2025 Kia EV5 Earth review

Kia finally has a mid-size electric SUV that can compete with the top-selling Tesla Model Y on space and price – not one or the other.

Sized similarly to the petrol-powered Sportage, the EV5 is the first electric mid-size SUV from an established car maker to undercut the Model Y – starting from less than $60,000 drive-away – and is the brand’s first car made in China for Australia.

Unlike the Kia EV6 and EV9, the EV5 is based on a different dedicated electric-car platform – with more of its power sent to the front wheels, not the rear-biased E-GMP chassis of the larger cars – and runs its electronics at a lower voltage (400V vs 800V) to save cost.

The EV5 was due in local showrooms in June 2024, but a handful of mechanical and software issues with the first batches of cars found days before launch pushed its introduction to October.

We’ve already sampled the EV5 on its media launch drive, but we’re now able to spend more time behind the wheel on roads close to home to reach a more comprehensive verdict. Has it been worth the wait?

There are three trim grades in the Kia EV5 range – the Air and Earth, arriving now, ahead of a GT-Line flagship variant due imminently.

On test in this review is the mid-grade Earth, which is offered solely with 230kW dual-motor all-wheel drive and the long-range 88.1kWh battery for a 500km quoted WLTP range and 0–100km/h in a claimed 6.1 seconds.

It compares to the Air’s 160kW front-wheel drive and choice of 64.2kWh standard or 88.1kWh long-range batteries for 400km and 555km of range respectively.

The EV5 is the only electric Kia in Australia to quote drive-away prices common between states and territories, though unlike the company’s petrol and diesel cars, there is not one nationwide price – rather one price for Western Australia, and another for the rest of the country.

It is harder for car companies to quote nationwide drive-away prices for electric cars, as on top of the usual differences in stamp duty and registration costs – as well as the cost of shipping cars to Western Australia – different parts of the country offer rebates on EVs that affect how much the customer pays.

The Earth is priced from $64,770 plus on-road costs, which equates to $68,990 drive-away in all regions bar Western Australia, where it is $69,990 drive-away. Our test vehicle adds $520 Tide Blue paint and a no-cost Nougat Beige interior.

Its closest rival is the Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD – with a 513km range and 0–100km/h in 5.0 seconds – which starts from $69,990 plus on-road costs and options, or about $72,700 to $77,500 drive-away depending on where it is registered.

Other rivals include the XPeng G6 Long Range RWD ($59,800 plus on-roads or about $65,000 drive-away), Ford Mustang Mach-E Select RWD ($64,990 plus on-roads or about $70,000 drive-away) and Subaru Solterra AWD ($69,990 plus on-roads or about $75,000 drive-away).

Standard equipment in the base EV5 Air includes 18-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, dual 12.3-inch interior screens plus a 5.0-inch climate-control display, wireless/wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, heated front seats, cloth and leather-look trim, a power driver’s seat, dual-zone climate control, and a suite of safety tech.

The Earth adds 19-inch alloys, a power tailgate, synthetic leather-look seats, exterior vehicle-to-load port, gloss black highlights, and rear privacy glass.

The Kia EV5 measures 4615mm long, 1875mm wide, 1715mm tall and 2750mm in wheelbase – similar in size to a Kia Sportage petrol SUV, and slightly smaller than a Tesla Model Y.

The design of the interior isn’t what you’d call boring, with a funky geometric design to the dashboard behind the EV5’s three screens – more on those shortly.

At first glance, the front seats appear to be a bench capable of seating three, but the centre area is just an upholstered design feature that doubles as a (quite tight) phone pocket.

This test car has its synthetic leather-look upholstery optioned in Nougat Beige, which breaks up some of the darker plastics elsewhere inside, and in our view contrasts well with the blue exterior.

Eight-way power adjustment, four-way power lumbar, and three-cell massaging are all standard across the EV5 range, and the driving position is quite high, even with the seat set as low as it can go – something many will appreciate. Visibility is good, with big windows.

The front seats are comfortable and reasonably supportive on long journeys, and the steering wheel – trimmed in leather-like material, with a thick rim – has tilt and reach adjustment to allow drivers of all heights to find a commanding position.

