Kia knows that it’s on a bit of a design roll at the moment, so can we really blame it for taking the striking seven-seat EV9 and simply squishing it into a smaller box to create this new five-seat EV5?
The two really are remarkably similar and couldn’t be more different from the swoopy EV6, but we’re fans of the whole bunch. We’re told that the EV5 and EV9 are influenced by Kia’s ‘Bold for Nature’ design philosophy which is just one of its five ‘Opposites United’ design pillars.
And it’s mostly design details that Kia has released with the car’s reveal at the Chengdu Motor Show in China. The chunky looks are also extremely close to the EV5 Concept’s that we saw earlier this year, while the interior is almost a perfect match to the EV9’s.
We know there will be nine different exterior colour options too, with four key colours for the inside and three types of material (two ‘woven options’ and one artificial leather).
Kia won’t provide any proper technical details of the Model Y, ID.4, XC40 Recharge, Mustang Mach-E, Ariya, bZ4x (and so on, and so on) rival until a special EV event that it’s hosting in October, so for now you’ll just have to look at the pictures and tell us what you think in the comments below…
STORY Greg Potts
Keyword: The Kia EV5 looks just like a mini, cuter version of the EV9