2026 Kia EV3 review

The Kia EV3 is an award-winning electric vehicle (EV), and for good reason.

This compact and likeable little EV is a real looker. It has presence and style, and there’s a heap of features and comfort on offer inside, as well as surprisingly good practicality.

But I’m not convinced that the value-for-money equation stacks up quite as well as it could in this top-spec small electric SUV – especially considering some of the competitors in the EV space today.

How much does the Kia EV3 cost?

The Kia EV3 is relatively affordable… if you’re not considering the top-spec flagship. This GT-Line variant has a price that is in line with some bigger, high-spec electric SUVs on the market. 

Parked in your driveway you’re looking at close to $70,000 for this compact electric SUV… and you’re still missing out on some gear that you might expect if you’re paying that price, like a surround-view camera system, or the Korean brand’s brilliant blind-spot-view monitoring camera setup. 

For a tech-focused top-shelf flagship, it’s disappointing that Kia didn’t find a way to fit those features… surely it would still be a money-spinner!

It’s worth noting there are drive-away deals across most EV3 variants in most places around Australia, but check out our earlier pricing story for more information.

To see how the Kia EV3 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

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What is the Kia EV3 like on the inside?

Before we get to the interior, I need to talk about the door handles. The back ones? Up high on the C-pillar with an actual handle. Excellent… so long as your kids aren’t trying to let themselves in.

But the front handles? They’re terrible.

They’re hard to grip, and the keyless entry sensor doesn’t work well enough for it to be helpful. Over my week of testing, it failed way more often than it should have, and considering so many new cars have ‘walk-up unlocking’ available, this car’s ‘smart’ entry system can be anything but. 

Okay, but once you’re inside? It’s a nice place to be.

The finishing is upmarket and classy, and of course it has a high-tech edge to proceedings, too.

None of it is made of animal, and indeed there’s a QR code that you can scan to see how much eco-signalling can be done by the interior finishes. 

It doesn’t feel like you’re sitting in a yellow wheelie bin, though, and I really love the interior colouring of the EV3 GT-Line, with a bold two-tone design that sets it apart from other EVs in the segment.

Seat comfort and adjustment is great, and the door-mounted controls for the seat heating and ventilation, the steering wheel heating, and the memory settings are a winner. Buttons FTW.

Speaking of, there’s a whole host of buttons and controls below and beside the central screen, but some of them are semi-haptic and when you’re resting the palm of your hand there to use the media system, you can easily accidentally bump a control that’ll take you somewhere else in the menu zone.

There’s a climate control panel beside the media screen which has a weirdly low-res design that’s at odds with the 12.3-inch digital displays it’s sandwiched between, and you have to swing your head out to see the controls because it’s not directly within the driver’s line of sight.

The big screens are easy enough to get to terms with, and you’ll need to learn them. There are plenty of menus on the main touchscreen, and if you have an aversion to bing-bong safety tech and overbearing ‘assist systems’ you will need to get to terms with the safety settings in particular. More on that below.

The storage on offer is great, with a huge open area between the seats including cupholders and a wireless charger, and there are large sleeves in all four doors with cutouts for bottles. Between the front seats there’s a centre bin and a slide-out desk, which our photographer Glenn (he’s a carpenter for his real job) observed “looks like a kitchen bench”. He’s right. Laminex-like.

The back seat offers okay space but is going to fit those who are smaller and/or younger more comfortably. At 182cm/6’0”, I could fit behind my own driving position, but it’s not overly cavernous back there.

There is a flat floor and rear directional air vents, which makes it feel pretty airy, and the big glass roof helps too.

Of course there are ISOFIX points and three top-tether anchors for child seats as well, not to mention a flip-down armrest with cupholders.

Boot space is good for this size of car, and there’s a dual-floor setup that allows you to make better use of the cargo capacity. It maxes out at 460 litres with the rear seats up.

The frustrating thing is there’s room for a space-saver spare wheel, but you don’t get one. Just a tyre repair kit, and you’ll need to fit your charging cables in there and the standard V2L adapter, too, unless you put them in the boxed-off edge sections. There are shopping bag hooks and a cargo cover, too.

To see how the Kia EV3 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What’s under the bonnet?

Choosing the EV3 GT-Line doesn’t get you any extra grunt compared to the other versions. In fact, the GT-Line is the slowest of the lot when it comes to acceleration.

If it really matters to you, Kia is looking to add a faster GT version of the EV3, which will push the performance (and the price) to a new level.

What about EV range and charging considerations, then? 

The GT-Line has a claimed WLTP rated range of 536km, which is a good amount of distance for a relatively small car.

It has an official charging rate of 11kW AC, but you’ll need three-phase to get the fastest home recharge. Out in the real world, it’ll recharge at a rapid station at a maximum DC rate of 127kW, delivering a claimed 10-80 per cent recharge time of 29 minutes.

Official energy consumption for the GT-Line is a decent 16.2kWh per 100km, and across my week of testing, which included a few hundred kays of mixed driving, I saw a return of 17.1kWh/100km.

To see how the Kia EV3 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

How does the Kia EV3 drive?

It’s really pretty excellent.

The drive experience in the EV3 is more like that of the huge EV9 than the EV5, with a better ride/handling/comfort/control balance than the mid-size model.

It feels comfortable across most surfaces, though sharp edges can upset things somewhat because it has huge (heavy!) wheels with low-profile tyres, but over higher-speed undulations it is balanced, controlled and cruisy. 

It doesn’t feel heavy to drive either, but if you’re after the liveliest and lithest experience, the entry-level Air with the smaller battery is an absolute charmer.

