Sometimes I need a lot of time to decide how much I like a vehicle, whether its idiosyncrasies are “charming quirks” or “bad design.” Sometimes it takes a lot of time for my ideas to coalesce into an opinion that’s coherent and balanced enough to publish, and this works positively and negatively. The 2027 Kia EV5 was not one of those tricky, ambiguous reviews. Despite being all-new, I picked it up, drove twenty-three minutes to our office, got out and pronounced that it’s brilliant; definitely on the shortlist for crossover of the year.

I have done this once or twice before, and sheepishly walked that back by the end of the week, but I’m happy to report I still like this thing, and so does everyone who drove it. You probably will too.

What’s new

While it is an all-new recipe that we haven’t seen from Kia (or Hyundai, or Genesis) before, all the parts that make up the recipe are more or less already established - hence why it was easy to size it up so quickly. I know all the ingredients, but this electric compact crossover SUV arrangement of those ingredients is exactly what the doctor ordered.

To that end, this is the only all-electric compact SUV from a mainstream brand available in this country. It is almost exactly the same size as a Toyota RAV4, offers over 450 kilometres of range, and hovers around fifty grand. Everyone wants a small affordable SUV, and people are increasingly curious about electric vehicles; the Kia EV5 is the first to bridge that gap that I can think of.

Exterior design

The EV5 sports an upright, slightly squared-off shape, that takes some inspiration from the flagship EV9 and softens the edges a little bit. I initially thought it was highly derivative of BMW’s X1 in its design (that’s a good thing, for the record), and I still sort of feel that way, but it’s definitely very much its own thing and recognizable as a Kia.

It looks like a fairly conventional little commuter crossover with enough personality to stand out, and enough presence and tasteful flourishes to look like it punches a class above. No awkward shapes or curious choices here; compared to the Kia EV4, it’s a straight-up stud.

Interior design

The inspiration from BMW is more apparent inside, with a steep dashboard nicely integrating a 33-inch wide display, complete with stylized creases and contrasting diagonal lines to break it up, all taken from the X3’s playbook. Having said that, it’s not a sloppy copy, it’s a catchy cover track that fits well into Kia’s own catalog. There’s also more physical controls than you’d find on a BMW, with climate controls, volume, and key software shortcuts all having their own touch points. Everything is well laid out, easy to learn and live with, and visually well integrated.

Materials all feel well chosen, and nothing feels economy-class, with every surface above your waistline being soft-touch. Control stalks feel excellent as on every other Kia, the driving position is terrific, visibility is great, the seats are very comfortable, and the synthetic leather feels like quality.

I remain a fan of the decision to go with dark grey - as opposed to the usual black - for almost all interior surfaces, and I remain less a fan of the white elements that come with the GT-Line models. Either way, it looks and feels great.

There’s lots of storage in and under the floating centre console, plus large door pockets, so there’s plenty of room for knick-knacks, and lots of high-wattage USB-C ports to keep everything charged. Rear seat room and headroom are excellent, cargo space is quite healthy, and while it may sound like a minor thing, I was excited to see that the rear seats fold completely flat - although I found it strange that there’s no way to release the seats from the rear, you have to use the lever on either side at the doors. Other than that omission, the use of space in the EV5 is Honda-tier brilliant.

Tech and infotainment

As we’ve seen in other Kias, the 33-inch dash display houses three screens: two 12.3-inch screens on either side to make up the digital gauge cluster and center touchscreen, and a 5-inch portrait screen in the middle for granular climate controls. This is still a bit of a curious arrangement, as it's obscured by the steering wheel, but it’s better than the switchable climate and media control bar Kia used to favour, and there are physical rocker buttons for temperature adjustment.

The centre screen doesn’t bring anything obviously new to the table, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s the same Android-based Kia interface that’s been around for years, and it’s easy to use and well presented, with excellent contrast, clarity, and snappy responses. It does feature wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well.

The gauge cluster hides something new, though. It’s the same layout we’ve seen before, but there’s a new highlight in the form of Kia’s updated driver assistance system, now with the ability to see lines in the road and surrounding traffic, and project it fairly smoothly onto both the aforementioned gauge cluster if desired, and on the crisp heads-up display on our tester as well. 

