more power it just doesn’t feel as lively or as much fun.

A Volvo EX30, MG4 or Volkswagen ID3 are all more enjoyable to drive, though the Kia is on a par with something like a Renault Megane E-Tech or Peugeot E-2008. There are driving modes you can switch into, but even in Sport you won’t really feel the need to ‘send it’ into corners. It’s better to just ease off and make the most of the EV3’s relaxing nature instead.

Lots of room in the back seats and boot, though storage for smaller items could be better

The Kia EV3 is quite an upright, square car, so it’s no surprise passenger room is excellent. Front-seat occupants get plenty of space, helped by Kia shrinking down the climate control systems so they fit into a smaller dashboard - freeing up legroom.

The front seats and steering wheel have loads of adjustment, and are pretty comfy - even if they’re a bit flatter and less supportive than the very sculpted items in the Volkswagen ID3.

The glovebox and door bins are large, but the centre console isn’t very clever. The cupholders are practically on the floor, making it tricky to reach for drinks while you’re on the move. Air models get a storage cubby in the centre armrest, whilst GT-Line models get a flat, tray-like surface instead.

It extends forwards too, bridging the gap between the armrest and the dashboard. It’s a handy place to rest a laptop if you’re using the EV3 as a mobile office, or perhaps a Happy Meal if you’re dining in your car - but it’s pretty useless when you’re on the move, as there’s no grip to the surface.

Space in the back seats

There’s space in the back of the EV3 for two six-foot adults to get comfy, with plenty of leg and head room - it’s notably roomier than a Volvo EX30. There’s also a totally flat floor so no obstructions to sliding all the way over from one side, and even the centre passenger has somewhere to put their feet - though the cabin is a little narrow to squeeze three adults in for long periods.

Rear-seat occupants get a central armrest and handy USB-C ports on the front seatbacks are perfect for charging gadgets. It’s a shame that the seatbacks themselves are made of hard plastic, so it’s not the most forgiving to have your knees pressed up against them. The rear seats also don’t do anything clever like slide or recline.

Boot space

The EV3’s 460-litre boot is a really good size, easily beating the 318-litre Volvo EX30, 323-litre Smart #1, and even the 440-litre Renault Megane E-Tech. It’s on a par with the Skoda Elroq, which has 470 litres of space.

It’s worth noting that the Kia’s boot is only that big when you have the adjustable floor in its lowest position, whereupon you get quite a lip at the load sill and a big hump in the floor when you fold the rear seats down. Raise the floor up and it’s still roomy, but a bit less capacious - though it’s worth it for the totally flat loading area you get as a result.

The EV3 even has a frunk - though at just 25 litres, it’s barely big enough to fit a charging cable in. Still, that’s not really any less roomy than the Smart #1 or Volvo EX30, and the MG4 and Renault Megane E-Tech don’t even get one at all.

A great infotainment system and nicely built cabin - it’s a shame some of the materials are on the cheaper side

The EV3’s interior is interestingly designed and quite practical, with design touches that make it feel like a more expensive car. The highlight is the huge curved display on top of the dash, which is actually three screens in one. From right to left (or left to right in our European test cars, pictured) there’s a 12.3-inch driver display, a 5.3-inch screen that shows your climate controls, and another 12.3-inch touchscreen for infotainment.

The driver’s screen is big and clear, and for the most part mimics the same setup as a pair of traditional dials, with speed on one side and the power/charge meter replacing a rev counter on the other. The climate screen is, we reckon, a bit useless - it’s mostly blocked by the steering wheel and is quite a distance from the physical climate buttons lower on the dash. It would make more sense to display them on the main screen, immediately above the switches, or perhaps in a smaller, separate display elsewhere.

The infotainment screen has dozens of menus and can be a bit intimidating at first. However, all the functions you use regularly are quite simple to get to grips with and the screen is big, clear and responsive enough to make interacting with it easy. There’s also standard, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto if you want to bypass Kia’s own system, with a wireless smartphone charging pad standard from the mid-spec model - and plenty of USB-C ports if you prefer to use them instead.

