Kia EV4 review

There are three trim levels and two batteries, so simplicity is the key.

The bidding opens at £34,695. Kia has a three-year PCP with 3.9 per cent finance and £3,750 deposit contribution, so put down £5,000 of your money and it's £339 a month.

That price is for base Air spec. Not too base. You get LED lights, the full driver assist package and three-screen dash, plus heated seats and wheel, masses of power sockets and wireless phone mirroring. Oh and integrated Chat GPT, for which we find few uses. Perhaps you will.

The EV4 Air lets you choose the smaller battery (273 miles WLTP) or bigger option for an extra £3,000 (388 miles). Step up to the GT-Line and it's the big battery only, plus extra kit: 19s, gloss black exterior add-ons, fake leather in place of cloth, electric driver's seat. That's £39,395.

GT-Line S adds electric fold-flat 'relaxation seats' for that dentist-chair experience when charging. More useful to us are its sunroof, adaptive pixel headlamps, vented seats and heated rear ones, a three-pin socket, HUD, Harman Kardon stereo, 360-degree parking cameras and a V2L outlet. For all that, the uplift takes you to £43,895.

Oddly, you can get a heat pump, a £900 option, only on the top spec. They must be assuming that anyone with winter range worries will be buying a big battery anyway and will be happy with that.

The warranty is seven years/100k miles, with the battery separately warranted to eight years/unlimited miles to 70 per cent capacity.