The new adaptive cruise control and lane tracing work exceptionally well, and it brings a new lane change assistant into its arsenal, and it might be the best on the market - tied with BMW, ironically. I find lane-change assist systems are usually awkward, take too long, and self-cancel too easily, but not so was the case with this EV5. Flick the turn signal and if there’s no one in the way, it’ll slide over promptly, like you would. This slick ADAS suite plus the addition of seamless telegraphing of what the car sees puts the EV5 way ahead of almost everything else that’s roughly the same shape and price.

Power, battery, range, charging

The EV5 is kind of a blend of the bigger EV6 and smaller EV4, using a similar E-GMP architecture to the EV6, but with its solo motor mounted between the front wheels, rather than the rear. Like the EV4, it uses a simpler 400-volt charging architecture to reduce cost, and is still capable of charging quite quickly. Its 81.4 kWh battery can charge at up to 350kW on a DC fast charger via a NACS port, but more importantly, its very healthy on-board inverter means it can charge on an average Level 2 charger surprisingly quickly. I plugged it into our office's mediocre 50-amp charger at about 50% and it was brimming full in about two and a half hours; very impressive.

Range for the single motor Light and Wind models is officially estimated at 457 kilometres as of this writing, with this loaded GT-Line tester presumably coming in very slightly under that. It bears mentioning that I was able to beat its official estimated energy use without trying, using just 17.2 kWh/100km, and the on-board range computer - which I’ve seen work very well - had me pegged at well over 500 kilometres on a full charge, and over 600 under ideal conditions.

The single front mounted motor makes 214 horsepower, which is perfectly adequate for a commuter car, but only adequate. Driven sensibly, it feels effortless and just zippy enough to not feel lethargic, and power delivery is calibrated to be smooth first and foremost, so don't expect any tire-roasting burnouts, even in Sport mode. If you like one-pedal driving, the regenerative braking on this single motor tester is on the mild side, but strong enough to not need the brake pedal 95% of the time - if driven sensibly.

If you’re not looking to drive sensibly… the dual motor model is a mandatory prerequisite. Curiously, no official power specs are offered by Kia Canada as of this writing, but overseas, the dual-motor model produces 302 horsepower and 354 foot-pounds of torque - still not a huge amount, but a very meaningful bump that’ll help wake the EV5 up. It remains to be seen what our dual will do, I’m hopeful it ends up becoming the EV5 GT announced in Europe, because…

Driving Impressions

This mild-mannered little commuter crossover handles way better than it has any right to. Like the EV6 to which it is closely related, the chassis is very well calibrated, with sharp turn-in response and a surprising amount of road feel relayed through the steering wheel. It’s satisfying and confidence-inspiring to pilot, and can be quite flickable, too. There’s a lot of potential here.

If you don’t care about that potential, no problem. The EV5 is exceptionally quiet, comfortable, and well-insulated from the road. Body control is excellent and harsh pavement is well-hushed. The turning circle is excellent and the steering is quite light at low speeds, making parking maneuvers - especially with our tester’s surround-view cameras - a breeze. It’s nice, and carries itself nicely; it would appear Kia wasn’t just taking inspiration from BMW on the design front.

Money

The Kia EV5 starts at $43,495 for the base Light FWD, and goes up t0 $58,995 for our loaded GT-Line limited tester, which adds just about every nicety in Kia’s arsenal, like a panoramic roof, powered, heated, and ventilated seats, a Harmon Kardon sound system, power liftgate, plus the aforementioned high-caliber driver assistance tech. A second motor can be added to any model for $2,500.

Compared to other small crossover EVs, like the Volvo EX30 and Chevy Bolt, the EV5 has significantly more size, space, range, faster charging, and more impressive tech than either of them, even if the Volvo absolutely blows it out of the water on the performance front. 

Compared to other compact crossovers, it is a little on the high side, but again, the execution of the interior space, tech, and driving experience are second to none, and handsome, too. It stands to reason that there’s a surcharge that comes with never having to go to a gas station again, and all the pricing I mentioned is before any EV subsidies, too. 

Wrap it up

There’s a very real case for something like this over one of the established segment leaders like the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, let alone Kia’s own Sportage. Electric vehicles are brilliant as everyday commuter cars, and the 2027 Kia EV5 is brilliant among electric vehicles. It looks great inside and out, it’s well thought out, it drives great, it has an excellent battery architecture with fantastic range, and if you want more power, it’s not a big additional outlay. It’s hardly a surprise I was able to size this up so quickly; it’s all familiar ingredients, arranged into something that's a cut above.