2024 Kia EV5 review: First look walkaround

Following hot on the heels of the Car of the Year-winning EV6 (2022) and the game-changing seven-seat EV9 (2023), the all-new Kia EV5 is an entirely different taste of electric vehicle architecture.

While it’s clearly inspired by the show-stopping style of the seven-seat EV9 electric SUV, the five-seat EV5 mid-sized SUV deftly manages to appear part of the visual family, yet a distinctly unique EV offering from Kia. It’s blockier and stockier, yet in no way inferior to the EV9. It’s simply its own thing, which is great from a differentiation perspective.

Presented here in the global hero colour of Frost Blue, this pre-production EV5 is apparently a mixture of specs – essentially a left-hand-drive EV5 GT-Line with a few Earth-spec elements such as (potentially) the four-blade-spoke 19-inch alloys with 235/55R19 Nexen tyres (given that 2023’s Concept EV5 wore 21s with Pirellis).

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Also featured on this pre-production EV5 is Kia’s full digital face with a horizontal light bar linking the rather aggressively angled, C-sectioned LED running lights.

Like the Oz-spec EV9 with its missing light-pattern ‘grille’, the Australian EV5 won’t feature the centre light bar due to ANCAP pedestrian impact requirements.

Beneath the clamshell bonnet is a fully insulated separate luggage area that isn’t huge, but it is neatly trimmed and usefully shaped – much like the overall body design of the EV5. With its blistered wheelarches and dramatically tapered glasshouse, the EV5 is very much a relative of the EV9. But there’s much to like about its more animated front lighting and abruptly cut-off tail.

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Inside, the treatment is very similar to EV9, but concentrated.

The EV5 has the same excellent four-spoke SUV steering wheel with drive-mode button at the bottom, as well as a column-mounted transmission selector, twin 12.3-inch screens segmented by a smaller 5.0-inch climate-control screen, and physical centre-dash controls for temperature adjustment and audio volume.

As in EV9, the smooth interior plastics aren’t necessarily soft touch, though there is a degree of squishiness to the dashboard surface. And while the other plastics don’t quite achieve the silky matte finish of the EV9, they’re not too dissimilar.

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Our pre-production EV5 featured hero-colour Nougat Brown two-tone upholstery with Nougat Brown seatbelts, and I think it looks quite classy – especially alongside the bronze accents underneath the armrests on each door.

The way the upper dashboard sweeps around and blends into the doors feels more interconnected than in the slabbier EV9 – enhanced by a band of ambient lighting that runs across the top of the doors, then seamlessly bisects the lower Nougat Brown part of the dash from the upper black section just below the cowl.

The cowl itself does feel slightly higher than in an EV9, but maybe that’s because the dash slopes downwards more (rather than being a flat expanse), with a lower hip-point to the seating.

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Yet the EV5 does feel like a significantly smaller vehicle than the EV9, despite the clearly visible humps of its outer bonnet haunches (as opposed to the cinemascopic expanse of flat bonnet and glass in the imperious EV9), making the EV5 feel bigger than it actually is.

This car has what the Chinese call a centre bench-type seat, where there’s an extra seat hump in the middle (without a belt) disguising a little phone pocket underneath the upholstery, and then ahead of that is a floating tray with the wireless phone charger and dual cupholders, plus a huge, semi-hidden rubberised tray beneath. You have to reach deep down to grab anything, however, because you can’t lift the centre section up to access it.

Above the centre bench-type seat is just a simple folding armrest that doesn’t open or close, while ahead on the dash in a concealed take-away hook that may prove handy for smaller bags.

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And to keep everything uncluttered, Kia has located the front-seat heating and cooling switches near the door handles.

The front seats themselves are really good. In this instance, the driver gets multi-way electric control with an electric ottoman extender, electric seat recline and electric lumbar, whereas the front passenger (at least when the bench-type seat is fitted) only gets four-way electric adjustment, without any cushion tilt.

Thankfully, under-thigh support is impressive – often a failing in Korean cars – and the multi-position headrest is a welcome touch. But the door bottle storage is pitiful – 600ml bottles at best, which lags well behind the EV9 or even the new-gen Hyundai Kona.

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In the rear, the roomy EV5 feels expansive and well thought-out. There’s an ingenious picnic table – a very solid single tray on the back of the front passenger’s seat, complete with pen holder and easy access to the USB-C ports on the sides of the front seats.

And because the rear air vents are mounted in the B-pillars (just like EV6), there’s room for a large centre slide-out tray that Kia plans to offer with heating and cooling (for food and drinks), though this wasn’t on our pre-production EV5.

The seat itself is excellent – impressively supportive, with a terrific forward view and supple perforated enviro-upholstery that somehow feels nicer than leather, yet nothing like vinyl.

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Even the centre position is reasonable, thanks to a fully flat floor, plenty of space in all directions and relatively supple cushion, though the centre backrest (incorporating the folding armrest) is a bit firm.

While there’s no fore-aft adjustment for the rear bench, the 60/40 backrests can be adjusted in 10 positions, and when they’re folded, the EV5’s cargo floor is completely flat (with in-built flaps to cover the gap between seat and boot floor) for outstanding versatility … tempered only by the pathetic little bottle slots in the rear doors.

At least the EV5’s boot area is tremendous. Kia is yet to quote a volume amount but in person, it’s intelligently shaped and looks highly useful.

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There are two floor sections that lift up – both disguising under-floor bins – though the section near the boot edge actually cantilevers up against the rear backrest to make a clever shelf.

The panelling on the cargo area’s side sections house three bins each – making six in total – and there’s a three-prong power outlet, plus moveable cargo knobs that can be used for both shopping bags or tidying up your cabling.

And the finish in the EV5’s boot area is just as consistent as the rest of the vehicle, even in this pre-production model.

If the EV5 drives as well as it looks, it’s hard to see how this medium electric SUV can fail to succeed

Given contemporary Australia’s conservatism when it comes to colour, it’s potentially unlikely that we’ll see the Nougat Brown interior, though the top-spec Thai EV5 (it went on sale there a week ago) does offer that interior colour, as well as a vibrant Marine Navy (think petrol blue) alternative, as well as Frost Blue and Iceberg Green exterior colours.

Either way, if the EV5 drives as well as it looks, and costs as little as Kia Australia promises, it’s hard to see how this Korean-designed, Chinese-built, Australian-tuned medium electric SUV can fail to succeed.

Kia says it should have no issue accessing around 850 units of supply per month. But based on our initial walk-around, 10,000 Australian EV5 sales per year might actually prove to be a little conservative.