As with other new Kia models, the gear selector is a ‘wand’ on the side of the steering column. It is unusual at first, but it’s something you should be able to get used to after a few days of ownership.

Perceived build quality is good in our test vehicle, but while the cabin design is visually interesting – and there’s soft leather-like trim on the door armrests – the textured plastics on the dashboard and doors don’t feel as nice as you’d expect for a $70,000 car, nor is the fold-down front centre armrest very soft.

Storage space is also limited. The bench seat-style design means there is no enclosed centre-console storage to hide valuables, just a modestly sized glovebox, and two levels of open storage for wallets and phones between the front occupants.

The door pockets are small for a car of this size, and there’s no sunglasses storage box overhead, but there is a shopping bag hook on the dashboard.

Amenities include heated front seats, two front USB-C ports, a 12-volt socket, dual-zone climate control, and keyless entry and start – but there is no wireless phone charger, no 360-degree camera, and only the front windows have ‘one-touch’ auto functionality.

It’s very roomy in the rear seats, with plenty of head room, knee room and toe room even for tall passengers sitting behind a six-foot-tall (183cm) driver. The rear seat bases don’t slide, but the backrests recline, and there is reasonable comfort for passengers in the firmer centre seat.

The lack of a front centre console box allows for a pull-out storage drawer for rear passengers out of the front bench. It’s for storing snacks or devices, but it’s not accessible from the front so it can’t really be used like a second glovebox.

Air vents are located in the door pillars, there’s a USB-C port on each front seatback, and there are map pockets on the front seatbacks, a fold-down armrest with two cupholders, as well as two ISOFIX anchors and three top-tether points for child seats.

The boot is a large, rectangular space with a two-piece floor – opening up some under-floor space – and plenty of storage slots on the side of the cargo hold for umbrellas or small items.

Removable pins on the sides can be used to hold shopping backs or tie down larger items, while there are slots to slide one of the floor sections into to create a shelf of sorts, plus a household power outlet to charge devices using the car’s battery.

Folding the rear seats down in a 60:40 split reveals a completely flat cargo area from boot lip to front seatbacks – a big tick for Kia.

There’s a 67-litre front storage area good for housing the tyre repair kit – as there’s no spare wheel – and the charging cables.

Standard in every Kia EV5 is a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen and a 12.3-inch instrument display, split by another 5.0-inch touchscreen for certain climate-control functions.

The infotainment display runs Kia’s latest ccNC software, which is quick to respond and easy enough to use once you get your head around its many, initially confusing menus.

It offers wireless and wired versions of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, in-built satellite navigation, voice control, Bluetooth, over-the-air updates, and AM, FM, and DAB radio.

There’s a six-speaker sound system, but it delivers average quality, lacking punch at higher volumes – and no match for the top-tier stereo standard in every Tesla Model Y.

Kia has kept roller dials for volume, plus switches under the main screen for air temperature and fan speeds, though the touch-sensitive shortcuts for infotainment functions under the main screen are fiddly, and positioned such that they are easy to bump when resting your palm on the dash to use the touchscreen.

Other climate-control functions such as recirculating air, syncing driver/passenger temperature and air zones run through the 5.0-inch screen, which is blocked by the steering wheel and requires the driver to move their head to see.

There’s a crosshair-style button on the top edge of the screen that allows its functions to appear on the 12.3-inch touchscreen, negating the need for a head turn, but it’s an imperfect solution to a problem that didn’t need to exist.

The instrument display is clear, although not particularly customisable in its layout and design. All EV5s offer support for the Kia Connect phone app, with remote vehicle tracking, control of its lights and locks, preconditioning of the cabin, and more.

The Kia EV5 has received a five-star safety rating from ANCAP based on the latest 2023–25 protocols. It received scores of 88 per cent for adult occupant protection, 86 per cent for child occupant protection, 74 per cent for vulnerable road user protection, and 82 per cent for safety assist technology.

