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2026 Kia EV3 First Drive Review: More Like This, Please

36 points by peutetre 2y ago

donw 2y ago
Please tell me I'm not the only person that thinks this thing is unfathomably ugly. There is am amazing wealth of design language that could be used for electric cars, but for some reason, most manufacturers seem to land between "metabolic syndrome power ranger" and "criminally battered emoji".
- ahartmetz 2y ago
  Yeah, it's very ugly(•) and a kind of SUV to boot. Much less like that please! (•) A knockoff of that also horrible Land Rover Range Rover design with the narrow and rising window line
- JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B 2y ago
  Ugly and huge. No one needs such cars where I live. A lot of people buy this things but it’s always one person inside going to his white-collar job, definitely not farmers or anything like that. It’s infuriating. They could make it half the size and remove $10k from the price, but they don’t seem to want that.
  - donw 2y ago
    > They could make it half the size and remove $10k from the price, but they don’t seem to want that. People keep bringing this up. The massive size of American-market cars is thanks to regulations introduced by the Obama administration. They effectively outlawed small cars. Plenty of people would love to be buy a modernized take on an 80s or 90s car, but they literally can't be made or sold in the US. I live in Japan, and have a Kei from maybe the early 2000s? My only complaint is that the A/C is like being coughed on by an asthmatic penguin, because otherwise, I absolutely love that car, precisely because it's like driving a Honda from the 1980s. Lots of glass, low beltline, all the rest.
  - nradov 2y ago
    Reducing the size of a vehicle does little to reduce the price. Size is mostly just sheet metal, which is cheap, and air, which is free. Most consumers don't want to be squeezed into a tiny penalty box, especially on longer trips. If you want a vehicle that's $10K cheaper then the manufacturer will have to cut a lot of the comfort and safety features that US consumers have come to expect. Those who want cheap vehicles just buy used.
    - donw 2y ago
      Not "have come to expect". Try "are mandated by regulators".
  - peutetre 2y ago
    It's not as big as it looks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu7qbFWf6i0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu7qbFWf6i0
- ssl-3 2y ago
  Perhaps. To me, it looks like shares a lot of cues with a Kia Soul. For years and years, I thought that the Soul was a nearly unspeakably ugly vehicle. (Not as bad as a Pontiac Aztek, but we don't talk about Azteks.) But due to circumstances, I got to spent a few months driving one on a regular basis. That changed my perception enough that I can talk about it. The Soul had a feeling of lightness that is unusual in even actually-light vehicles. It felt stiff, like the unibody was very rigid and that left the real work to be done by the suspension (as is right and proper). It was practical: The shit in the back folded down flat-enough to spend a long evening at a drive-in movie with someone rather close, or to go car-camping with them for a weekend and use it as a bail-out "the rain happened, and then the tent blew away" plan. Instead of associating that shape with being simply ugly, I instead began associating it with being quirky, efficient, flexible, and rather fun. YMMV. The form of the EV3 doesn't turn me off at all -- not even a little bit. (I probably won't ever buy one -- despite my very positive time driving a Soul, I'm still a fan of vehicles that are either much more compact or which are much bigger and more utilitarian -- but it's probably a good fit for lots of folks. If shape were the only concern, I would support an SO's decision to buy one if they felt it was a good fit for them.)
  - FireBeyond 2y ago
    > I thought that the Soul was a nearly unspeakably ugly vehicle Don't start me on the Range Rover Evoque, which always reminds me of a Kia Soul at two to three times the price.
    - mlsu 2y ago
