Kia EV2 review
Cool styling, an efficient powertrain, surprising space - the Kia EV2 is a solid new entry in the small EV market
Our opinion on the Kia EV2
Right now the Kia EV2 seems like a real winner thanks to its impressive efficiency and relatively low prices. Practicality is a strong point too, the little SUV has more than enough space for a small family. It also feels at home in the city, with the powertrain offering a smooth and easy driving experience. Push it harder, however, and it starts to disappoint, feeling a little unstable on winding, bumpy country roads.
About the Kia EV2
Kia kicked off its all-electric line-up here in the UK with the Soul EV over 10 years ago, but since then we’ve seen its dedicated electric models take centre stage. The EV6 was the first, followed by the EV9 seven-seat flagship, the EV5, EV4 and EV3.
As the name suggests, the new EV2 is the smallest electric car from Kia yet, although a smaller EV1 is expected to arrive in 2027. The EV2 enters a rapidly growing market, with the Renault 4, Peugeot E-2008 and Jeep Avenger already available, plus the Skoda Epiq and Volkswagen ID. Cross soon to enter as well.
Rather than focus on a sporty drive like the Ford Puma Gen-E or provide some off-road ability like the all-wheel-drive Suzuki e Vitara, the Kia EV2’s brief is “standout design, flexible cabin and intuitive technology”.
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Cash £13,000Right now only the ‘standard range’ car is available in the UK, offering up to 194 miles on a charge. However, a ‘long range’ model with up to 281 miles is due to arrive later in 2026, and is expected to take the lion’s share of UK sales.
Kia EV2 prices and latest deals
Kia is confident enough of getting the government EV grant to offer its own discount while it waits for the paperwork - £1,500 off the First Edition with the smaller battery, and £3,750 off the rest of the line-up, as it expects Slovakian production to help to qualify for the higher grant level.
With that, the entry point drops to £24,245 for the Air spec with a range of up to 281 miles, with the high-spec First Edition, the only trim available with the small battery, costing £26,995 with the discount. Then there’s the sportier-styled GT-Line and GT-Line S trims, which start from £28,995 and £32,595 after their respective discounts.
The EV2 will initially only be offered with the small battery in First Edition guise. The bigger battery versions will start production in June 2026 with entry-level Air followed by GT-Line and GT-Line S. If you don’t want to wait, the Kia EV3 can be had right now on the Auto Express Find A Car service with an average saving of over £3,000.
Did you know you can sell your car through Auto Express? We’ll help you get a great price and find a great deal on a new car, too.
Performance & driving experience
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While larger Kia EV models such as the EV6 and EV9 come with either rear or all-wheel drive courtesy of single and dual-motor layouts, the EV2 makes do with just a single-motor configuration and front-wheel drive, like the standard, non-GT versions of the EV3.
Kia will admit that it didn’t set out to make a pure driver’s car with the EV2, although as with the rest of the firm’s EV range, a hot GT version is in the offing. The focus with the regular EV2 is very much on comfort, which is pretty refreshing compared with so many overpowered electric cars.
| Model | Power | 0-62mph | Top speed |
| Kia EV2 standard-range | 144bhp | 8.7 seconds | 99mph |
| Kia EV2 long-range | 134bhp | 9.5 seconds | 99mph |
Performance, 0-60mph acceleration and top speed
So many pure-electric cars these days pin your head against the headrest with their brutal acceleration, thanks to high power figures and immediate torque – but the EV2 doesn’t follow this pattern. It has just a 144bhp electric motor, although with 250Nm of torque it doesn’t feel underpowered, despite being relatively portly at just over 1,600kg.
The responsiveness of the motor means overtakes aren’t too much hassle on motorways, although they require a bit more planning than in other EVs (such as the sprightly MG4 and Ford Puma Gen-E). For the EV2, Kia designed new sound deadening under the bonnet to reduce noises from the electric motor and it works well; during our drive we barely noticed any intrusion.
Town driving, visibility and parking
Despite its miniature SUV look, the Kia EV2 feels most at home in tight urban streets. Overall visibility is excellent and while you can see the flat bonnet stretching out in front of you, the blocky proportions mean it’s easy to know where the extremities of the EV2 are. There’s plenty of adjustability in the driving position too.
Adding to the EV2’s ease-of-use is its brake regeneration. There are several strengths to choose from, ranging from full coasting to enough force to almost provide one-pedal driving. What we really like (as in other Kia EVs) is how smoothly the brake regeneration comes on.
Country road driving and handling
Adequate is how we’d describe the EV2 handling. There's a neutral feel to the steering and while it doesn’t give much feedback, the front wheels respond quickly and consistently enough to inputs.