Kia has fitted the EV5 with its latest suite of advanced safety features from the larger EV9, and ticks all of the boxes expected of a mid-size family SUV.

The highway driving aids are a highlight, with well-calibrated adaptive cruise control, a lane-centring assist system that holds the centre of the lane accurately – rather than bouncing between the white lines – and a handy automatic lane-change function for recognised motorways, activated by flicking the indicator stalk and applying light force to the wheel.

However, some of the other systems are not as well-calibrated.

The lane-keep assist system was overzealous in our testing, regularly tugging away at the wheel well before the vehicle has touched the lane markings and is in a position to exit the lane.

It is particularly intrusive on tight roads, where it can be hard to keep the car in the centre of the lane in a manner that does not cause the lane-keep assist system to intervene. Even compared to other models in the Kia range, the EV5's lane-keep assist system is very eager.

The driver attention monitor beeps after a few seconds of looking at the centre screen – perhaps unsurprisingly, that is its job – but it struggles to see through sunglasses, flashing up an alert telling the driver the system is inactive.

As with many other new cars, the speed sign recognition system beeps when the vehicle exceeds the speed limit it has detected – even if the car has misread the sign, or has picked up the speed limit from a slip road when travelling on a motorway.

Unusually, the EV5 has launched with an older version of Hyundai and Kia’s speed-sign software, so the chime is loud, there is no way of muting the audible speed limit warning without disabling the visual alert, nor silencing the beeps by holding down the mute button on the steering wheel, as other new models can do.

Kia Australia says an over-the-air software update is coming to address this.

The EV5 is covered by the same seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty as the rest of the Kia range – longer than key rivals that offer five or six years – plus a seven-year/150,000km high-voltage battery warranty (vs the eight years/160,000km of rivals).

Service intervals are set every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first – compared to some competing cars that in some cases only need maintenance every 24 months or 30,000km.

Prepaid servicing plans are available priced at $980 for three years/45,000km, $1535 for five years/75,000km and $2431 for seven years/105,000km.

For context, servicing costs $2395 over six years/90,000km for a Hyundai Ioniq 5, $2064 over five years/100,000km for an Xpeng G6 Long Range, $900 over five years/75,000km for a Toyota bZ4X, and no set cost for a Model Y as Tesla does not run a conventional service schedule.

A year of comprehensive insurance coverage with a leading provider runs to $1840, based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The Kia EV5 Earth claims 500km of driving range in European WLTP lab testing, from an 88.1kWh battery pack sourced from Chinese electric-car giant BYD.

It means the pack uses BYD’s Blade technology, which claims to be safer than other types of batteries – able to survive a test where it is punctured by a nail, and does not burst into flames at extreme temperatures through what is known as ‘thermal runaway’.

It uses lithium iron phosphate chemistry – also seen in a base-model Tesla – so the pack can be recharged from empty to full regularly without accelerating the wear of the battery cells, unlike a nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery that is best kept between 20 and 80 per cent in regular use, and only charged to full for road trips.

Kia claims energy consumption of 20.1kWh per 100 kilometres. We observed 20.3kWh/100km in a mix of conditions, including plenty of enthusiastic country-road driving that was not complimentary to energy consumption.

This is not far off the claim, but is very thirsty for a car of this type, given a Model Y can achieve about 15kWh/100km, and a RWD Mach-E around 18kWh/100km.

On a 110km/h highway range test, we saw consumption of about 20kWh/100km, which equates to an open-road range of about 440km. For context, the much larger and boxier, Drive Car of the Year 2024-winning Kia EV9 Air used only a little more energy – 20.3kWh/100km – on a similar test loop.

DC fast charging at up to 140kW is claimed to see a 10 to 80 per cent recharge completed in 38 minutes. We observed a peak of 146kW in our testing, for a recharge time of just under 41 minutes.

In our experience, BYD battery charging speeds tend to be temperature – and the battery percentage when you plug in – sensitive.

While our testing saw the EV5 fall away from its peak charging power after 30 per cent, after connecting before 10 per cent, if you plug in close to 40 per cent you could see 140kW last well beyond 60 per cent. More so than any other Kia EV, charging performance will depend on the conditions.

