The Kia EV3 is currently the most popular car in our country. Not just a little, no, in the first four months of this year, 4,878 units were sold. The second best-selling car, also a Kia, follows with ‘only’ 2,638 units. Based on user reviews, we try to unravel the secret of this success.
The Kia EV3 was introduced at the end of last year, but deliveries are only really getting underway this year. It seems to be the Volvo EX30 of 2025 – Volvo sold 10,809 units of that model out of nowhere last year. The Kia is a car according to the same recipe, a compact all-electric SUV. Technically, it comes in two flavors, the Standard-range with 58.3 kWh and up to 436 kilometers of range, and a Long-range, which with its 81.4-kWh battery should be able to travel up to 605 kilometers.
The owner of an EV3 with that large battery kicks things off. “The car feels, looks and is spacious in the front,” is the first finding. “I have enough arm and leg room everywhere, and everything feels and is pleasant. The armrest is at a nice height and is nice and soft.” Then follows a downside for ease of use. “But why can I fold this up to find absolutely nothing underneath? Nice that I can pull out the support as a shelf, but there is enough space to mount a closed storage compartment as well.” We read that last complaint more often.
Another EV3 81.4 kWh driver provides insight into the space for passengers. “You sit well in the back, I can sit comfortably behind myself. I dare say that you can sit here well with 4 (tall) adults to drive a long way. The 5th person sits a bit tighter in the middle, but it is doable. Headroom is also fine in the back and legroom is even very spacious.” Something else striking: “I also find it special that you don’t have a high floor in the back, that typical EV floor.”
The luggage space is also mentioned. “Under the hood is a frunk where the charging cable fits well,” says the owner of a Kia EV3 81.4 kWh Plus Advancedv. “The trunk is spacious and conveniently arranged: there is a loading floor that can be in 2 positions and underneath there is a storage space divided into compartments. Works well.” However, he expresses criticism of the cover of the luggage space. “What I find a pity is that the screen does not connect to the rear seats, an accessory is available for this, but I don’t understand why it doesn’t connect as standard.”
We have already touched on the space for passengers, but the owner of an EV3 in Plus trim has a caveat. “The headroom is somewhat limited, with the result that our son of 1.94 meters gets a bit stuck in the back.” This is not the case in the front, but there is a small point of criticism. “As a driver, I often bump into the island with the on/off button and automatic control under the steering wheel. If I want to sit upright with my knees, I bump into it with my thigh. Every ride, it takes some searching for the right position.”
Another taller owner also runs into that limitation. “It just fits. At 1.92 meters, the e-Niro had more headroom to offer. Unfortunately, the panoramic roof takes away a centimeter or so, if it had been a choice, I would not have chosen that. Still looking for a position where my knee doesn’t hit the gear stick on the steering column.”
A third tall driver has no complaints about the seat. “At 1.95 meters, I am relatively tall and I just sit well in the Kia,” he writes, after which the extensive adjustment options of the seat receive an extra compliment. Also good: “In many cars, I suffer from a somewhat limited view to the front due to a too low-hanging rear-view mirror, but with the Kia I can look nicely underneath it.” Yet some criticism is also heard here. “What is disappointing is that in terms of rearward visibility I cannot look above the horizon because the rear window is too low.”
You would almost think that the EV3 is only bought by tall people, because here we have another one. This driver is more critical: “The driver’s seat is not ideal with my height (193 cm). The seat is too short to take the EV3 out for a few hours.”
There is less comment about the operation of the Kia. “I have little to criticize about the infotainment system,” writes the owner of an EV3 81.4 kWh in the Plus Advanced version. “The screens are beautiful, the whole is logically divided into menus. It works smoothly. And finally, I am very happy with all the physical buttons.”
Less happy is the driver of an EV3 GT-PlusLine: “The screens are super large, which is excellent, and the 360⁰ camera is excellent, but the navigation system could be a lot better as far as I’m concerned,” is the criticism. “I think the maps are very ugly anyway; the navigation in my previous car, a Renault Clio, had a whole set of colors that you could set. The map in the EV3 has everything in gray, and green lines for the roads. I don’t understand that, because older systems from Kia did have more colors, and the map was much easier to read.”
How a car drives seems to be less and less important, only a few owners specifically express themselves about it. The riders who do are predominantly positive. “The road holding is a bit tighter, but I like that,” writes the driver of an EV3 58.3 kWh in Plus Advanced trim. “It also drives nice and smoothly and hardly leans over in the corners. It seems a lot lighter than it is. It picks up quickly and recuperates well. Actually exactly what you can expect from an electric Kia. The steering is a bit too light and somewhat numb for me. It’s becoming very karting like that.” Secretly we are now curious about what kind of karts this driver has driven.