      The Evoque! Good choice. But the king of butt-ugly cars, imho, is the Mercedes Benz AMG GLE 63s coupe. Had to look it up. That car blows me away. It appears bulbous, expensive, paradoxically small in cargo space and utility yet large in appearance. It's got that subaru-outback style plastic trim (why does every vehicle have this??) which giving it a poseur outdoorsy look, but with a grille so large and paint so shiny that nobody could be fooled into thinking it has ever left incorporated city limits. A tree has never been reflected in its paint. It's curved like one of those bumblebee airplanes whose radial engine is larger in diameter than the fuselage is long -- and I believe -- since those airplanes fly -- that they do a better job cutting through the air than this thing. BMW copied them because they sell well apparently. I will never understand.
- pengaru 2y ago
  You are not alone.
- dagw 2y ago
  this thing is unfathomably ugly While I'm certainly not a fan of this 'genre' of car design, I don't find this one any more offensive than all the other cars it is similar to.
- lm28469 2y ago
  There is (a bit of) hope with these new retro looking concept cars https://media.renault.com/r17-electric-restomod-x-ora-ito-the-iconic-renault-17-becomes-a-stylish-restomod-by-ora-ito/ https://media.renault.com/r17-electric-restomod-x-ora-ito-th... https://www.hyundai-n.com/en/models/rolling-lab/n-vision-74.do https://www.hyundai-n.com/en/models/rolling-lab/n-vision-74....
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
Reminder that Kia allegedly shares customer data with data brokers and also uses your location and driving habits to deny warranty claims. I wouldn’t take a chance with a company abusing my privacy that way.
- danieldc 2y ago
  What companies don’t do this?
  - blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
    Earlier this year, there was a report talking about how several car companies have been violating the privacy of drivers and reselling their information. GM responded to that investigation by shutting down their data collection program: https://www.kbb.com/car-news/gm-shuts-down-tool-that-collects-data-on-driving-style/ https://www.kbb.com/car-news/gm-shuts-down-tool-that-collect... Kia/Hyundai/Genesis, Honda/Acura, and Subaru were all named in the report but did not change their practices as far as I know.
- FireBeyond 2y ago
  > driving habits to deny warranty claims Most companies, Tesla included, will do this. Hell, Tesla will happily use your vehicle's telemetry at a press conference to say "look, it was the driver, not the car". It's hard to argue that driving habits and warranty claims are "abusing your privacy". If you took a TV back to Best Buy that was covered in mud, would you expect them to honor a warranty replacement without asking about the dirt and mud? Or would that be "abusing your privacy" to do so? The example I found of this was Kia denying a warranty claim because it showed that that specific econobox model was consistently being driven at 100mph, and spent a lot of time at or near redline. My Audi (an RS, so expected to be considered for performance) will track how many times the ECU has been flashed, so even if you remove the tuning, it is noticeable. It also does a thing called GFF which will capture any time the vehicle ran outside of the stock ECU parameters, and will flag your vehicle with the factory that you may be potentially liable for any drivetrain issues. Data brokers? I don't know about that, but yes, it is more of a privacy concern.
kassner 2y ago
> 2026 Given the usual car cycles, shouldn’t it be 2025? Are those numbers even meaningful nowadays?
- simonsarris 2y ago
  It's not for sale in the US this year, they're testing a to-be-released car. In fact Kia said it won't arrive in the US at all until 2026, at which point it may be called the [model year] 2027 Kia EV3
devilkin 2y ago
Less SUVs, please!
- dogma1138 2y ago
  This isn’t an SUV.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    CUV?
magicalhippo 2y ago
We tried the Kia Nero EV, and it's navigation voice, while having decent pronunciation, had such a weird rhythm and intonation when speaking that I had significant trouble understanding what it said. I've never come across that with any artificial voice before. And I'm fairly good at understanding both Swedish and Danish in addition to my native Norwegian, so used to variety. The price drove us away, but had it been cheaper we'd likely not gotten it due to that poor voice, given the other options on the market. It just wasn't usable.
