The vigorous development of China's new energy market is obvious to all.
South Korean brand Kia doesn't want to stay out either. For China's new energy market, they handed over a new answer sheet - Kia EV5.
As Kia's first all-electric global strategic model developed by China to meet the needs of the Chinese market and launched in China, the EV5, positioned as a compact SUV, was officially launched at the recent Guangzhou Auto Show, with a price of 149,800-174,800 yuan and a range of 530km (CLTC mode).
We recently test-drove the Kia EV5 in Suzhou.
In terms of styling, the EV5 is special enough, with a full body silhouette with rich angular folded lines and sharply angled daytime running lights, and the new "Digital Tiger Face" gives people a strong sense of the future and has excellent recognition.
The side lines are quite sleek, and the stiff style continues to the fenders, wheel arches, waistline and window design, creating a distinctly sculptural aesthetic. The length, width and height of 4615/1875/1715mm and the wheelbase of 2750mm are the standard compact SUV body.
The rear design echoes the front face, especially the design style of the through-type taillights and the front LED daytime running lights, which makes the vehicle appear more three-dimensional and full, creating a capable and wide visual sense.
Compared to the exterior, the interior design of the EV5 can be said to have put a lot of effort into the interior design, which is based on warmth and comfort, which not only pleasing the eye, but also retains a large number of physical buttons. The interior materials are sustainable, such as the seat upholstery made of eco-friendly recycled PET fabric and bio-based PU leather.
In the central control screen area, between the 12.3-inch instrument screen and the 12.3-inch central control screen, a 5-inch independent air conditioning control display is also stuffed, so this is actually a "triple screen". The overall user experience is good, the display is delicate, and the functional partition is reasonable. At the same time, it is also equipped with Kia's latest-generation ccNC intelligent connected entertainment system, and has made a lot of efforts to localize, including partnering with Baidu and Tencent to add functions such as in-car WeChat.
The rich and flexible space set-up is worth mentioning. First of all, the front seats are creatively connected together, the official calls it a "romantic seat", in order to "cancel the barrier in front of the traditional seat", from the actual effect, the biggest effect is to make the co-pilot's lateral space more, people can sit more stretched, but due to the lack of the traditional armrest box, the storage space is also slightly reduced.
Secondly, the EV5 not only adopts a fully flat design for the rear floor, but also can be fully flat when the rear seats are folded down, and large space storage can be achieved with a simple bed.
What's even more surprising is that there is also a two-layer partition hidden in the trunk, when the cover is turned up from the trunk, a two-layer partition can be formed, which obviously greatly improves the flexibility of travel storage.
Of course, the EV5, which is convenient for electric vehicles to do external discharge functions, has not been left behind, and a 250V 10A socket is placed on the side wall of the trunk. And some small storage space designs, such as the front trunk and the hooks from the front center console, can reflect Kia's space design capabilities.
As an all-electric model, the Kia EV5 is built on the E-GMP pure electric platform, and the current models on the market are all standard range versions, equipped with a 64 kWh battery pack and a single motor with a maximum power of 160 kW, with a combined range of 530 km (CLTC mode), and it is reported that Kia will later launch a dual-motor (front and rear combined maximum power of 230 kW) and long range (88 kWh battery pack) versions.
The actual driving experience of the Kia EV5 "amazed" us. The motor responds very quickly, the acceleration feels very linear, and there is a feeling that every foot is quite controllable, even if the accelerator pedal is pressed deeply in sport mode, there is no obvious pitching feeling, so it can be said that the power output curve and the support of the chassis are quite well matched.
The front MacPherson + rear multi-link independent suspension is a conventional configuration of the same level, and the overall tuning style of the chassis is biased towards increasing the sense of support and toughness, and the large bumps are filtered more thoroughly while giving you a certain amount of road feedback, with excellent power and braking effect, Kia EV5 has the texture of a European car.
In terms of recuperation, the EV5 offers a choice of 5 gears, with the lightest gear having little to no braking drag, while the heaviest gear is close to the drag of a single pedal mode.
Overall, the Kia EV5 is a new electric SUV that offers the ride quality of a joint venture brand, but at a similar price to its own brand. It has a unique exterior design style, an interior design focusing on ease of use, and an ultra-high space utilization rate and driving experience, which is very competitive in today's 150,000-yuan electric compact SUV.