Kia New EV3
Kia says that they are going to do something very different from what they normally do.
Kia’s EV Strategy
Now, KIA and Hyundai, they produce really, really good electric cars, but they don’t make very many of them.
In fact, their EV sales have gone down this year versus last year, if we’re talking global, worldwide sales.
Market Potential
But KIA says that’s going to change now. With the new KIA EV3, they plan on making these in America and in China, and they want to sell 70,000 minimum in America alone, in the United United States alone.
That’s not even all the other cars they’re going to sell in Australia, in Europe, in the UK, in Canada.
Just in the US, 70,000. Is the KIA EV3 legitimate? I mean, will they even have enough demand to sell this many? Well, here’s why I think they can sell a lot more than that.
Kia, want to blitz the market with A minimum of 70,000 of these. They’re saying actually 70,000 to 80,000 EV3 sales a year from 2025.
What do we know about this car so far? Will there be enough demand? One of the first things, that strikes me about this vehicle, we know that the cheaper version will have lithium-ion phosphate batteries be manufactured in China.
But the American version, it’ll be very, very affordable as well. Now, here’s the key, affordability.
EV3 Key Features and Design
But when you look at the design, you’ve got to admit the design, it looks good.
I don’t think anyone’s going to see this car and say, I’m not going to buy that because it looks bad, it does look good.
If it looks good and the price is right and the range is right, those three things and the charging speeds, four, then you’ve got a winner.
For one, look at the shape of this car it looks so practical. It’s a small car, but bonnet, very small bonnet.
Therefore, the size is going to be maximized, the interior space.
The size of this vehicle, it’s actually 169.3 inches long, 4.3 meters, it’s actually smaller.
It’s actually a similar size to a Chevy Bolt EUV, but it looks way better.
Battery and Range
It’s much more high tech, and it’s going to have 373 miles of range that’s 600 km, That’s on the long-range version.
That long-range version, of course, will be more expensive than the cheapest versions.
That will have an 81.4 kilowatt-hour battery. Now, there is one thing I do not like about this vehicle and KIA have given an explanation because journalists have said, KIA, why did you do this? We don’t think that’s a good idea.
Other car manufacturers are not doing that and KIA have responded to those criticisms.
So what else do we know about the EV3? Well, like I said, this is a global car for KIA. It has a drag coefficient of 0.267.
Not particularly great drag-wise, but it’s not bad.
Kia New EV3 Dimension
Size, it’s at 4.3 meters long, 169.3 inches, it’s 1,850 millimeters wide, 72.8 inches, and it’s 1,560 millimeters tall it’s 61.4 inches.
The wheelbase is 105.5 inches. The EV3 is 4 inches longer than the e-Sol, says KIA, and it’s 4.7 inches shorter than the e-Nero.
That’s why this vehicle, people are saying, Will this replace the KIA Nero? Well, no, it won’t because the Nero is nearly 5 inches longer.
The Nero is significantly bigger, you can get a picture now of the size of this car. It’s about the size.
It’s like a slightly bigger version of a Toyota Corolla, but SUV-ish and more boxy, so it’ll have more interior space, of course.
EV3 Interior & Technology
Now, speaking of the interior, it has a 12.3-inch instrument cluster and a 12.3-inch infotainment display, plus a separate five-inch touch screen for climate controls positioned between them.
It’s essentially going to have three LCD screens in the front of the car.
Now, the global version, how big will it be? Well, one thing that is very surprising is the boot space.
Kia New EV3 Boot Space
The boot space for a car this size, it has the biggest boot space for a car this size from any car that I’ve ever seen, ever.
I love boot space, I always pay attention to boot space. I can tell you the boot space of most cars, it’s one of these weird things.
I have a weird brain for remembering boot space. There is no car that I know of in this segment that’s ever been made that is 4.3 meters long and has 460 liters of boot space.
That is 16.2 cubic feet, meaning the boot space in this vehicle is nearly as big as the boot space in a BMW X5, which is a massively bigger vehicle.
Really smart packaging here from Kia. That does confirm what they’re saying about the criticisms, though.
Performance Specs
Now, it has five passengers in the cabin, it can take five passengers, and it has a 25 liter Frank, so 25, as in Very small, Frank.
I don’t really know if there’s much point to 25 liters. it uses the eGMP platform, but it doesn’t have an 800 volt architecture, so it’s probably not going to have 350 kW fast charging.
It has a 400 V architecture. The standard model is a 58.3 kilowatt-hour battery.
That’s going to obviously give you, I would guess, around about 240 miles of range with that standard-sized battery.
The bigger battery, the much bigger battery, long range, 81.4 kilowatt-hours.
That’s going to give you 600 kilometers or 373 miles of range, but possibly even more than that.
It could actually give you more than 373 miles of range. Charging, apparently, they can charge from 10 to 80% in 31 minutes at charging speeds of 128 kilowatts.
I think the max charging speed of this vehicle is around 150 kilowatts. How much power? Well, single electric It’s a front motor, by the way.
EV3 Driving Experience
Not a rear motor, Front motor in the cheapest version, 201 horsepower that’s 150 kilowatt.
That also has 283 newtons of torque. Now, for a vehicle this size, I think that’s plenty of power. It enables it to do 0-60 miles an hour, 0-62 miles an hour, 0-100 kilometers an hour in 7.5 seconds.
There will be a GT version, as in an all-wheel drive version. But as of yet, it will be a front-wheel drive vehicle at launch.
Controversial Design Choice
That’s the criticisms here, , that journalists have been talking about. They’ve been saying, Why have you made this front wheel drive? It doesn’t make sense.
I mean, EV manufacturers are moving away from front wheel drive.
There are reasons for this Hyundai even said, Hyundai themselves, who are the sister company to Kia, said, Reel drive is better in an electric car.
There are quite a few advantages. I’m surprised to see Kia do this.
Kia has responded to journalists saying, Why have you done this? Why have you made this front wheel drive? And so far, all Kia vehicles built on the eGMP platform have been either real wheel drive or all wheel drive. So here was KIA’s response.
These will be the front wheel drive models which are targeted for affordable EVs that customers are looking for.
Final Word
In other words, they believe in this segment, people are just used to front wheel drive, so they don’t want to change what people are used to.
I don’t think that’s true necessarily, Ev3 is targeting the mainstream EV buyer, said Kia.
That’s why we have chosen eGMP with front wheel drive, which is much lighter. Now, I’m not sure how it would be lighter.
I’m not convinced that that’s actually true, but that’s what they said. The packaging is much lighter, said KIA.
Also, the performance standpoint is right for the customers in the compact SUV category.