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By Jonathan Crouch

Kia targets families with this mid-sized electric SUV, the EV5. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 38

Kia gets more serious about the mid-sized part of the electric SUV market with this car, the EV5. This five-seat EV model is visually striking, practically configured and ready to impress you with some clever interior design touches.

Backgroundword count: 135

It's about time that Kia brought us a conventionally-shaped electric mid-sized family SUV. The Korean brand's had a car in this segment since 2022, the EV6, but it's a bit of a stretch to classify that as an 'SUV' and it's clearly not a car for the kind of adventurous lifestyle a 'Sport Utility Vehicle' is supposed to epitomise. Which is where this car, the EV5, comes in. Visually, it's clearly related to Kia's largest electric vehicle, the EV9, but unlike that car and the EV6, it uses a less sophisticated 400V architecture. Globally, Kia produces two kinds of EV5, a Chinese model and a slightly differently-engineered Korean design - which is the one Europe gets. The brand reckons this car will 'redefine its genre' with some clever design touches. Let's take a closer look.

Driving Experienceword count: 370

Europe gets the Korean-built variant of this model, which has a different battery package to the alternative Chinese-built EV5. Our version sees a front-mounted 214bhp motor with 295Nm of torque matched to a large 81.4kWh battery, the only one on offer. Performance feels right for the kind of family SUV this is and can be brisk when you need it to be. Select the sharpest of the provided drive modes - Sport (the others are Eco, Normal, MyDrive and Snow) - and 0-62mph takes 8.4s en route to the modest 102mph maximum. Drive like that though and of course you'll never get anywhere near the quoted EV range, rated at 329 miles. As you'd expect, all EV5s have a regenerative braking system, operated by steering wheel paddles and including a 'one pedal' driving setting, which notably slows the car off-throttle, though not as fiercely as the similar systems employed by some rivals. You'll be using this primarily in town, where the light steering, supple suspension and glassy body make the EV5 a pleasant companion. Beyond the city limits, you will of course appreciate the lack of steering feedback rather less, but you can still place the car precisely, there's plenty of traction and the red-themed 'Sport' mode even tightens the seat bolsters to better hold you in place through the turns. Despite that, as we've already suggested, this Kia doesn't take particularly kindly to being thrown about, so we can't really see much point in considering the top dual motor GT version, which has 302bhp and makes 62mph in 6.0s. You can have a de-tuned version of the same powertrain in a 261bhp AWD model. Rather than speed though, it's better to concentrate on the things this EV5 does well - and one of them is noise suppression. As a result, highway refinement is impressive and long distances are further aided by the standard semi-autonomous Highway Driving Assist tech. You wouldn't expect to go very far off road in a lifestyle-orientated electric mid-sized electric SUV of this type - and thanks to just 167mm of ground clearance, you won't go very far off piste in this one. But the 1,200kg braked towing capacity figure is better than you might expect.

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