2025 Kia EV5 First Look: New EV Has Curb Appeal, But America May Miss Out

Right on the heels of the fab new EV9 three-row SUV, Kia is launching another new electric SUV, the EV5. Kia first showed us the EV5 back in August, but didn't release many details at the time. Now, following the company's EV Day event in South Korea this week, we have much more in the way of specifics, but with one big caveat: No one will confirm if it's going to be sold in the U.S.

During the EV Day presentation outside of Seoul, when asked if the EV5 would be headed Stateside, Kia CEO Ho Sung Song said yes, with a representative from the company's product planning division saying we'd be getting it in 2025. This was apparently a mistake, though, according to sources within the company who claim the EV5 will not in fact be heading to the U.S. Kia issued a formal statement saying the EV5 will be sold in North America, but those same sources claim that means it's going to Canada, not the U.S. Who's right? Who knows? We sure hope it'll be sold in our market, though.

The EV5 is built on the same E-GMP architecture that underpins the excellent Kia EV6 and EV9, as well as other electric vehicles in the larger Hyundai Motor Group family, including the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and Genesis GV60. Kia says all its future EVs will be based on E-GMP — for the foreseeable future, anyway — but the EV5 lacks one of the hallmark features of other cars on this platform: very fast charging.

Thanks to its 800-volt architecture, the Kia EV6 can accept DC fast-charging at a max rate of 233 kilowatts. That means owners can make use of the fastest Level 3 chargers – well, assuming they work. However, Kia says that by offering a version of E-GMP with reduced, 400-volt architecture, it's able to save a little money, making cars less expensive. That's what'll happen with the EV5.

How slowly will the EV5 charge? The exact spec is TBD. At its EV Day event, Kia confirmed the EV5 will have a max charge rate of more than 140 kW, which is a significant reduction compared to other E-GMP cars.

Kia plans to build standard, long-range, and all-wheel-drive long-range versions of the EV5. However, battery sizes and motor outputs will depend on the market. Right now, Kia is only divulging specs for the two countries that'll get the EV5 first: China and South Korea.

In China, the base EV5 will have a 64-kilowatt-hour battery pack and 214-horsepower electric motor, while the long-range version ups the pack size to 88 kWh. For the dual-motor model, combined output is a healthy 308 hp, though the EV5 will still have a front bias. As for range, we need a bit more clarity. Kia says it's estimating a maximum range of 720 kilometers – that's 447 miles – with the long-range battery. However, that's on the incredibly optimistic Combined Charging and Load Cycle (CLTC) standard, which, for reference, is estimated to be about 35% more generous than the US EPA's test cycle.

The Korean-spec car will have a 58-kWh battery in the standard-range model and an 81-kWh battery in long-range spec. The aforementioned 214-hp output will carry over for the single-motor variant, and Kia says the dual-motor EV5 could produce anywhere between 261 hp and 302 hp.

"The driving range of each model will be tailored to meet market demands," Kia said in a statement. Oh, and there's a higher-performance EV5 GT on the way, too. Kia wouldn't tell us anything else about that one.

One more major difference between the Chinese- and Korean-spec EV5s is found inside the SUV. When the EV5 was originally revealed over the summer, it had what almost looked like a bench seat – a front passenger seat with an extra little cushion that bridged the gap to the driver's chair. That's a production item, but only for China. Every other EV5 in the world will have a traditional two-place arrangement up front.

Otherwise, the EV5 looks a lot like the EV9. There are great materials used throughout the cabin, with a mostly logical placement of controls. We say "mostly" because it's super annoying that there's a row of backlit haptic controls on the dash panel below the central touchscreen. They're hard to see at first, and the natural instinct when using the touchscreen is to rest your wrist on that panel, which will take you to the home screen or map, depending on where you decide to lazily rest your wrist while using Kia's operating system.

China and South Korea will get their EV5s in the coming months, and if the SUV does come to the US, it's not expected to arrive until 2025. Why the ambiguity about this decision? It apparently comes down to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Because the EV5 would not be built in North America, it wouldn't be eligible for the new federal tax credit, raising the purchase cost for buyers.

Kia is working to localize production of its E-GMP vehicles in North America, but it's unclear if the EV5 will be part of this expansion. All we know is, Kia has an ambitious goal of selling 1 million electric vehicles annually around the world by 2026, and the EV5 will be a huge part of making that dream a reality, regardless of whether or not it comes to the US.