- The Kia EV3 has a WLTP-rated range of up to 375 miles.
- It can fast charge at up to 135 kW.
The Kia EV3 is a great little electric crossover, as we found out after driving it in South Korea last year. It’s affordable, it’s cleverly packaged, and it has great specs for its price point.
Despite still being nowhere to be seen in Kia’s American lineup, the subcompact EV has trumped pretty much every one of its competitors in Europe. It’s roomy for its size, comfortable, and promises an impressive driving range. If it ever comes stateside, it could cost somewhere around $35,000, which is Chevrolet Equinox EV money.
That’s all well and good, but how does the EV3 handle long journeys? Prolific EV tester and YouTuber Bjorn Nyland took a front-wheel drive EV3 with the long-range battery pack on what he calls the 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) challenge.
As its name suggests, it’s a 621-mile trip in an EV on Norwegian and Swedish highways. The goal is to find out how much time it takes to cover that distance in a battery-powered car, including charging stops. It tests both the real-world range of an EV and its charging capabilities.
In the case of this particular EV3, it’s powered by an 81.4-kilowatt-hour (gross) battery pack that enables a WLTP-rated range of up to 375 miles. But with all the range in the world, no EV can be a good road-tripping machine if its charging speed is low. So, how did the EV3 do in Nyland’s test?
With an average speed of 61.1 miles per hour (98.4 kilometers per hour), the front-wheel drive EV3 Long Range needed 10 hours and 10 minutes to drive 621 miles. The average energy consumption was 2.38 miles/kWh (2.6 kWh/100 km), while the average ambient temperature was 44.6 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius). The time is on par with the BMW i4 M50, the BMW iX xDrive50, the Kia EV6 rear-wheel drive with the 77 kWh battery, and the MG4 with the 64 kWh battery.
It’s a decent result, considering this is an affordable, 400-volt family hatchback that’s meant more for trips inside and around towns, and not necessarily a high-mileage machine. For reference, the fastest EVs in Nyland’s 1,000 km challenge have done the trip in around nine hours.
The main takeaway from this test is that the EV3’s battery charging curve is quite flat, and it makes the most sense to unplug after it reaches 70% SoC because the speed decreases under 100 kW after that. Before 70%, it can comfortably take in around 120 kW of power. With a 70% charge, the EV3 can go about 125 miles (200 km) at highway speeds, which is around two hours of driving.
