RUNAWAY SUCCESS

HERE'S no stopping the runaway success of Kia in today's ever-changing car market, certainly when it comes to introducing new, all-electric models which has led them to a string of international Car of the Year awards.

- BY DAVID WARD

Their electric crossover EV3 has just been made World Car of the Year beating 52 contenders and which follows on from last year’s UK Car of the Year title while their slightly bigger EV6 SUV has followed suit winning a plethora of awards including European Car of the Year and the prestigious North American Utility Vehicle of the Year.

This latter model is in some ways much like the EV3 but larger for those motorists who want a bit more in terms of room and there's a wide choice of 14 different variants using the same 80kWh battery but with a choice of two power outputs - 225 or 320bhp.

Prices start at £45,585 OTR for the entry-level Air through to the range-topping GT-Line S at £58,810 OTR and a choice of either rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive depending on trim levels and all versions have the same one-speed automatic transmission.

Tested here is the mid-range RWD GT-Line which comes in at £48,585 OTR with 225bhp on tap and like the other models it’s a highly impressive, all rounder best described as a bespoke electric car which is packed to the gunnels with kit plus the latest and most impressive battery and motor technology that in my view is far superior to anything else on the market.

Crucially too it overcomes those still two main bugbears for drivers wanting to go all electric - it has a longer mileage range and has no loss of interior cabin space because of the underneath positioning of its large battery, which has been a niggling problem for some rivals.

The new battery motor on board can deliver up to 350kW DC of charging meaning it can be charged twice as fast as many other electric cars of this size currently about - enough to take the battery from 10 to 80 per cent of its capacity in around 18 minutes.