Latest eye-catching EV from bullish Kia aims for both the Tesla Model 3’s sales and the unclaimed electric hatch patch
This is Kia’s new European-market-targeted, mid-sized hatchback. The Kia EV4, now touched down in the UK, has come to play the low-rise, eye-catching counterpoint in its maker’s otherwise-SUV-dominated model lineup of all-electric options.It is produced in Europe (alongside the Kia EV3 at Zilina, Slovakia). And it’s a classically European type of car, Kia insists; so us Europeans should love it. Except that it’s not at all classic-looking. It’s conventional and unconventional at the same time; a thoroughly progressive prospect in one of the very best-established, most mainstream classes of the continental new car market. It is, in short, as challenging a sort of car to think about as it is to look at.At the same time, Kia recognises that the Tesla Model 3 is very much onto something. After all, outside of Europe, saloons are more popular than hatchbacks, so it is also offering a saloon version of the EV4, called the Fastback. The hatch is just for Europe; the Fastback is made in Gwangmyeong, South Korea, for the global market.
