KIA PV5

Seoul launches its sci-fi-themed take on the electric van

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Kia put the global new car market on notice when it showed a trio of what it called Platform Beyond Vehicle concepts back in 2024. Having updated its passenger car EV lines, it fixed its crosshairs squarely on the market for electric light commercial vehicles.

Rather impressively, it has needed only two years to put the first of these PBVs - electric vans and related MPV passenger cars, if you prefer - into the hands of Autocar's road testers. The PV5 Passenger becomes the MPV sister car for Kia's new PV5 Cargo. It's designed to be configurable to order; cavernously spacious and practical; and functional and easy to repair.

And yet it is also exactly the kind of bold, progressive design statement you would expect of a brand that has made some of the most daring-looking passenger cars of the past decade. So has Kia hit on just the right recipe to take an otherwise fairly conservatively minded market by storm?

DESIGN & ENGINEERING ★★★★★

PROS Truly distinctive; more movie extra than van; efficient packaging

CONS Only a five-seater - for now

The PV5 is about 200mm shorter than a typical standard-wheelbase ICE van such as a Vauxhall Vivaro or Ford Transit Custom, and yet, thanks to its EV packaging, the higher-roofed commercial version claims a carrying volume to match them, of greater than 5.0m cubed.