Erin Marquis/JalopnikIf you're on the lower leg of the K-shaped economy, you might be wondering, "where do I go from here and, more importantly, how do I get from here to there?" Well, you can't spell Kia without a K, so let that little letter be your guide to your new economic reality. Kia brought a few journalists to Victoria, British Columbia, to take its new compact crossover, the 2027 Kia EV3, out on some winding logging roads. It was Kia's chance to show off a small EV that is genuinely efficient, enjoyable and affordable in a world where options that hit all three of those criteria are vanishingly few and far between. This isn't champagne for beer pay, however, rather a return to reasonable pricing for reasonably nice products.There are about 80 electric cars on sale in the U.S. right now, and really only three around $30,000 new. One is the Chevy Bolt, which starts at $28,995 including destination, but the Bolt is leaving us after the 2027 model year. The next has been the Nissan Leaf S at $31,565, but now there's this little fella, the EV3 with its MSRP of $31,385. If you've had enough of gas prices but still want a compact SUV for a reasonable price, the Kia EV3 is almost the only game in town.My fellow elder millennial drive partner and I took to the logging roads with an enthusiasm only "The Final Destination" generation can muster to see if the EV3 is truly worth your hard-earned, rapidly vanishing money.Full disclosure: Kia paid to fly me out to Victoria, British Columbia, put me up in a nice hotel, and fed me while I was there.What is itErin Marquis/JalopnikThe scenery on our morning jaunt up logging roads towards Port Renfrew in British Columbia was as fantastic as expected. The roads going up there are kept in great condition, despite the turbulent weather and constant traffic from heavy logging trucks. It was so beautiful I started to get a headache from trying to memorize every soaring vista or thick patch of woods. My enthusiasm for this gorgeous wild scenery is boundless. The roads passed where the sea met forest, mountain met sky and our rubber met the road.We've eagerly awaited the arrival of the EV3 to our shores for the last two-and-a-half years, since the funky pocket-sized SUV first hit the streets in South Korea. I'm not immune to the charm of a little guy with cute wheels myself, and there are so many options to configure your EV3 that it's difficult to not imagine yourself in one.The EV3 rides on the 400-volt version of Hyundai Motor Group's E-GMP architecture, with Short and Long-Range battery options and standard NACS charging. A DC fast charger can top off an EV3 from 10% to 80% in just 29 to 31 minutes, depending on the model. As for those models, buyers can choose from five trims: Light, Wind, Land, GT-Line, and GT. All come with several advanced driver-assist safety features as standard, such as Highway Driving Assist with lane following assist and stop and go. Everything else is up to you.Kia classifies the base Light trim level as Short Range, with a 58.3-kWh battery that provides 221 miles of range, and a single motor at the front axle with a basic 201 horsepower and 209 pound-feet of torque. If you want to get all of those wheels rolling you'll have to bump up to at least the next trim level, the Wind, which runs at $36,485 for front-wheel drive and $40,185 if you want the dual-motor all-wheel drive. This is the trim where the 81.4-kWh battery becomes standard, and if you stick with FWD, you get a range boost to 321 EPA-rated miles. This is the commuter trim for sure. Adding AWD will bust buyers back down to 280 miles of range, which, again, is pretty great, along with a nice bump in output to 261 hp and 284 lb-ft.Landed EVErin Marquis/JalopnikThe next trim level is Land, and the first half of our drive was in a $39,985 single-motor Land model in Frost Blue, which has the same range and power specs as the lower Wind trim. Adding AWD to the Land costs $500 less, with it coming to $43,185. It wouldn't be an American car launch without a black-out package, so the Nightfall package adds black exterior trim, 19-inch gloss black wheels, bridge-type roof rails and black emblems. I usually make fun of these, but it's Halloween, so I say go for it, I say. Goth up your (increasingly less so) economic little EV. The Nightfall package is optional on Wind and comes standard on Land. The sportier-looking GT-Line also gets the Long Range set up, but in AWD only and an MSRP of $44,985.This is about where the affordable part of the EV3 starts to fall away. The final option is the GT, which rounds out the trim levels with 288 hp, 345 lb-ft of torque, and 280 miles of range. At the tippy top of the list, the GT will run Kia cravers $47,385. The GT trim is truly a small EV with the works. Along with that more aggressive power delivery and sportier chassis tune, the GT adds a heads-up display, ambient lighting, sport seats, and other fancy features. There's also simulated shifts, fake sounds, and launch control. Launch control in your economically priced compact SUV. What could go wrong? It's what every soccer mom needs when navigating the pick up line at the local elementary school: a 0-to-60 time of 5.4 seconds.A quiet rideErin Marquis/JalopnikThe roads up and into the mountain were in remarkably pristine condition, and as we wound up through the dense forest the EV3 Land's interior was remarkably quiet. Kia has come leaps and bounds in interior comforts, and this new-found quietness is thanks to foam insulation around the 19-inch wheels, and improved aerodynamics and sound dampening in the windshield and front side windows. It made floating around these curvy roads, with waterfalls and glass-still lakes around every corner, even more magical.I enjoyed my ride from my plush, though unpowered, passenger seat. In the Land, only the driver's seat comes with power adjustment buttons, while the passenger gets a physical