AC charging at up to 11kW is supported, for a 10 to 100 per cent claimed recharge in just over eight hours.

With 230kW/480Nm dual-motor all-wheel drive, and fewer luxury features to carry around than the flagship GT-Line, the Earth is the quickest model in the Kia EV5 range.

There is plenty of power on offer for a two-tonne family SUV, with brisk responses at low speeds that do start to tail off at freeway pace. Kia’s claimed 6.1-second 0–100km/h time is on par with hot hatchbacks.

The steering is on the heavy side for the class, but it’s not too cumbersome to make parking a chore, and it’s direct and quick enough on country roads.

Kia has done a good job of blending the regenerative braking of the electric motor with the ‘friction’ disc brakes behind the wheels. Paddles behind the steering wheel switch between levels zero to three for the regen, plus a one-pedal setting that can bring the car to a full stop without touching the brake pedal.

However, it is the rest of the drive experience where the EV5 is not as nice to drive as other models in the Kia range, petrol or electric – even though it has undergone similar Australian tuning of its suspension and steering to tailor them to local conditions.

It may be all-wheel drive, but about 70 per cent of the EV5 Earth’s power is sent to the front wheels – and the Kumho tyres on this test car are designed for efficiency over traction.

It means the EV5 can struggle for grip when accelerating quickly out of a junction – or under lighter loads in the wet – with torque steer (tugging on the steering wheel under acceleration) and/or wheelspin that do not inspire confidence.

At city speeds, firmer suspension can jostle occupants around over potholes, expansion joints and other road imperfections, but it’s much more supple over speed bumps, and at higher speeds the ride settles and becomes more composed.

While the steering at higher speeds has ample heft to it, it doesn’t tell the driver much about what the wheels are doing in bends. There’s some tyre roar on coarse-chip roads, but external noise is otherwise well suppressed at speed.

Most family SUV buyers do not need sports-car handling, but on a tight country road the EV5 can feel its weight in corners, and the boxy body and high seating position do not make the car feel smaller than it is like a Tesla Model Y does. It's not uncontrolled or unruly, just not as sharp as it could be.

In short, the EV5 is not a bad car to drive, but it is not as resolved as other models in the Kia range – nor some of its competitors.

The Kia EV5 Earth is rated to tow up to 1250kg braked or 750kg unbraked, with a maximum towball downweight of 100kg.

The payload – the maximum weight of cargo, passengers and accessories the car is legally allowed to carry – is 432kg, which may be on the low side for some buyers. Five passengers at the average adult male weight (87kg) will bump the car over, but it should be enough for two adults and three kids, or four adults and some cargo.

The Kia EV5 was one of the most highly anticipated electric cars of last year, and it is an important model for the brand.

On many counts, it delivers. The interior is roomy for passengers, the boot is big and practical, it’s loaded with technology, it has a long range, and it’s pleasant to drive.

It’s not quite the home run we were hoping for, though. The cabin is short on small item storage, some of the safety features need further tuning, it’s not the quickest to charge, and it is not as refined or comfortable to drive as other cars in the Kia range.

If you are after an electric SUV that’s not a Tesla, the Kia EV5 is one of the best options out there – especially given its sharp pricing and long warranty – but it’s not quite a Model Y killer.

The Kia EV5 Earth’s additional equipment and range make it worth considering over the base-model Air – if your budget stretches this far – but if you can afford it, the GT-Line has an equipment list that even better justifies the RRP in our view, at a drive-away price similar to a Model Y Long Range.

Kia is hoping to sell 4800 EV5s annually, and it has signalled it will have plenty of stock to achieve its goal, thanks to the factory in China that has Australia as one of its main export markets.

The next step on the purchase journey is to contact a Kia dealer to check for stock near you – click here to find your nearest showroom. You can also find Kias for sale at Drive Marketplace.

We recommend taking a test drive before buying, as well as considering key – and compelling – rivals such as the Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Toyota bZ4X.

To stay updated with the latest Kia EV5 news published since this review went live, visit this link.