The steering is great too, with a level of weighting and reactivity that makes it more involving and fun to drive than many rivals. It also has a terrifically tight turning circle, making it super-handy in urban driving situations.

While the powertrain doesn’t necessarily push boundaries in terms of power and torque, this little machine offers excellent urgency and progresses quickly when you mash your foot down. It’s faster than the numbers suggest, I reckon, especially when you just need to jab it to get around a slow-moving vehicle. 

And the braking offers multiple regen modes, with a proper single-pedal driving mode for those who have a fear of using the left pedal. It works great, though be mindful that it might make passengers sick as it is very assertive in that One Pedal mode. There are three other choices you can make, including a more ‘free-rolling’ ICE-style experience.

Refinement-wise, it does have a bit of high-speed road-noise intrusion on rougher surfaces, and I noticed some minor wind rustle noise at freeway pace, too.

Now, I’m not a huge fan of bing-bongs and audible chimes to warn you of things that the car believes you’re not doing right.

And this car? It chimes a lot. There’s a driver monitoring camera that seems to think you’re being a dangerous driver by checking the speedo or your mirrors. The fact you have to go through multiple menus on the screen to disable both the ‘distracted driver’ and ‘fatigue monitoring’ systems, each and every time you drive the EV3, is a chore.

The also-annoying ‘new speed zone’ and ‘overspeed’ warnings are more easily muted by holding the mute button on the steering wheel, and the lane-keeping assistance can be disabled as such, too… I just wish the brand would allow one of the steering wheel’s favourite buttons to have a press-and-hold function to disable the driver monitoring camera. Because it makes a good drive experience less enjoyable.

To see how the Kia EV3 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What do you get?

The EV3 is available in three distinct trim levels in Australia.

2026 Kia EV3 Air equipment highlights:

• 17-inch alloy wheels
• Kumho PS71 tyres
• Tyre repair kit
• Matte plastic wheel-arch cladding
• Black roof rails
• Power-folding, heated, body-colour side mirrors
• Automatic LED headlights
• LED daytime running lights
• Partial LED tail-lights
• Acoustic windscreen
• Two-tone cloth upholstery
• Manual seat adjustment
• Column shifter
• 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment display
• 5.0-inch climate control display
• 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster
• Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – wired, wireless
• Satellite navigation
• 2 x front USB-C ports
• 2 x rear USB-C ports
• Wireless phone charger
• 6-speaker sound system
• DAB+ digital radio
• Dual-zone climate control
• Rear-facing air vents
• V2L capacity interior and exterior
• Kia Connect with over-the-air updates
• i-Pedal one-pedal driving
• 5 drive modes
  • Normal
  • Eco
  • Sport
  • Snow
  • My Drive

EV3 Earth adds:

• 19-inch alloy wheels
• Hankook iON Evo tyres
• Two-tone synthetic leather upholstery
• 10-way powered driver’s seat adjustment with lumbar
• Heated and ventilated front seats
• Heated steering wheel
• Auto-dimming rear-view mirror
• Power tailgate

EV3 GT-Line adds:

• 19-inch GT-Line alloy wheels
• Gloss black side mirrors
• Gloss black wheel arch cladding
• LED projector headlights with light cubes
• Full LED taillights
• Dynamic welcome lights
• Two-tone GT-Line synthetic leather upholstery
• 10-way power passenger seat adjustment with lumbar
• 2-position seat memory
• ‘Premium Relaxation Seats’ for driver and passenger
• 8-speaker Harman Kardon sound system
• Head-up display
• Metal sports pedals
• Ambient lighting
• Rear privacy glass
• Extendable centre console tabletop

To see how the Kia EV3 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

Is the Kia EV3 safe?

The Kia EV3 achieved the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating when it was put through the protocols earlier this year.

Standard safety equipment includes:

• Autonomous emergency braking
  • Car detection
  • Pedestrian detection
  • Cyclist detection
  • Junction assist
• Lane-keep assist
• Highway Driving Assist 2
• Blind-spot assist
• Driver attention monitoring
• Intelligent speed limit assist
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Reversing camera
• High-beam assist

Unlike other Kia models (and despite the arguably lofty price), no variant in the EV3 range gets a surround-view camera system, which is commonly becoming standard equipment in all models.

There’s also no Blind Spot View Monitor system, which is packaged with the surround-camera setup in Kia land, and that means this high-tech car feels a bit behind the times with its safety technology.

Then there are the gripes I mentioned earlier… Anyway, it has the five-star rating, so what would I know?

It also has seven airbags, including dual front, front side, a front centre airbag, and curtain airbags for both rows of seats.

To see how the Kia EV3 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

How much does the Kia EV3 cost to run?

Kia Australia offers a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty for private buyers. The battery pack in Kia EV models is covered for a not-quite-up-to-industry-norms level of seven years or 150,000km.

Kia Australia offers three options for prepaid servicing for the EV3: a three-year plan at $674; a five-year plan at $1285; or a seven-year plan at $1897. 

Customers who service with Kia can score up to eight years of roadside assistance, too. It tops up with each service.

To see how the Kia EV3 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

CarExpert’s Take on the Kia EV3

This is a very nice compact electric crossover, and this top-spec GT-Line looks great outside, feels great inside, and ticks a lot of the boxes that EV buyers might like.

But it’s pricey, and it’s still missing some stuff you’d expect for this kind of price. Plus it can be frustrating to have to switch off the safety systems if you don’t like them.

For some buyers it’ll be all the EV they ever need. For others, there are options that’ll tick the box better.

CarExpert can save you thousands on a new Kia EV3. Click here to get a great deal

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MORE: Explore the Kia EV3 showroom