The Kia EV3 starts at $29,890 in the US, and after a day of driving it around Vancouver Island, I think it’s the best-packaged affordable EV you can buy right now.
It comes with up to 321 miles of range, two battery sizes, and available all-wheel drive, which is more choice than anything else at this price. But there’s a catch: that $30,000 price tag climbs fast.
Kia brought me to Vancouver Island last week to test the EV3 as it launches in North America.
The Korean automaker took its time. The EV3 has been on sale overseas since 2024, and it quickly became one of the most popular EVs in Europe and won the 2025 World Car of the Year award before Kia finally decided to bring it here.
Now it’s here. US sales started in mid-August, and Kia told us it has about 1,300 units in dealer stock. According to the company, dealers love it because it’s bringing more shoppers into showrooms.
A Bolt EV with more options
Kia sees the EV3 as a competitor to the Chevy Bolt and the Nissan Leaf. Those are pretty much your only other choices if you want a new EV around $30,000 in the US.
The 2027 Bolt starts at $28,995 with 262 miles of range, and the 2026 Leaf starts at $29,990 with up to 303 miles. The EV3 lands right between them at $29,890 before a $1,495 destination fee.
By Kia’s count, there are nearly 80 EV models on sale in the US today, and only two of them were priced under $30,000 before the EV3 showed up. Not great.
The way I see it, the EV3 is really a Bolt EV that’s better packaged and comes with more options. You get to pick between two battery packs, front-wheel or all-wheel drive, and five trims, so you can end up with something closer to what you really want. Neither the Bolt nor the Leaf offers AWD.
The base Light FWD comes with a 58.3 kWh pack that’s good for 221 miles. For $34,990, the Wind FWD gets the 81.4 kWh pack and the full 321 miles. All-wheel drive adds a second motor for 261 hp and brings range down to 280 miles. At the top, the $45,890 GT makes 288 hp and gets to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds.
The EV3 also takes over from the Niro EV, which started at $39,700 with 253 miles of range. So Kia’s entry-level EV just got about $10,000 cheaper.
Small footprint, big battery
The EV3 is a boxy-looking compact SUV with Kia’s “tiger face” front end and the same design language as the EV6 and EV9.
Boxy usually means bad aero. But Kia focused on aero optimization and got the drag coefficient down to 0.275.
That’s a big reason why the base version gets impressive range out of a relatively small pack. And Kia still managed to fit a big 81.4 kWh pack into a vehicle that’s just 169.3 inches long. According to Kia, the new pack has 22% higher energy density than the one in the Niro EV.
The EV3 rides on a 400-volt version of the E-GMP platform, so don’t expect EV6 charging speeds. Peak rates are about 100 kW and 127 kW depending on the pack, but peak charge rates aren’t the whole story. At virtually any DC fast-charging station, you’ll be able to charge to 80% in roughly 30 minutes. Kia says that’s about 30% faster than the Niro EV.
It comes with a NACS port and Plug & Charge, which Kia says gives you access to more than 40,000 DC fast chargers.
Inside, you get 26 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats and about 56 cubic feet with them folded.
There’s also a 0.9 cubic-foot frunk. It’s small, but we often don’t see any frunk on a vehicle of this form factor, and Kia says it’s the only one in this segment. We appreciate Kia making the effort.
Kia says the EV3 has 99.7 cubic feet of passenger volume, which it claims is more than any of its direct competitors.
When I sat in the back seat, I felt I had plenty of legroom with the front seat at a normal position, but when sitting straight, my head was within 3 inches of the ceiling (I’m 6ft tall).
The tech is what you’d expect from a more expensive EV: over-the-air updates, Apple CarPlay, and apps like YouTube and Netflix. Highway Driving Assist is standard on every trim, and a head-up display is available on the GT.
One thing to watch: vehicle-to-load (V2L) isn’t available below the GT-Line. On the trims that have it, Kia includes the external adapter.
Driving the EV3
Kia sent us on a loop out of Victoria: north over the Malahat, west to Port Renfrew, and back along the coast. I drove the Wind FWD and the GT-Line AWD.
The driving experience is impressive for an entry-level EV. The FWD version makes 201 hp and the AWD makes 261 hp. I never felt like I didn’t have enough power in either of them.
The EV3 also felt planted on the road, even on the tough logging roads around Vancouver Island. For a vehicle in that segment, I was pleasantly surprised by the driving experience.
Every EV3 gets four-wheel independent suspension, and Kia adds acoustic laminated glass on the windshield and front windows from the Wind trim up.
Then there’s one-pedal driving, and it feels great. Kia’s new i-Pedal 3.0 gives you three regen levels, and you turn it on by pulling and holding the left paddle.
And Kia finally remembers your preferred setting between drives. If you’ve owned a Kia or Hyundai EV, you know how annoying it was to turn i-Pedal back on every time you got in the car.
The price goes up fast
My main concern is the “affordable” part.
It’s true that you can get an EV3 for $30,000. But the cheapest version I tested was still $41,000, and the GT-Line AWD starts at $43,490. The price goes up fast depending on the options, so be on the lookout for that.
The good news is that you don’t have to go that high. You can get the base version for $29,890, or the max range in a well-equipped Wind FWD for $34,990. That one looks like the sweet spot of the lineup.
Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
