• 6 months ago
Kia's subcompact EV3 all-electric powered SUV is headed for U.S. shores. In a market relatively starved for affordable EVs
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Collectively, we can all agree the EV9 looks great.
00:15 But what if we took that great design and shrank it down?
00:18 Well, that's exactly what the new Kia EV3 subcompact does.
00:22 And folks, it works.
00:25 The EV3 is built on the Hyundai Kia e-GMP modular EV
00:29 architecture.
00:30 Kia says the EV3 has a battery capacity of 81.4 kilowatt hours
00:34 and up to about 300 miles of range,
00:37 according to the European WLTP standards.
00:41 Unfortunately, though, Kia didn't give us
00:43 any further stats than that.
00:44 So we'll have to wait a bit longer on things like horsepower
00:47 and charge time.
00:48 But as for size, think about it between a Toyota RAV4
00:52 and a Kia Niro.
00:54 From the outside, the EV3 has the familiar electric Kia
00:57 design language.
00:58 The squared-off wheel arches add to the overall sense
01:01 of geometry.
01:03 Kia says the EV3 will come in nine colors, including four
01:06 that were created especially for this model.
01:09 The light green you're seeing today
01:10 is called aventurine green.
01:12 Greetings from the inside of the EV3,
01:17 where things are very airy and spacious.
01:21 A couple of things I want to draw your attention to
01:23 is first this shelf here that you can absolutely
01:28 put a computer on.
01:30 And there's a cubby down here for bags, purses,
01:34 whatever you like.
01:37 This scroll screen right here works very seamlessly.
01:41 And the action refresh rate, everything seems very crisp.
01:45 That's great.
01:46 The driver and front passenger will
01:47 be able to take advantage of those touchscreens for things
01:50 like climate control.
01:52 In the name of sustainability, cabin materials
01:54 will include recycled dashboard and door trim fabric
01:57 and recycled plastic in the floor mats, door armrests,
02:01 and headliner.
02:01 The back seat of the EV3 is a shockingly spacious place.
02:08 I mean, maybe not so shocking if you're used to the Kia EVs.
02:12 But it is a very spacious spot with plenty of leg room
02:16 and good recline in the seat, good hip height,
02:19 decent headroom.
02:20 And the seats are actually pretty comfortable.
02:22 I would not mind spending a couple of hours
02:24 back here, even longer.
02:25 So that's good.
02:26 I also want to show you this cool feature of the trunk.
02:33 But first of all, the trunk.
02:36 It's pretty good.
02:37 These seats fold down for a flat floor.
02:40 However, if you want to add some storage space,
02:42 there is this clever cargo floor solution
02:46 where you can slide that floor right down.
02:48 And then it opens up all this extra room.
02:50 You can ride around like this or not.
02:52 Really depends on what you want.
02:53 But I will say, when this floor is lowered,
02:55 you kind of have these walls here
02:57 to prevent your stuff from spilling over.
02:59 So that's kind of a neat feature.
03:01 For now, Kia is showing us two trims of the EV3, base
03:05 and GT line.
03:08 From the outside, the base will have gray cladding,
03:10 while the GT line will have more high gloss cladding
03:13 and body colored panels.
03:15 It's unclear when we'll see full production versions of the EV3.
03:19 So some things might change between then and now.
03:22 But based on these cars, it seems
03:24 like things are pretty fully baked.
03:27 Kia has confirmed the EV3 is coming to the United States
03:30 market, and I couldn't be more excited for it.
03:32 We need more stylish subcompact EVs in the space.
03:36 And if the EV3 does indeed put down the numbers
03:39 that Kia says it does, well, that's
03:41 just one more great option for all of us.
03:44 [MUSIC]

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