However, body control is an issue when hitting winding country roads. Some body roll is noticeable if you take a corner at speed, but things start to come undone when tackling bumps and undulations. The car has a tendency to bounce up and down, giving the sensation of being on a pogo stick, and you’ll quickly want to reduce speed to counteract this.
Motorway driving and long-distance comfort
We drove over 300 miles during our initial test of the EV2 and found it to be refined and comfortable when hitting the motorway, with a secure feeling at high speeds - all traits that you might not expect from a car with a supermini-sized wheelbase.
Entry versions of the EV2 come with 16-inch rims, while stepping up to GT-Line and GT-Line S brings you larger 19-inch wheels that come with sound deadening within the tyre itself. Our First Edition car had 18-inch wheels, but while road noise was very well muffled, perhaps as a consequence, wind noise was slightly more obvious than we’d like. Overall, though, the EV2 is one of the more refined cars in its class at high speed.
“Tackle a bumpy road, and the EV2 quickly feels like you’re on a rollercoaster. The bouncing up and down can be a little disconcerting until you are used to it.” - web producer Pete Baiden, driving the Kia EV2 in the UK.
Range, charging & running costs
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Electric range, battery life and charge time
Sitting on a variant of the same E-GMP architecture as the EV3, you might expect the EV2 to use the same battery packs. However, along with the 42.2kWh battery, the larger 61kWh unit is different to the base EV3’s 58.3kWh unit.
As a result, the 281-mile EV2 long-range actually goes further on a charge than the entry-level EV3 (270 miles). We’re yet to try the long-range model, but every EV2 uses a battery with LFP (lithium iron phosphate) chemistry.
During our test we drove around towns, on motorways and along country roads, and the standard-range EV2 returned 4.3 miles per kWh – very impressive when the claimed figure is 4.5 miles per kWh. At our test efficiency, the EV2 would have returned a 181-mile range and with some steadier driving we have no doubt the full claimed 196 miles is achievable.
The maximum charging speed figure for the standard range model is 118kW, meaning a 10 to 80 per cent charge will take 29 minutes. No official charging figures for the upcoming long-range model have been revealed at the time of writing, however the same 10 to 80 per cent charge will take just one minute longer.
11kW charging is supported too, but for the first time in an electric Kia, there’s the option to have a 22kW charging cable as well. Like its larger siblings, the EV2 also offers bi-directional charging via vehicle-to-load or vehicle-to-grid. The GT-Line S is the only EV2 that gets a heat pump, but it’s a £700 option.
| Model | Battery size | Range | Insurance group |
| Kia EV2 standard-range | 42.2kWh | 196 miles | TBC |
| Kia EV2 long-range | 61kWh | 281 miles | TBC |
Tax
Being an EV, the EV2 should make sense for company-car drivers, and it slips into the three per cent Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax band. At the moment, it attracts a three per cent rate, but this will rise to four per cent for the ‘26 to ’27 tax year, and five per cent from ‘27 to ‘28.
Owners of EVs no longer enjoy free vehicle excise duty (VED) road tax, but at least the EV2 sits nowhere near the £50,000 luxury car tax surcharge.
Interior, design & technology
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Kia has a knack for maintaining the design language of its concept cars in its production cars. The EV2 you can buy looks very similar to the EV2 Concept Kia previewed in February 2025, meaning it still has a boxy profile, distinctive star-map headlights, chunky wheel arch cladding and rear lights positioned low and wide. During our time with the car we heard a multitude of comments, everything from how good it looked to how ugly the styling is. It really is a car that will split opinion.
Despite its mini-SUV design, the EV2 is surprisingly aerodynamic - a 0.29 drag coefficient helps with its impressive efficiency figures.
As standard the EV2 Air gets:
- Body coloured door mirrors
- Chrome side accents
- Manual flush door handles
- ‘Air’ interior styling with green accents
- Grey cloth seat upholstery
- Manual driver’s seat adjustment
- Cream-coloured headlining
- Six-speaker audio system
- Heated front seats
Despite coming exclusively with the smaller battery, the launch version of the EV2, called ‘First Edition’ comes with more kit. Then there’s the GT-Line and GT-Line S that pile on more equipment and sportier looks.
As for paint there are quite a few options available on the EV2. The Air has Fusion White as the standard, no-cost option, with five £620 paint choices: Magma Red, Moonlight Mint, Frost Blue, Vanilla Blossom and Phantom Black. The ‘First Edition’ gets Frost Blue, Phantom Black and Wolf Grey at no extra cost.