- kylebenzle 2y ago
  Wow, I can't believe how far in the future we are living now that we are making car choices based on the vehicle's voice!
  - magicalhippo 2y ago
    Heh yeah it's a bit weird. But when you're driving a new place in traffic, the voice guidance is a nice safety factor, not having to take your eyes off to look at the center console screen. We ended up with a Renault Megane e-Tech. In addition to having a much better voice system, being based on Android Automotive, it supports putting the map in the driver console, ie replacing the dials (speed reading gets overlaid of course). edit: I guess it also says something about how uniform these cars are, feature-wise. Few are radically different, so it quickly boils down to these minor features.
  - dzhiurgis 2y ago
    So far that everyone seem to be a russian bot devised you to make you doubt everything Even on boutique forum of HN
VeejayRampay 2y ago
the vehicle is 1.8T (~ 4000lbs), we don't "need more like this" it can be electric all it wants, it's still way oversized and that has a terrible environmental cost
- dogma1138 2y ago
  Unless you can somehow make batteries weight 1/5th of what they do this is exactly the vehicle we need. A Nissan leaf comes at 1700kg with a smaller battery…
- t0mas88 2y ago
  You can't get EVs with a long range at much lower weight with current technology. Batteries are heavy. The solution if you want smaller/lighter cars is to consider something like a Prius or similar hybrid. Those weigh less and can still drive 80% of the time electric. But they come with the downsides of having a complex ICE with the maintenance costs that go with it.
- dzhiurgis 2y ago
  > terrible environmental cost It doesn’t. Env cost is burning fuel. Everything else doesn’t matter.
PrivateButts 2y ago
I just want my little sedans back, please Chevy, make an all electric Volt just for me.
- 39896880 2y ago
  The Volt is still perfect for a vast majority of people in the US. Sad they killed it.
csunbird 2y ago
I really want my next car to be an EV, but I am finding incredibly difficult to justify spending 35k on a car that has ~480 km range (effectively 400km as charging to 100% takes way too long). I do understand the arguments about 90% of the driving is done within 200kms, but the obly reason for me to own a car is the long distance trips. Most of the Europeans are in the similar situation.
- Panzer04 2y ago
  If your sole reason for a car is long distance, and there's no scope for convenient half-hour or so supercharging, I think you're better off with gas.
  - timbit42 2y ago
    Better off with gas/electric HEV or PHEV.
- ryzvonusef 2y ago
  How about a PHEV? EV for the daily, ICE for the monthly trips.
  - csunbird 2y ago
    These are what I have my eyes on - a small battery to do 10-20km trips within the day (and easier parking as there are designated charging points for charging EVs in my city). Any personal recommendations for a a crossover type car?
    - ryzvonusef 2y ago
      Apologies, none I could personally recommend, but I've heard very good things about the Toyota's PHEV offerings. Problem is, they are so good that they have a massive dealer markup on them, even if available. Iirc, americans have great difficulty getting a RAV4 PHEV in any state.
    - adamkl 2y ago
singularity2001 2y ago
Is Kia not made for tall people? It felt incredibly cramped when I tried the Nero.
- sumo89 2y ago
  Really? I own a Niro and I'm 6''. Even in the back there's plenty of room. My only slight wish is the steering wheel could be adjusted further backwards but in the couple of years ownership we've done many 6+ hour drives without issue.
- dzhiurgis 2y ago
  Look at european cars for that. Crampiness is obviously width issue, but asian car’s cannot comprehend that there are people taller than 6’.
39896880 2y ago
There’s always a catch. > Kia wouldn’t confirm if it’ll get Tesla’s NACS standard and Supercharger access when it goes on sale here.

