KIA EV5

Newcomer aims to convert legions of Sportage fans to electric motoring

- CHARLIE MARTIN

The EV5 is Kia's vegan sausage roll. Much like the pork-filled pastry, the combustion-engined Sportage is a firm favourite of the British public (more than 45,000 left showrooms across the UK last year, making it the nation's second-best-selling new car), but now it's time for a more 'socially conscious' version, giving the Korean brand a competitor in the burgeoning class of family-sized electric SUVs.

The EV5 has been a long time coming: it was launched in China two years ago but its journey to these shores was delayed by the development of a new 81.4kWh nickel-manganese-cobalt battery.

The car sits on the entry-level version of the well-established E-GMP platform that underpins Kia's EV3 and EV4. Here, though, it has been stretched to measure 4610mm long, 1875mm wide and 1675mm tall, making the EV5 a bit shorter than the Sportage. That results in a slightly smaller boot, at 550 litres compared with 591 litres, but this is offset by the addition of a 44-litre frunk, best used for stowing the charging cable.