Material choices are interesting. Kia’s mostly shied away from using the piano-black plastics favoured by a lot of European manufacturers in favour of silver and grey tones. The door cards feature a sort of beige shade that really helps the cabin feel brighter.

There are some interesting textures too, though these are often used to disguise the fact that some of the plastics aren’t the highest quality - especially on Air models, where the plastics are notably different than in GT-Line cars.

The dashboard is particularly susceptible to glare on a sunny day, too. The central 'table' for instance, feels quite rough, and the door cards on lower-spec models are made of cheaper, harder plastics than those higher up the range.

We’ve already mentioned the Kia EV3’s exceptional driving range but it bears repeating. Even the small-battery version, with its 270-mile official range, would be good enough to give the Renault Megane E-Tech or Volkswagen ID3 a run for their money. It’s not just that the battery’s a good size, either - the EV3 uses it very efficiently, with an official rating of 4.6mi/kWh.

The larger battery is just as efficient but with its greater size it gives a maximum range of 375 miles for the entry-level Air model. Even top spec cars only drop this to 361 miles, which is still on par with the longest-range Volkswagen ID3 you can buy. We look forward to testing both of these cars in the UK and over longer distances to see if they can measure up to their official claims, but Kia has good form in this regard, with all of its previous EVs getting closer than most alternatives to their claimed figures.

Charge rates are decent but not outstanding - the EV3 can top up at 128kW, which is around half the speed of the larger EV6. It means a 10-80% charge should take around 30 minutes, which is still quick enough to make the EV3 a viable companion for longer road trips - it’s just a shame it can’t make the most of the increasing number of high-powered charging stations across the UK and Europe.

It’s also a bit annoying that a heat pump isn’t standard equipment. Fitting one can improve range in the winter by making the car’s heating system more efficient, and it comes as standard on an increasing number of new EVs - notably budget offerings such as the BYD Dolphin or Hyundai Inster. For the EV3, it’s an optional extra and only available on the range-topping GT-Line S model, so for the others you may find that winter range is reduced a little more than you’d hope for. However, with so much range to play with in the first place, it might not be a problem for you.

With zero emissions, the EV3 pays the lowest available road tax, and company car Benefit-in-Kind rates are competitive too. Better yet, even the big-battery versions can be had for well below £40,000, so they avoid the Expensive Car supplement to your yearly tax bill.

Euro NCAP rating (2024): 4/5

Adult occupant: 83%
Child occupant: 84%
Vulnerable road users: 78%
Safety assist: 78%

The EV3 was tested by the safety experts at Euro NCAP in 2024 where it was awarded four stars. It missed out on the hallowed five-star score due to it missing some driver aids, but in terms of occupant safety, it scored well. The adult occupant score came in at 83%, and the child occupant score came back as 84%.

Every EV3 comes with a suite of mandated safety aids, while higher trim levels also get some additions like an all-round parking camera and a clever blind-spot monitoring system that flashes up a camera image in the instrument cluster when you signal.

Kia’s added a handy shortcut to turn off the particularly annoying overspeed warning beep, which is welcome - you just have to hold down the steering wheel’s mute button. However, even with this off, you’ll want to supplement it by turning off a few more notifications. If you don’t, the EV3 has an almost infuriating cacophony of beeps the entire time you’re driving, including one every time the speed limit changes.

The EV3 is brand new so hasn’t featured in any reliability surveys yet. However, in the 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey the brand as a whole came an encouraging third place, and had two cars - the Picanto and the Sportage - just outside the top ten.

Electric cars generally have less to go wrong than combustion-engined models, though the amount of software involved in keeping one running is eye-watering so that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be flawless. However, Kia’s standard warranty is a really generous seven years or 100,000 miles, much longer than the three years of cover you get with a Volvo EX30 or Volkswagen ID.3.