36 points by peutetre 2y ago

donw 2y ago

Please tell me I'm not the only person that thinks this thing is unfathomably ugly. There is am amazing wealth of design language that could be used for electric cars, but for some reason, most manufacturers seem to land between "metabolic syndrome power ranger" and "criminally battered emoji".

ahartmetz 2y ago
Yeah, it's very ugly(•) and a kind of SUV to boot. Much less like that please! (•) A knockoff of that also horrible Land Rover Range Rover design with the narrow and rising window line
JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B 2y ago
Ugly and huge. No one needs such cars where I live. A lot of people buy this things but it’s always one person inside going to his white-collar job, definitely not farmers or anything like that. It’s infuriating. They could make it half the size and remove $10k from the price, but they don’t seem to want that.
- donw 2y ago
  > They could make it half the size and remove $10k from the price, but they don’t seem to want that. People keep bringing this up. The massive size of American-market cars is thanks to regulations introduced by the Obama administration. They effectively outlawed small cars. Plenty of people would love to be buy a modernized take on an 80s or 90s car, but they literally can't be made or sold in the US. I live in Japan, and have a Kei from maybe the early 2000s? My only complaint is that the A/C is like being coughed on by an asthmatic penguin, because otherwise, I absolutely love that car, precisely because it's like driving a Honda from the 1980s. Lots of glass, low beltline, all the rest.
- nradov 2y ago
  Reducing the size of a vehicle does little to reduce the price. Size is mostly just sheet metal, which is cheap, and air, which is free. Most consumers don't want to be squeezed into a tiny penalty box, especially on longer trips. If you want a vehicle that's $10K cheaper then the manufacturer will have to cut a lot of the comfort and safety features that US consumers have come to expect. Those who want cheap vehicles just buy used.
  - donw 2y ago
    Not "have come to expect". Try "are mandated by regulators".
- peutetre 2y ago
  It's not as big as it looks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu7qbFWf6i0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu7qbFWf6i0
ssl-3 2y ago
Perhaps. To me, it looks like shares a lot of cues with a Kia Soul. For years and years, I thought that the Soul was a nearly unspeakably ugly vehicle. (Not as bad as a Pontiac Aztek, but we don't talk about Azteks.) But due to circumstances, I got to spent a few months driving one on a regular basis. That changed my perception enough that I can talk about it. The Soul had a feeling of lightness that is unusual in even actually-light vehicles. It felt stiff, like the unibody was very rigid and that left the real work to be done by the suspension (as is right and proper). It was practical: The shit in the back folded down flat-enough to spend a long evening at a drive-in movie with someone rather close, or to go car-camping with them for a weekend and use it as a bail-out "the rain happened, and then the tent blew away" plan. Instead of associating that shape with being simply ugly, I instead began associating it with being quirky, efficient, flexible, and rather fun. YMMV. The form of the EV3 doesn't turn me off at all -- not even a little bit. (I probably won't ever buy one -- despite my very positive time driving a Soul, I'm still a fan of vehicles that are either much more compact or which are much bigger and more utilitarian -- but it's probably a good fit for lots of folks. If shape were the only concern, I would support an SO's decision to buy one if they felt it was a good fit for them.)
- FireBeyond 2y ago
  > I thought that the Soul was a nearly unspeakably ugly vehicle Don't start me on the Range Rover Evoque, which always reminds me of a Kia Soul at two to three times the price.
  - mlsu 2y ago
    The Evoque! Good choice. But the king of butt-ugly cars, imho, is the Mercedes Benz AMG GLE 63s coupe. Had to look it up. That car blows me away. It appears bulbous, expensive, paradoxically small in cargo space and utility yet large in appearance. It's got that subaru-outback style plastic trim (why does every vehicle have this??) which giving it a poseur outdoorsy look, but with a grille so large and paint so shiny that nobody could be fooled into thinking it has ever left incorporated city limits. A tree has never been reflected in its paint. It's curved like one of those bumblebee airplanes whose radial engine is larger in diameter than the fuselage is long -- and I believe -- since those airplanes fly -- that they do a better job cutting through the air than this thing. BMW copied them because they sell well apparently. I will never understand.
pengaru 2y ago
You are not alone.
dagw 2y ago
this thing is unfathomably ugly While I'm certainly not a fan of this 'genre' of car design, I don't find this one any more offensive than all the other cars it is similar to.
lm28469 2y ago
There is (a bit of) hope with these new retro looking concept cars https://media.renault.com/r17-electric-restomod-x-ora-ito-the-iconic-renault-17-becomes-a-stylish-restomod-by-ora-ito/ https://media.renault.com/r17-electric-restomod-x-ora-ito-th... https://www.hyundai-n.com/en/models/rolling-lab/n-vision-74.do https://www.hyundai-n.com/en/models/rolling-lab/n-vision-74....

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

Reminder that Kia allegedly shares customer data with data brokers and also uses your location and driving habits to deny warranty claims. I wouldn’t take a chance with a company abusing my privacy that way.

danieldc 2y ago
What companies don’t do this?
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  Earlier this year, there was a report talking about how several car companies have been violating the privacy of drivers and reselling their information. GM responded to that investigation by shutting down their data collection program: https://www.kbb.com/car-news/gm-shuts-down-tool-that-collects-data-on-driving-style/ https://www.kbb.com/car-news/gm-shuts-down-tool-that-collect... Kia/Hyundai/Genesis, Honda/Acura, and Subaru were all named in the report but did not change their practices as far as I know.
FireBeyond 2y ago
> driving habits to deny warranty claims Most companies, Tesla included, will do this. Hell, Tesla will happily use your vehicle's telemetry at a press conference to say "look, it was the driver, not the car". It's hard to argue that driving habits and warranty claims are "abusing your privacy". If you took a TV back to Best Buy that was covered in mud, would you expect them to honor a warranty replacement without asking about the dirt and mud? Or would that be "abusing your privacy" to do so? The example I found of this was Kia denying a warranty claim because it showed that that specific econobox model was consistently being driven at 100mph, and spent a lot of time at or near redline. My Audi (an RS, so expected to be considered for performance) will track how many times the ECU has been flashed, so even if you remove the tuning, it is noticeable. It also does a thing called GFF which will capture any time the vehicle ran outside of the stock ECU parameters, and will flag your vehicle with the factory that you may be potentially liable for any drivetrain issues. Data brokers? I don't know about that, but yes, it is more of a privacy concern.

kassner 2y ago

> 2026 Given the usual car cycles, shouldn’t it be 2025? Are those numbers even meaningful nowadays?

