Buyers can save almost £4,000 off the price of a new Kia EV4. That’s because the Korean brand’s electric family hatchback now qualifies for the top rung of the Government’s Electric Car Grant (ECG), bringing the Kia’s starting price down to a fiver under £31,000. Three versions of the EV4 are eligible for the grant: the Air in either standard or long-range form, or the more generously equipped Motion long-range model. The Kia EV4 Air SR starts from £30,995 and gets a 58.3kWh battery, providing it with an official WLTP range of 273 miles. For an extra £2,250, buyers can step up to the 81.4 kWh Long Range model, which is capable of an impressive 388 miles on a charge and offered in both Air (£33,245) and more highly equipped Motion (£36,745) guises. Even entry-level Air models come with all the basics you’d expect from a family hatch as standard, including twin 12.3-inch screens with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, front and rear parking sensors and a reversing camera. Motion increases the kit list with part-faux-leather upholstery, an electric driver’s seat, heated rear seats, a 360-degree camera system, a wireless phone charger and a Harman Kardon stereo. You can save even more on the Kia EV4 – or any new car for that matter – via the Auto Express Buy A Car service, which includes the best deals for both purchase and lease customers. Even so, the new state-backed discount makes the Kia EV4 look a lot more tempting when compared with rivals such as the Skoda Elroq compact SUV and the Volkswagen ID.3 hatchback, which both cost slightly more. It also means the EV4 technically undercuts the smaller Kia EV3 SUV, which only qualifies for the basic £1,500 Band 2 level of the ECG. The smaller-still EV2 also gets the £1,500 discount in First Edition form, but the Long Range model is expected to receive the maximum £3,750 grant when it arrives later this year.