bar underneath to slide back and forth. You have to go a step up to the GT-Line for a pair of fully powered front seats. Little things like that reminded me that this is indeed a comfortable and affordable car. That impression extended to the rest of the materials in the interior.In pictures, the dashboard seems at least partially made of a soft material. What was actually in the cockpit ended up being a fabric textured plastic. Maybe to make up for the lack of cushiness in the dashboard, the steering wheel was extra padded. Seriously, it's got really prominent beefcake wheel stitching that reminded me of my boxing gloves. The paddles on the back of the steering wheel, which control the regenerative braking, were pretty small but easy to use.The 12.3-inch dual screens were bright and responsive. I much prefer the high up, line-of-sight layout of the center infotainment screen, as I think it cuts down on eyes-off-the-road time. The real haptic buttons on the steering wheel were also fantastic and didn't have a wiggly or cheap feel. Truly a solid little set up.Useful... kindaErin Marquis/JalopnikThe gang at Kia were pretty excited about their retractable cup holders, but I was hoping there would have been an adjustable element to the retraction as well, to handle things like gym water bottles. No such luck, but it was still a neat way to give us more usability in the center console. Speaking of which, the floating center console has lots of little trays, storage spaces, and hidey holes, but none are very deep due to the floating design. Drivers can store things under the center console, of course, but that does still leave a lot of stuff exposed. Just make it a habit to take things inside after driving anyway, trust me.As for usable space, the EV3 provides slightly more elbow room for passengers, with more interior space than the Toyota bZ and a class-leading 26.1 cubic Feet of cargo space in the back. That cargo room doubles when the back seats are folded down. The EV3 also has a little frunk! We love a good frunk here. It's only a tiny guy at 0.9 cubic feet, but still, points for trying.Erin Marquis/JalopnikExteriorErin Marquis/JalopnikThe EV3 looks like a mini version of the Kia EV9, and when I say mini I mean mini. This little guy is only 64 inches tall and 169.3 inches long, almost exactly the same as a Chevrolet Bolt. But just because it looks like its big brother doesn't mean the EV3 is boring. The EV3 actually takes a lot of tired design cues and makes it fun again. That Nightfall package actually looks really good with the Frost Blue finish on our Land tester, and the floating roofline looks sick. The EV3 has those flush door handles that Tesla made popular for EVs. I don't love them, but they are mechanically useful even when the power goes out. No panicked search for a hidden release handle for these EV owners, and the masked rear door handle in the C-pillar is satisfying to open and not confusing. All the doors have a heavy, satisfying clunk when opened or closed.I will never tire of a good set of wheels, but I am tired of seeing them everywhere but in the U.S. — yet here are the EV3's, practically reaching Renault levels of cool. Kia also put its star map signature lighting alongside the bold "Tiger Face" front end. The star map lighting was first featured on the Kia EV9, and it's meant to give the cars "a strong, individual presence." Animated lighting accents on cars when?Driving ImpressionsKiaI found no fault with the Land trim. It was quick and quiet and all the things an EV should be, from its responsive-though-numb steering and like-a-shot take-offs at traffic lights. Sport mode gave the EV3 even sharper steering feel and quicker jumps from a stop.The dark grey interior felt cozy as the mountain fog burned away. After we stopped at Renfrew Hotel for a lunch of fried fish and poutine it was time to make our drive back into town, this time behind the wheel of the GT-Line. Here things got a little rough. The road down from the mountains had more dips, divots, and gravel portions than the one we'd taken up. I'm not used to taking rough mountain roads — I see no tire eating potholes, why slow down? — so I ended up rattling myself and my co-driver a fair bit. I wouldn't totally blame it on the suspension, more so my myopic Detroit driving, but it's worth mentioning.The i-pedal regenerative braking is aggressive enough at level 3 to bring the car to a complete and quite quick stop. It was so reliable I was quickly one-pedal driving through urban traffic on our way out of Victoria with confidence. The EV3's regen also now works in reverse, which is a hilarious way to keep your EV charged, and one I hope catches on.Final thoughtsErin Marquis/JalopnikPeople are so used to feeling (and being) screwed over, that Kia's quality for the price seems a little suspicious. There's no way this nice of an EV costs this much, right? If Kia is doing it, why can't everyone else?Why not indeed. The EV3 is in the right place at the right time, as interest in EVs is climbing back up thanks to gas prices just as more short-sighted companies are pulling electric drivetrains and investing in expensive models left and right. The EV3 is attractive, it's engaging, and more than all of that, it's approachable. Accessible. It's baby's first EV.Kia earned a lot of admiration with regular car-buying folks with the obtainable but still fun and funky Kia Soul. And just like the Soul, you can get your EV3 in fun colors like Terracotta (a dark orange) or Matcha Green. It is time for regular people to have style again.If you're like me and find EVs fun to drive, you're gonna find a lot to love about the EV3. If you're new to EVs, this could be your first of many. If any car is going to convince John Q. Public to go green, it'll be this car.Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and follow us or add us as a preferred search source on Google.