simonsarris 2y ago
It's not for sale in the US this year, they're testing a to-be-released car. In fact Kia said it won't arrive in the US at all until 2026, at which point it may be called the [model year] 2027 Kia EV3

devilkin 2y ago

Less SUVs, please!

dogma1138 2y ago
This isn’t an SUV.
- fragmede 2y ago
  CUV?

magicalhippo 2y ago

We tried the Kia Nero EV, and it's navigation voice, while having decent pronunciation, had such a weird rhythm and intonation when speaking that I had significant trouble understanding what it said. I've never come across that with any artificial voice before. And I'm fairly good at understanding both Swedish and Danish in addition to my native Norwegian, so used to variety. The price drove us away, but had it been cheaper we'd likely not gotten it due to that poor voice, given the other options on the market. It just wasn't usable.

kylebenzle 2y ago
Wow, I can't believe how far in the future we are living now that we are making car choices based on the vehicle's voice!
- magicalhippo 2y ago
  Heh yeah it's a bit weird. But when you're driving a new place in traffic, the voice guidance is a nice safety factor, not having to take your eyes off to look at the center console screen. We ended up with a Renault Megane e-Tech. In addition to having a much better voice system, being based on Android Automotive, it supports putting the map in the driver console, ie replacing the dials (speed reading gets overlaid of course). edit: I guess it also says something about how uniform these cars are, feature-wise. Few are radically different, so it quickly boils down to these minor features.
- dzhiurgis 2y ago
  So far that everyone seem to be a russian bot devised you to make you doubt everything Even on boutique forum of HN

VeejayRampay 2y ago

the vehicle is 1.8T (~ 4000lbs), we don't "need more like this" it can be electric all it wants, it's still way oversized and that has a terrible environmental cost

dogma1138 2y ago
Unless you can somehow make batteries weight 1/5th of what they do this is exactly the vehicle we need. A Nissan leaf comes at 1700kg with a smaller battery…
t0mas88 2y ago
You can't get EVs with a long range at much lower weight with current technology. Batteries are heavy. The solution if you want smaller/lighter cars is to consider something like a Prius or similar hybrid. Those weigh less and can still drive 80% of the time electric. But they come with the downsides of having a complex ICE with the maintenance costs that go with it.
dzhiurgis 2y ago
> terrible environmental cost It doesn’t. Env cost is burning fuel. Everything else doesn’t matter.

PrivateButts 2y ago

I just want my little sedans back, please Chevy, make an all electric Volt just for me.

39896880 2y ago
The Volt is still perfect for a vast majority of people in the US. Sad they killed it.

csunbird 2y ago

I really want my next car to be an EV, but I am finding incredibly difficult to justify spending 35k on a car that has ~480 km range (effectively 400km as charging to 100% takes way too long). I do understand the arguments about 90% of the driving is done within 200kms, but the obly reason for me to own a car is the long distance trips. Most of the Europeans are in the similar situation.

Panzer04 2y ago
If your sole reason for a car is long distance, and there's no scope for convenient half-hour or so supercharging, I think you're better off with gas.
- timbit42 2y ago
  Better off with gas/electric HEV or PHEV.
ryzvonusef 2y ago
How about a PHEV? EV for the daily, ICE for the monthly trips.
- csunbird 2y ago
  These are what I have my eyes on - a small battery to do 10-20km trips within the day (and easier parking as there are designated charging points for charging EVs in my city). Any personal recommendations for a a crossover type car?
  - ryzvonusef 2y ago
    Apologies, none I could personally recommend, but I've heard very good things about the Toyota's PHEV offerings. Problem is, they are so good that they have a massive dealer markup on them, even if available. Iirc, americans have great difficulty getting a RAV4 PHEV in any state.
  - adamkl 2y ago

singularity2001 2y ago

Is Kia not made for tall people? It felt incredibly cramped when I tried the Nero.

sumo89 2y ago
Really? I own a Niro and I'm 6''. Even in the back there's plenty of room. My only slight wish is the steering wheel could be adjusted further backwards but in the couple of years ownership we've done many 6+ hour drives without issue.
dzhiurgis 2y ago
Look at european cars for that. Crampiness is obviously width issue, but asian car’s cannot comprehend that there are people taller than 6’.

39896880 2y ago

There’s always a catch. > Kia wouldn’t confirm if it’ll get Tesla’s NACS standard and Supercharger access when it goes on sale here.