The owner of a similarly executed EV3, but with a larger battery, is also pleased with the road behavior. “It even exceeds my expectations,” it sounds. “The car is really very nicely sprung and at the same time you drive nice and tight (without leaning) around the bend. The only downside I find is the steering, this feels somewhat indirect, but you get used to it. You hardly notice the higher weight and the height of the car with daily driving.”
That ‘almost not’ is something other than ‘not at all’ explains an EV3 81.4 kWh Plus driver. “I found the road behavior on bumps somewhat remarkable. The car handles speed bumps well, even better than my previous car, a Toyota Corolla, which was really good at that. But the bumps on the somewhat subsided A4 along Leiden gave a swell as if we were sailing on a boat. The weight takes its toll there.”
Assistance Systems Annoying But Easy to Turn Off
Drivers make more noise about the mandatory assistance systems on board, which in turn annoy these riders with their presence. Fortunately, the manufacturer has worked on hotkeys to curb these systems. The following annoyed rider provides insight: “You have to press a button for three seconds to deactivate the speed warning. Necessary, because the displayed permitted speed is regularly incorrect and there is no margin on it.” This button appears to be the audio mute button on the steering wheel. A second tip: “You can quickly access the menu via a favorite button that you configure yourself to switch off the Driver Attention Warning. This is also necessary, because if you look away even for a moment to look at your dashboard or turn on the radio, the thing starts beeping.”
Not every rider finds the beeps annoying, Kia appears to have executed them quite refined. “Much has been said and written about those beeps of the EV3,” concludes the owner of an EV3 in Plus trim. “We are both not bothered by them and therefore just leave them on. If you drive faster than the indicated speed, it gives a one-off four somewhat lower tones, which is fine and keeps you alert.” The lane keeping assistant also gets a compliment. “In cruise control I hardly have to touch the steering wheel while the car stays neatly in the middle of the lane and turns with the bends.” What we also read in multiple reviews is criticism of the function with which you select the driving mode, you have to reset that after each start.
Most riders are satisfied with the range, especially people with the 81.4-kWh battery easily reach about 400 kilometers in practice. Nice, but that is of course something different than the promised 600 kilometers. According to the owner of an EV3 81.4 kWh GT-line, the Kia is less economical than his previous car. “The consumption is significantly higher (between 18 and 20 kWh per 100 km) than my previous EV, the Hyundai Kona (between 14 and 16 kWh per 100 km).”
The following rider is initially also not very satisfied with the consumption of an average of around 20 kWh/100 km. “With the rising temperatures I notice that the consumption is decreasing. Average over the last 3,000 km now 17.5 kWh/100 km. On quiet rides, under 15 kWh/100 km is also perfectly possible.” The Kia is therefore, like any EV, sensitive to cold. With a consumption of 15 kWh/100 kilometer you should be able to cover a maximum of about 540 kilometers, but then your car is almost empty.
Maintenance and Fault Sensitivity
The fault sensitivity of young electric cars is now and then a pain point, we saw that with, among others, the Volvo EX30 and Volkswagen ID3. The Kia EV3 seems to escape this awkward dance for the time being, although not every unit is completely free of problems. Anyway, certain ailments certainly do not affect everyone and therefore they do not seem structural. We classify one problem under the category ‘minor suffering’: “The 220V socket under the rear seat has become defective. A weak part/production error perhaps, because it has only been used twice.”
The following rider had to deal with two problems. Once the car gave a critical error message that disappeared as quickly as it came, a second problem concerned a non-working air conditioning. The writer does not mention what the problem was, but that it has been resolved. Finally, the doors no longer unlocked for an unfortunate rider, which turned out to be caused by a completely drained 12V on-board battery. A problem that occurs more often with electric and hybrid cars. The cause was not found, but because no update of the review has been posted since February, we expect that the problem has not recurred since then.
The Kia EV3 therefore seems to be a real hit. It offers enough space, features and driving comfort for most riders, while the reliability also seems to be okay. On the other hand, the car seems to consume more power than expected, although the 81.4-kWh variant compensates for that with a generous battery capacity. As a result, the range is sometimes disappointing, but in practice it is still sufficient.
Endurance Test-Kia EV3: Next to Niro EV and EV6 63 kWh
At AutoWeek we have been driving a Kia EV3 81.4 kWh for a few months. Soon you will read how that endurance tester compares to a Niro EV and an EV6 with the smallest battery pack. We do this because Kia offers no less than three EVs for the electric rider in the price segment €35,000-€45,000. The EV3 endurance tester will also soon have to compete against a Skoda Elroq.