2025 Kia EV5 road test – why it’s a better buy than a Tesla Model Y
Do you remember when buying a Tesla made you seem cool and futuristic, the envy of friends, neighbours and strangers? Sure, you could still achieve that feeling today, but you’d have to move to America and buy a Cybetruck to do so, and there are two huge problems in that sentence right there.
Part of the reason that so many people have continued to buy Teslas long after doing so went from cool to common and then sheep-like is that there was no genuine competition, or at least not in the same EV size and price range, until now.
That has all changed with the arrival of the Kia EV5, the kind of vehicle that turns heads and illicit knowing nods of approval in the same way a Model 3 did, back in the last decade (the two-oh teens?).
Some people will disagree with me, and they’ll be wrong, but I think the Kia EV5 is far and away the most interesting, daring and attractive mid-size SUV Australians can now buy. It’s far more interesting and far less like an adorned potato than a Tesla Model Y and it feels hugely more premium, inside and out, than the minimalism-is-just-another-word-for-giving-you-stuff-all Tesla, too.
READ MORE: https://evcentral.com.au/2024-kia-ev5-review-believe-the-hype-this-model-y-rival-will-give-tesla-a-run-for-its-money-in-australia/
While looking, feeling and being better are important, vitally Kia has also brought the EV5 at a price that undercuts the Tesla Model Y, starting at $56,770 drive-away for the entry-level Air Standard Range, undercutting the Tesla Model Y by at least $2000, depending on where you buy it.
According to the gun reporters at EVCentral, Kia arrived at that price, which is permanent (unlike Tesla prices), only after head office and dealers agreed to cut profit margins to the bone. Kia knows how important this car is, not just in terms of sales but its halo effect on the whole brand.
Yes, we’ve seen the Kia EV9 before, and it is an excellent very similar looking vehicle, but it is also massive, far more car than most people require, and priced at a lot more than most can afford to spend.
What both cars do, with their sleek, futuristic looks and slick, classy interiors, is lift the perception of the Kia brand as a whole. Effectively, Kia’s EVs are to the rest of its offerings what Lexus would be to Toyotas, if that company didn’t work so hard at not making that connection.
So the Kia wins on looks, for me personally, and the perception of quality in the interior is also far better than a Tesla, or most other Kias for that matter. The very weird bench seat but not a bench seat extension of the passenger seat is a bit weird, and it’s hard not to think it could have been replaced with more storage space, but there’s plenty of that, everywhere, in the EV5 anyway, including a handy pullout tracy for rear passengers beneath the centre console.
Speaking of back seat riders, the space back there is excellent, even for full-sized humans, and the high-riding nature of this conventionally shaped SUV makes it a winner over the Model Y as well.
The final test, then, is the driving and the Kia EV5 exceeds by doing everything well, but keeping in mind the customer. Too many EVs, and Teslas in particular, seem to focus on scaring people witless with their acceleration but in the Kia, everything feels just a little more relaxed, a touch more conventional.
The twin-motor EV5 Earth’s combined output is 230kW/480Nm versus the entry model, single-motor Air’s 160kW/310Nm, which helps the 0-100km/h to drop from 8.5 to 6.1 seconds, so you can pick your poison in terms of thrust.
There’s still torque a plenty for overtaking in an EV5 but when I drove it on a private road with no speed limits recently I found it was surge-tastic up to about 130km/h, before tailing off into merely normal acceleration beyond that point. In short, it feels usable, practical, rather than taking the approach that some EVs, and I’d include the Kia EV9 here, have of seeming to want to build a sports car, no matter which market segment you’re selling into.
The Kia EV5 has undergone extensive ride and handling tuning on Australian roads and it shows. I bashed one around the brutal Ride and Handling testing loop at Lang Lang and I thought it performed admirably, while it also copes with Sydney’s rough roads in a cosseting fashion.
I also really like that the EV5 offers vehicle to load (V2L), which can power up laptops, electric knives and other appliances via a three-pin plug in the boot. Yet another advantage over Tesla, which the Kia also matches by offerin over the air updates in this car.
At $56,770, the Kia EV5 Air is the only mid-sized SUV I’d think about buying, if I didn’t hate all SUVs, although I’d be tempted to shell out the extra $7220 for the long-range battery, which pushes the range up to a claimed 555km – the longest in the model range. Without it, you’re getting a claimed 400km range, which is real-world 350km, aka just not enough (but can we just pause for a moment to recognise just how expensive batteries are; $7k extra for the range you’d really want and expect in the first place is a serious whack).
If I was a man of greater means I’d possibly want to spend the extra on the flagship long-range, all-wheel-drive GT-Line trim, which is priced from $75,990 to $77,990 drive-away, but in the real-world I’d just stick with the base model and buy a second hand VW Golf GTI to have fun in instead.
What is absolutely clear is that I would choose this Kia EV5 every single time over a Tesla, not just because it looks better, would make me look like a cool early adopter and will likely hold its value better than a car from a brand that keeps dropping its prices every time its sales drift, but because it is, to me, just a far better value proposition all round.
You might, of coruse, want to hold on for the incoming 2025 Kia EV3, a small SUV, or the Kia EV4 sedan – which is expected but not confirmed for 2026 – which could be priced from as little as $50,000 drive-away.
