KIA EV3

Looks good, and seems to be very similar in size to the new Volvo EX30

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058298633/volvo-ex30/p1

has some very nice touches, looks impressive, a little odd the smaller battery is not coming here.

another review here from Autogefühl, i like this German guy, he goes into some of the detail other reviewers don’t.

Looks great. Better looking car than the EV9.

edit. That speed warning OTA update can't come soon enough.

I know this is supposed to at least indirectly replace the eSoul.

But the 81 kwh battery pretty much makes the Niro EV surplus to requirements.

I'd expect current happy eNiro drivers to be much more likely to buy this then the current Niro EV.

Also unless Kia really scrape the undercarriage out of things with pricing.

Then this has potential to offer real value for an 81 kwh battery car.

Especially if as reported the EU goes ahead and slaps 25 percent tariffs on chinese EVs.

Edit

Obviously talks of 32 grand sterling and the like in Uk will be for a 58 kwh car with the 81 kwh attracting a premium on top

Hyundai/Kia make efficient cars though. The 64kWh Soul did 310km at motorway speed when Teslabjorn did a range test. I'd be surprised if Kia make a newer similar car with less range.

There's a bigger EV5 on the way too.

It's certainly nothing special for an 81kWh battery in this day and age

I was kind of picturing it like the ID.3 with a 58kWh battery. Mostly for shorter trips but very capable of doing a longer trip if you want to

I presume this has the 800V architecture as well? I would have expected closer to EV6 charging speeds in that case

Ah that's interesting, I thought all of Kia/Hyundai EVs were going to be 800V from now on

It's very strange considering they went for the bigger battery anyway. I wonder where the extra expense for 800V comes from, I always assumed it was down to needing more batteries in series but maybe it's something else

In any case a VW with a 77kWh battery is now charging at 185kW peak, so 130kW is definitely not fantastic nowadays

If I remember correctly, the motor in the EV6 steps up the 400V from the charger to 800V to charge the battery

It's smart because otherwise you'd need a separate converter like the Porsche Taycan, which could be power limited

It also saves on costs because you don't need extra components

There's other way to do the same thing, for example the Porsche Macan splits the pack in two when connected to a 400V charger, so it'll actually like it's charging two batteries at half the current each

Obviously it's better to use an 800V charger, but it makes the best of what you get

While an 800V motor, controller and charger would cost more than a 400V version, it's hard to imagine there's that big a enough cost difference to matter. Particularly when Kia is already making those motors for other EVs

I wonder are they buying in the components from a vendor instead of manufacturing them

Otherwise I just can't wrap my head around it 🤷‍♂️

This shows how charging curve can be just as important as the peak rate.

You see the actual claimed charging time on the EV3 is 10 to 80 percent in 31 mins.

With the 81 kW pack this requires an average charging rate of 109.7 over the whole session.

Suggesting an extremely flat charging curve up to 80 percent.

Worth looking at Nissan Ariya charging tests because the real life Ariya charging tests align really well with what Kia are claiming in both peak charge rate and charge times.

The big Ariya pack is only 7 kwh more than the long range EV3 in usable capacity terms.

I think it is the better looker of the 2 as well. Just waiting to see pricing now, which will be interesting considering KIA have just dropped the price of the Niro EV by about €4.5k to around €38.5k.

Dropped ev6 price too to make way for new facelift model.

UK pricing is broadly in line with Niro EV, apart from 58kw version which is a bit less.

My guess is we will get 2 trims Earth approx €40k and GT Line approx €45k both with 81kw battery and heat pump after grants.

https://www.kia.com/uk/new-cars/ev3/pricing/

Same as an Opel Calibre somehow.

Where? There's nothing on the Kia website.

EV3 - landing page is the link, I did try link it specifically to the EV3 but you can go into it from this link.

Thanks for that @MarkNM. I noticed that the Earth 3 spec has a standard heat pump whereas the GT Line doesn't... bit of a weird omission on the more expensive car. If it is correct, then I think the Earth 3 might be the one to go for.

Interesting that only the GT-Line has the V2L function. Most of the videos I watched on YouTube seemed to hint that it was across the range.

The KIA Ireland configurator needs to be updated properly as well. Some confusing info in there stating Heat Pump as standard on the Earth3 spec but then in the full configuration it says Optional.

I'm still interested in it as a replacement to my Kia Soul 64 though.

did kia fire all their designers, ev7 and now ev 3 just awful looking boxes.