Will they or won’t they bring the Kia EV3 to the United States? That’s one of the (many) questions we had about the pint-sized EV when it debuted as a concept last October. But we’ve got good news, folks: The Kia EV3 is coming Stateside.
The company confirmed to Motor1 that its new entry-level EV is heading to the US sometime soon. Kia won’t say when its new EV goes on sale or how much it might cost, but we have ideas.
Rumor has it we could see the new EV3 in the US as early as 2025, potentially 2026. That’s right around when Rivian plans to release the R3. Considering the EV3 is smaller than a Seltos, it will almost certainly cost less than $35,000. It could be even closer to $30,000 based on some reports. The EV3 is 169.3 inches long—3.3 inches shorter than the Seltos.
There isn’t much to report from a technical standpoint, but Kia confirmed the EV3 will use the same E-GMP platform as the EV6 and EV9, and the battery pack will have a gross capacity of either 58.0 kilowatt-hours or 81.4 kilowatt-hours. That’s good for up to 560 kilometers of range on the generous WLTP cycle in Europe; which means the car should be good for as much as 350 miles in the US. The estimated DC fast charging rate is 128 kilowatts.
Inside, the EV3 has two 12.3-inch touchscreens and an optional head-up display. It also comes with a bevy of driver-assistance safety technology like lane-keep assist, highway driving assist, automatic emergency braking, and more. It even has V2L charging abilities; you can plug your hairdryer or coffee maker into the car and it should power those machines.
The EV3 also introduces a new one-pedal driving system called i-Pedal 3.0. It features adjustable regen, accessible via steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters.
Beyond that, we’ll have to wait until the production EV3 arrives in the US to find out more. Stay tuned.