The Kia Sportage is the best-selling family SUV in the UK – will the EV5 follow suit?
Well, if there’s anyone left who hasn’t yet bought a Sportage, the EV5 will impress. A big battery as standard means it offers a range of over 300 miles, and there’s a premium interior borrowed from the recent EV3 and EV4.
The EV5 will arrive on UK roads before the end of 2025. We’re told the EV5 will undercut a lot of its main rivals, such as the Skoda Enyaq, Volkswagen ID.4, Nissan Ariya, Peugeot e-3008 and Tesla Model Y. Kia didn’t mention that the Renault Scenic E-Tech is marginally cheaper, though.
2025 Kia EV5 prices and specifications
Kia says the entry-level EV5 Air will start at around £38,000, with the top-spec GT-Line S costing around £45,000.
Air trim gets 18-inch alloy wheels, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, LED headlights and black cloth upholstery.
Next is GT-Line, with sporty styling, black exterior trim and 19-inch alloys. GT-Line also gets flush door handles, two-tone artificial leather upholstery, heated outer rear seats, electric front seat adjustment, wireless phone charging, an electric boot lid and ambient lighting.
Top-spec GT-Line S gets premium ventilated front seats, a sunroof, fingerprint recognition and an eight-speaker Harman Kardon sound system.
White paint is standard, with six metallic options costing an extra £650.
Interior and technology
Like the EV3 and EV4, the new EV5 will feature twin 12.3-inch screens as standard, plus a 5.3-inch screen sandwiched between the larger screens that does the climate control. Press on this screen and the climate functions expand onto the touchscreen, as if by magic. You’ll need to do this as it’s obscured by the steering wheel otherwise.
There are entertainment packages for the touchscreen, enabling streaming services such as Disney+ and Netflix. Some will be free but others will require a monthly subscription – presumably you’ll be able to login using the same credentials as you would on your TV or laptop. These will only work when the car’s parked.
The touchscreen also includes an AI chat assistant powered by ChatGPT. If it recognises what you say, it can help plan a route and give information about points of interest, as well as answer questions about the car’s functions and provide entertainment offerings such as music recommendations and jokes. You wake it up by saying ‘Hey Kia’.
Kia has clearly copied Tesla for its new Pet Mode function, which makes its debut in the EV5. The air con remains on while the driver is away, buttons are locked to prevent accidental pressing and there’s a message on the touchscreen to stop passers-by breaking your windows to be a hero.
Practicality
The 4.6-metre-long EV5 is 7cm longer than a Sportage, as well as slightly taller and wider. The 2.75-metre wheelbase – the distance between the front and rear wheels – is 7cm longer, too, which should mean a huge amount of passenger space. A 566-litre boot is among the best in class, and there’s a 44-litre frunk that’ll do for storing cables.
The rear seats fold flat and there’s a 10cm-high adjustable boot floor, giving you the choice of maximum loadspace or a boot opening with no lip to haul heavy items over. A versatile centre console adds another 16.5 litres of interior storage.
Range and charging
There’s only one battery option in the EV5: an 81.4kWh pack that offers up to 329 miles on a charge. That’s competitive if not class-leading – just like the 8.4-second 0-62mph time and the half-hour 10-80% charge time. But better figures would have made the EV5 much more expensive.
Vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability is fitted on the GT-Line and GT-Line S trims, although only the latter comes with the necessary adaptor as standard. This function lets you power electrical items from the car’s high-voltage battery, such as camping equipment or a coffee machine.
The EV5 will go on sale alongside the Sportage, although Kia is still expecting the petrol car to be the bigger seller. It expects 6,000 EV5 sales in 2026, which is roughly the number of Sportages sold in just two months in the UK. Mid-range GT-Line is expected to be the most popular trim, and Kia forecasts a 35/65% split between retail and fleet customers.
Read our Kia Sportage review to see why the current car is so good, or shop our exciting range of used Kia electric cars for sale.
