Kia EV4 Review 2025 | A family-friendly electric hatchback or saloon
Kia EV4 cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Very spacious
Smart, airy interior
Roomy rear seats and boot
Cons
Not cheap to buy
No standard heat pump
Unremarkable charging speeds
The CarGurus verdict
Hold up your thumb and forefinger so that they’re almost, but not quite, touching. That’s how close the EV4 gets to a full five-star rating.
So let’s get the reasons it doesn’t out of the way. The biggest is cost; if you want a cheap EV4, you can’t have one. Yes, the EV4 is well equipped – which means you do get a decent amount for your money. But if you’re looking for a fairly basic, but affordable, entry-level model you’re fresh out of luck.
And while it is generously equipped, there’s one item of kit that’s conspicuously absent from the list: a heat pump. That’ll mean your range will drop off more than most rivals’ will in the depths of the British winter.
But let’s face it: these issues are far from deal-breakers. The EV4 may not be an exemplary car, but it is still a very, very good one; generously equipped, roomy, a delight to drive, and a joy to be in. It should prove to be reliable, and it’s backed up by a long warranty; and while the jury’s out on efficiency, it should be pretty cheap to run.
It is, in other words, almost the perfect electric family car – and an ideal choice if you’d rather have a proper hatchback than a chunky SUV.
What is the Kia EV4?
What if you want an electric car but don’t want an SUV? Well, not so long ago you’d have limited choices. But in the past few years, more and more manufacturers have cottoned on to the fact that some buyers want an EV without the SUV.
Kia is the latest. Until now, it hasn’t offered a conventional hatchback in battery-powered form. That’s changed with the arrival of the Kia EV4, which is available as either a hatchback or ‘Fastback’ (read: saloon) model.
The former will line up against conventional electric hatchbacks such as the Volkswagen ID.3, MG 4, Peugeot e-308 and Vauxhall Astra Electric, as well as slightly higher-riding rivals like the Renault Megane E-Tech and Citroën e-C4.
The Fastback’s job is tougher: it’s sized against the Citroën e-C4 X, but it also has to take on the might of the Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2. It’s expected to be popular among those who need more boot space, yet can live without the versatility of a hatchback; think private hire drivers and you’ll have a better idea of why the Fastback is here.
How practical is it?
With its bulky rear end, it’s no surprise that it’s the Fastback that offers the most room in the boot; in fact, you get 490 litres to play with. But while that’s a respectable amount, and more than you’ll get in the Polestar 2, it’s still not as much as you’ll find in either the e-C4 X or the Model 3.
By contrast, the hatchback offers less boot space, at 431 litres, but that’s actually more than you’ll get in most hatchback rivals, making this a roomy alternative. It’s worth noting, too, that you actually get more boot space in the EV4 than you do in most petrol-powered hatchbacks, which is admirable given some EVs sacrifice boot space for battery packaging.
That load space doesn’t come at the expense of rear seat room. There’s headroom to spare for most passengers, and more legroom than you’ll know what to do with. Big, wide-opening rear doors make access easy when you want to buckle up a child seat, too.
Up front, the interior has lots in common with that of Kia’s EV3 SUV. And that’s no bad thing, because it means the whole thing looks great and feels brilliantly screwed together. It also means there are lots of cubbies for you to stash away your odds and ends.
The view out is good, too. There’s plenty of glass and the door pillars aren’t too thick. And the little ridges that Kia’s incorporated as a styling feature at the tops of the front wings actually serve a useful purpose; they make it easy to judge where the corners of the car are from within.
What’s it like to drive?
The EV4 range is fairly easy to understand: there’s just one motor, producing 201bhp, which powers the front wheels and supplies a healthy 209lb ft of torque. That’s enough to get the EV4 to 62mph from a standstill in a sprightly 7.5 seconds.
While the motor’s the same throughout the range, there’s a choice of two batteries. The smaller, a 58.3kWh unit, is only available in entry-level ‘Air’ trim but it isn’t exactly a poor relation; it still allows for a WLTP range of 273 miles, which should equate to somewhere between 190 and 220 miles in the real world. More than enough, in other words, if you only occasionally take your car on longer trips.
Upgrade to the GT Line or GT Line S versions and you get the larger 81.4kWh battery as standard. No bad thing when you get the benefit of a whopping 388-mile WLTP range. Expect that to drop to between 270 and 310 miles in the real world, but for most people that should be more than enough for a day out with the kids.
It’s clear from the moment you start to drive the EV4 that this is a car that’s been set up with comfort in mind. The way it smothers bumps is pretty competent and smoother than, say, a Vauxhall Astra Electric. There’s still a touch of jitteriness over really rough roads, but it’s not enough to upset you unduly and the EV4 is a relaxing way of covering miles on the motorway.
It makes a decent enough fist of things in bends, too. Granted, it’s never going to challenge the best in class for handling honours, and the steering doesn’t give you much in the way of feedback, but there’s a neatness to the way the nose turns in. There’s lots of grip, too, which inspires lots of confidence behind the wheel. In other words, it should look after you in an emergency manoeuvre – which is the most important thing for a family car like this.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
The Air is the cheapest version of the EV4, but it still comes with a pretty generous specification. Heated front seats, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, 17-inch alloy wheels and four USB ports all come as standard.
Upgrading to the GT-Line brings sportier exterior styling along with 19-inch wheels, as well as artificial leather upholstery, electrically adjustable front seats, a wireless phone charger, and ambient mood lighting.
The GT-Line S sits at the top of the range and has a lavish specification that includes a sunroof, heated outer rear seats, ventilated front seats, a powered boot lid, vehicle-to-load capability (which means you can power and charge things from the car), a Harman Kardon sound system, and a head-up display.
