Kia EV3 review

Starting price for a Kia EV3 is £32,995, which gets you the smaller battery. You’re looking at £35,995 for the bigger battery with the most range.

There’s really very little between it and its biggest rivals - give or take a couple of hundred quid - the Volvo EX30, Smart #1, and Renault Megane E-Tech. The Cupra Born and Hyundai Kona Electric should probably be on your radar too. Well worth test driving the lot, we reckon.

Is there much difference in trims?

You’ve three to choose from, and they mirror that of the EV6 and EV9.

Air is Kia’s base spec, and as standard you get 17-inch alloys, LED headlights and running lights, the three-screen dashboard, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, grey cloth upholstery, heated steering wheel and front seats, front and rear parking sensors, reversing camera and numerous active safety gizmos.

The mid spec is GT-Line, which gets the bigger battery as standard and costs from £39,495. It adds 19-inch alloys, sportier styling, funky headlights, gloss black mirrors, black side sills, wheel arches and window surrounds, automatic flush door handles, rear privacy glass, two-tone upholstery, customisable ambient lighting, sliding centre console, wireless phone charging and alloy pedals.

Top-spec GT-Line S cars begin at £42,995, but you can spec a heat pump for £900. Otherwise Kia throws in a head-up display, front sunroof, ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, eight-speaker Harman Kardon Premium sound system, 360-degree camera, powered tailgate and Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) functionality.

That’s a whole lotta kit. What would you recommend?

Honestly the entry-spec Air comes with plenty, so go with that. We’d add the bigger battery though, which ups the price to £35,995.

As ever, when and where you charge will dictate how cheap it is to run, but a 20-80 per cent top up on a home wallbox will take around five hours for the Standard Range and seven hours for the Long Range model.

Find yourself a fast DC charger - at a motorway service station, for example - and you’re looking at around half an hour, thanks to peak rates of 102kW in the Standard Range and 128kW in the Long Range. We've seen better, but that's not too shabby.