We drive the World and UK Car of the Year, the all-electric Kia EV3

Some cars win awards for their theoretical attributes and capabilities, but the all-electric Kia EV3, revealed in 2024, delivers in the real world too. The recently crowned 2025 UK Car of the Year and 2025 World Car of the Year is not just a cracking stand-out design – featuring the chunky elements of its bigger EV9 sibling in a more acceptable size for Europe – but an accomplished car to drive and be driven in too.

The EV3 feels more solid than I was expecting on the open road. There’s an amount of comfort and stability going around corners, over potholes and traversing uneven country lanes, which feels very cossetting and reassuring. The small compact crossover – which is just a bit longer, wider and taller than a Volvo EX30 – doesn’t suffer in the handling department stakes like the Kia EV9, whose sheer height and 5m-plus length really makes it feel like a big car to drive. In contrast, the EV3 acts like a compact car you can hustle a bit if you want to, although it’s not really a hustling car either.

Despite its compact exterior proportions, the EV3’s cabin is very spacious. The flat floor helps – as its designers have no petrol-engine-related transmission tunnel to package – but the clean and calm design improves the feeling of space too. The drive selector is steering column-mounted behind the steering wheel, freeing up a lot of space in the centre console area, and the driver display and central screen are all in one frame, neatly perched on the middle part of the dashboard.

The in-house mapping is as usual a bit complex when you’re not used to it, but Apple CarPlay can be quickly paired and the main driver displays are neat and don’t pretend to be faux analogue dials. Instead, there’s a number on the left displaying real-time speed in miles per hour and to the right the number of electric miles in the range remaining.

Underneath the main centre infotainment screen are touch-sensitive buttons for Home, Map, Search, Media and Setup, plus some physical toggle switches for temperature for both driver and passenger, double phone plug sockets and a charging pad. There are also two ports in the back for rear passengers that are built into the sides of the front seats, which is an unusual, but ergonomically sensible approach.

A rather novel extra element the EV3 boasts between the two front seats is a good-sized horizontally deploying front table. This provides a practical resting place for food or even a laptop, which could be useful for the user when the car is stationary and perhaps charging. For such a compact 4.3m-long car, rear leg and headroom is good – even for a six-footer – and the boot’s flat floor can be lowered to create more space, with the car’s electric charging cables given their own dedicated space under the front bonnet or ‘frunk’.

Back on the outside, the exterior really does bear scrutiny and has some lovely details. One particular element that stands out is where the front charging flap meets the black gloss surround of the front wheel arch. There designers have made sure it matches the overall design perfectly, with the lower right-hand side rendered gloss black to fit in with the body cladding, while the upper half matches the lighter bodywork colour – which could have been a pain – but which is well worth it, in terms of overall visual coherence.

Under that body, the EV3 offers a front-wheel drive 204hp single electric motor with two battery choices: a 81.4kWh pack good for 373 miles (600km) and a 58.3kWh unit providing 255 miles (410km), and starting at £33,005 for the Air trim, rising to £43,905 for the top spec GT-Line (with the larger 81.4kWh battery and heat pump). At these prices, this stylish EV3 should win plenty of customers to go with its already numerous awards.

Kia EV3, from £33,005, Kia.co.uk, @KiaUK