In the wake of so many pessimistic news pieces about a slowdown in the EV industry, Kia comes along with its boxy EV3 and asks, “What slowdown?”
That’s because the recently revealed entry-level electric crossover amassed over 10,000 reservations in its home country of South Korea in less than a month, prompting the company’s boss of domestic business, Jeong Wonjeong, to call it “a game changer.”
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Kia EV3 stats
The all-new, entry-level Kia EV3 can be ordered in its home country of South Korea with a long-range battery that has a capacity of 81.4 kilowatt-hours, enabling a WLTP-estimated range of 347 miles. It's front-wheel drive only, it seats five and it can export power from its high-voltage battery for things like appliances and tools.
Specifically, the Kia EV3, which will come to the United States most likely toward the end of the year, needed just 23 days to convince a whole lot of people to buy it after sales began early last month, Korean business publication Consumerwide reported. The news was first cited in the West by Electrek.
For context, the EV3’s biggest rival, the Volvo EX30, sold 11,000 units in May–globally. That speaks volumes for the potential of Kia’s new entry-level electric crossover, as well as the somewhat inflated narrative about a dwindling demand for EVs.
As it turns out, people want more affordable cars and not just $50,000+ EVs that might only fully utilize their driving range once or twice a year, and even then it wouldn’t be a problem seeing how the charging infrastructure is much better suited to road-tripping electric vehicles than it was a decade ago. According to J.D. Power, the number of failed charging attempts at public providers in the first quarter was 20%, but some of the biggest names in the industry fared much better, with Electrify America at 9% and Tesla at 5%.
Gallery: Kia EV3 (2024) in European specification
Getting back to the Kia EV3, the base model, which starts at the equivalent of $30,700 in Korea, is available with either a standard- or long-range battery that enables a range of up to 311 miles. For global markets, Kia said it’s aiming for a range rating of about 300 miles, with U.S. pricing expected to be somewhere around the $35,000 mark.
That kind of cash brings a car that has vehicle-to-load, a heat pump, two 10.25-inch displays and a bunch of other clever stuff as standard.