All EV4s come with a widescreen display that stretches across most of the top of the dashboard. It looks like a single screen but incorporates two 12.3-inch displays; one sits in front of the driver and displays driving information, including the speed, range, warning lights and power usage. The other is a touch-sensitive screen used for controlling the entertainment, navigation, and most of the car’s settings. This latter screen works pretty well, with clear displays and easy-to-understand menu layouts.
In between these is a third, smaller touchscreen for the climate control functions. It’s a daft location for it, because it means it’s almost completely obscured by the steering wheel – so not only do you have to take your eyes off the road, you actually have to move your head to see what you’re pressing, which is rather distracting.
Thankfully, temperature adjustment is done via separate, physical switches located below the air vents, which reduces the impact of this issue, but it doesn’t mitigate it entirely.
One thing you don’t get as standard is a heat pump, a bit of energy-saving equipment that helps heat and cool the car more efficiently, so that your range is less heavily impacted in hot or cold weather.
In fact, a heat pump is only available on the top-of-the-range GT-Line S, and even then you have to pay extra for it. These days, when many rivals (including the far smaller, cheaper Renault 5 E-Tech) have heat pumps as standard, that’s disappointing.
Kia EV4 running costs
At first glance, the EV4 hatchback looks pretty pricey; you’ll pay around £4,000 more for the entry-level version than you will for the most basic Volkswagen ID.3, and around £7,000 more than you will for a basic MG 4.
But don’t forget to compare like-for-like; those entry-level models are inferior to the EV4 Air on both range and specification. Pricing up an equivalent, the MG 4 is still cheaper, but not by all that much, while the ID.3 actually works out more expensive.
The EV4 Fastback, meanwhile, sets out to tussle with the Tesla Model 3; there’s no Air model here, so the range kicks off with the generously kitted-out GT-Line version.
And while that means you’ll have to pay almost £1,000 more than the cheapest Model 3, you do get more toys, three years more warranty, and around 50 miles more range thrown in. GT-Line S versions of the EV4 are priced similarly to Model 3 Long Range models but can’t match them for range.
Kia hasn’t released energy efficiency details for the EV4 yet, but given you get a greater range with less battery capacity than the equivalent Volkswagen ID.3, things look promising. That might not matter too much if you can charge up at home, but if you’re reliant on pricey public chargers, it could make it noticeably cheaper to run.
Having said that, it’s worth keeping in mind that the priciest GT-Line S versions stray over £40,000, which means they’re eligible for the higher rate of VED from the second to the sixth year of their lives. Stick to the GT-Line, then, if you don’t want to put a considerable dent in your running costs.
As per most other electric cars, Kia will only require you to get your EV4 serviced every two years or 20,000 miles, whichever comes first, though it will also offer an optional interim check-up on the alternate years that a full service is not required.
Kia EV4 reliability
The EV4 is still too new for us to have any concrete data regarding its reliability, but we do know a bit about how well-regarded Kia’s cars are as a whole – and the news is mostly good.
Kia finished 8th in the latest What Car? Reliability Survey – an impressive result given 30 car manufacturers were included in the study. It’s also worth noting that the Kia EV3 – which shares its platform and most of its mechanicals with the EV4 – was one of only four models included in the survey to get a perfect score of 100%, meaning none of its owners had any problems at all.
Add to this the fact that the EV4, like all new Kias, gets a manufacturer warranty of seven years and 100,000 miles, and the signs are pretty good that an EV4 will be a dependable option.
- While the larger Kia EV6 and EV9 can be charged quickly thanks to their 800V electrical architecture, the EV4 only has a 400V system, which means its charging speeds aren’t as quick as you might expect. The 58kWh version will charge at 100kW, which allows it to get from 10 to 80 per cent in 30 minutes, while the 81kWh model will manage 135kW, although as a result of its bigger battery, it takes 33 minutes to achieve the same percentage increase. Those speeds are OK, but not up there with the best in this class.
- One of Kia’s proudest boasts is about the aerodynamics of the EV4. It features active air flaps in the front bumper, which open to cool the battery, or close on longer runs to improve aerodynamics. More than 80% of the underbody is covered with a flush-fitting undertray that optimises airflow. As a result of measures like these, the hatchback achieves a drag coefficient of 0.26, while the Fastback model is actually the most aerodynamic production Kia has ever made, at 0.23Cd.
- Go for the GT-Line S version of the EV4 and you get Kia’s ‘premium relaxation’ seats in the front. These can recline almost flat, allowing you to take a nap while the car is charging, and to aid this you also select ‘Rest Mode’ in the entertainment system, which uses the ambient lighting and displays to create a more restful environment.
- If you’re on a budget: don’t worry, because the cheapest version of the EV4 is no poor relation. Choose the 58kWh Air, and you still get a very usable range and a good slug of equipment. In fact, for most people, it’ll be all they really need.
- If you need maximum range for minimum cost: go for the 81kWh Air. It’s the most affordable way to get yourself into a car that can do this many miles on a charge – not just in the EV4 range, but in the new car market more generally.
- If you love your toys: there’s only one option for you, really, and it’s the 81kWh GT Line S. It doesn’t come cheap, but it’s absolutely loaded with kit, some of which you wouldn’t normally expect to find on a common-or-garden family hatch.
- If you want the best all-rounder: that’s probably the 81kWh Air. It comes with all the key bits of equipment you might want, as well as that range-tastic bigger battery, but you don’t pay extra for some of the bells and whistles you get with the GT-Line versions.