Interior and dashboard design
The EV2’s dash has two 12.3-inch displays, one for the driver and the other a touchscreen, split by a further 5.4-inch touchscreen that controls the climate functions. It’s the same set-up you’ll find in Kia’s much larger and more expensive models. Just as in other Kias, though, the central climate screen can be a little obscured by the steering wheel, but there are also physical controls for both the fan speed and temperature on the dash, so it’s a doddle to adjust on the move.
Infotainment, sat-nav and stereo
The infotainment system is similar to other Kia set-ups, which means a clear and logical layout to most of the key functions. There’s a good amount of configurability on the main screen, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are fitted as standard. The embedded navigation isn’t our favourite – it’s simultaneously fussy but also lacking in detail – but most drivers prefer to use phone-mirroring apps, anyway.
Boot space & practicality
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Despite being the smallest model in Kia’s electric range, the EV2 has been designed with practicality in mind and there are a few helpful stowage solutions to make the most of the EV2’s proportions. For instance, the armrests on the doors (front and rear) have a gap in them to enable large bottles to be stored in the door pockets. Cabin space is improved by having the gear selector on the steering column instead of the centre console - which includes a pair of cup-holders and a large storage tray.
There’s flexibility too, thanks to the option of either a five-seat or a four-seat model; the latter comes with individually sliding rear seats to allow you to choose between boot space or rear legroom. Roof rails come as standard too, in case you really need extra space for luggage.
Dimensions comparison | |||
| Model | Kia EV2 | Ford Puma Gen-E | Renault 4 |
| Length | 4,060mm | 4,186mm | 4,144mm |
| Width | 1,800mm | 1,805mm | 1,808mm |
| Height | 1,575mm | 1,555mm | 1,572mm |
| Wheelbase | 2,565mm | 2,588mm | 2,624mm |
| Boot space | 362-403 litres | 556 litres | 420 litres |
Seats & passenger space
The upright profile of the EV2 means that headroom is very good for a car of this size. Up front there’s a spacious feel to the cabin, thanks to a low-set centre console - the rear has slightly tighter legroom and the rear bench in the five-seater is a little flat, although tall adults should be able to get comfortable for long trips.
Boot space
Partly as a result of the Kia EV2’s length, its boot is quite shallow. However, it makes up for that in width – having a jacked-up crossover bodystyle means the rear wheelarches don’t encroach on the boot sides.
As a result, there’s 362 litres of boot space. In other markets this rises up to 403 litres with a four-seater with the rear seats slid the way forward - however the EV2 in the UK is five-seat only. There’s an adjustable floor as standard, so you can make the boot floor level with the load lip, but the lip itself is quite high off the ground. There’s also a 15-litre ‘frunk’, which is ideal for storing charging cables but strangely doesn’t come on Air models.
Towing
The EV2 is the smallest EV Kia makes, but you can still tow with it. It’s rated for up to 750kg - enough for a light trailer, or perhaps more suited is the factory tow bar that can double as a mount for bike carriers.
“It’s a shame the option of either a five-seat or a four-seat model isn’t offered in the UK, but in case you really need extra space for luggage, roof rails come as standard.” - Alastair Crooks, Senior News Reporter, driving the Kia EV2 in Portugal.
Reliability & safety
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The Kia EV2 is yet to go through Euro NCAP testing so we can’t give a definitive answer about its safety just yet. The EV3, which shares the same platform and is the next model up Kia’s all-electric range, only scored four out of five stars when it was tested in 2025. A Safety Pack, which includes a more advanced emergency braking system, upped this to five stars.
Kia’s electric models such as the EV6, EV9 and the new EV3 didn’t appear in the 2025 Driver Power survey and nor did the EV2, because it’s still too new to get real-world data from owners. What will encourage buyers is Kia’s seven-year, 100,000 mile warranty - which is upped to eight years for the battery with a guarantee of at least 70 per cent health in the battery.
Standard safety kit is good, with driver-assistance features including Forward Collision Avoidance, Blind Spot Assist, Lane Keeping Assistance, Rear Cross-traffic Alert. Remote Park Assist, Blind-spot monitoring and park collision-avoidance assist come on First Edition cars. GT-Line S is the only trim to come with a 360-degree surround view monitor.
Buying and owning
- Best buy: Kia EV2 long-range
Though we’ve only tried the EV2 in standard-range form so far, we’re confident in saying that the long-range car is likely to be the pick of the range and worth the expected additional outlay.
Kia EV2 alternatives
Right now, the alternatives to the Kia EV2 range from the Renault 4 to the Ford Puma Gen-E and MINI Aceman. The Ford and MINI are fun to drive but the Kia is more comfortable; the Kia also beats them for efficiency and, in long-range guise, range too. The Renault 4 comes with a larger boot, but it’s surprisingly tight in the back seats.
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