Kia EV4 review

There are three trim levels, two battery sizes and two bodystyles for the EV4, so simplicity is the key.

The bidding opens at £34,695 for the EV4 hatch with the smaller 58.3kWh battery. Kia has a three-year PCP with 3.9 per cent finance and £3,750 deposit contribution, so put down £5,000 of your money and agree to a 10,000-mile per year limit and it's £416 a month.

That price is for base Air spec, although it doesn't feel too base. You get LED lights, the full driver assist package and three-screen dash, plus heated seats and wheel, masses of power sockets and wireless phone mirroring. Oh and integrated Chat GPT, for which we find few uses. Perhaps you will. 

The EV4 Air lets you choose the smaller battery (273 miles WLTP) or the bigger 81.4kWh option for an extra £3,000 (388 miles). Step up to the GT-Line and it's the big battery only, plus extra kit: 19in wheels, gloss black exterior add-ons, fake leather in place of grey cloth, an electric driver's seat, colourful ambient lighting, wireless mobile phone charging and the option of a digital key. That's £39,395.

GT-Line S adds electric fold-flat 'relaxation seats' for that dentist-chair experience when charging. More useful to us are its sunroof, adaptive pixel headlamps, vented seats and heated rear ones, a three-pin socket, HUD, excellent Harman Kardon stereo, 360-degree parking cameras and a V2L outlet. For all that, the uplift takes you to £43,895.

The fastback body style is only available in GT-Line trim for £40,895 or GT-Line S for £45,395, so you'll be paying slightly more for your extra rear overhang.  

Oddly, you can get a heat pump, a £900 option, only on the top spec cars. They must be assuming that anyone with winter range worries will be buying a big battery anyway and will be happy with that. We'd wager they're right, because we saw an impressive efficiency score of 5.0 miles per kWh on the entry level Air spec hatch with a big battery. 

That was on a mild day in the UK during a fairly gentle drive, but keep that up and you'd be looking at over 400 miles of real world, WLTP-busting range. We spent longer in the top spec GT-Line S trim and saw 4.1 miles per kWh in the hatch and 4.3 in the swoopier fastback. Still very impressive. 

The warranty is seven years/100k miles, with the battery separately warranted to eight years/unlimited miles to 70 per cent capacity.