Our low-speed first drive in the EV4 electric car’s home city of Seoul highlights its comfortable ride, convenient tech, and accommodating interior.
Seoul, South Korea, is a vast, sprawling, traffic-filled metropolis. Its roadways echo those of major U.S. cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, but with more politeness from fellow drivers. It was here where we got to sample Kia’s latest electric car, the EV4 sedan.
Congested cities are good and bad places to evaluate a new vehicle. On one hand, Seoul serves as a vignette for urban driving scenarios with plenty of stop-and-go traffic, a variety of road surfaces, and noisy areas to help determine how much sound deadening Kia’s engineers have packed into their new EV. On the other hand, it’s hard to get a good feel for how a car handles when the roads are a grid and speed-camera warning signs come up every 100 feet.
The EV4 is in its element here, though. It’s a car that’s ideal for urban commuting, and it’s a fairly relaxing space to spend time. The top GT-Line model we drove is decked out with convenience features and has comfortable seats with a lot of adjustability, so finding your most ergonomic position is easy.
The rear seat is surprisingly spacious given the EV4’s size, and two adults can ride in back with room to spare for elbows and shoulders. At 186.2 inches long, 73.2 inches wide, and 58.3 inches tall, the EV4 sedan is slightly larger than Kia’s K4 compact, with a 111.0-inch wheelbase that stretches 3.9 inches longer. Hard plastic is everywhere inside the EV4, but not where you touch, which shows attention to detail. Tech features abound, including twin 12.3-inch displays for gauges and infotainment.
Driver-assistance offerings are also robust, including adaptive cruise control with lane-centering assist. In the Korea-market examples we drove, there was also a handy feature that illuminated warning lights in the ambient interior lighting system to alert you upon encountering a speed camera; Kia says that feature won’t make it to the U.S.-bound EV4, though.
While Kia also says dual-motor, all-wheel drive models will join the lineup later, the 201-hp single-motor, front-wheel-drive versions we drove in Seoul are perky enough to keep up with traffic and merge onto busy freeways. We estimate the EV4 will accelerate to 60 mph in a smidge over seven seconds, yet we noticed a distinct tug of torque steer from the wheel under heavy acceleration.
Ride compliance proved exceptional, with the suspension soaking up cracks and potholes expertly. GT-Line models roll on 19-inch wheels and tires, but lesser versions come with 17-inchers. The Korea-market chassis tuning may differ slightly from what we wind up with in the States, but we doubt Kia will make any monumental changes. Steering feel is largely absent, but the EV4’s helm is nicely weighted in the default Normal drive setting. Switching to Sport mode brings some additional heft, but we preferred the lighter touch of the standard mode.
Regardless of drive mode, you can adjust the level of the powertrain’s regenerative braking via paddles on the steering wheel. There are several levels of regen, ranging from basically none to one-pedal driving. The latter is well tuned to avoid the herky-jerky feeling of some rival EVs, but we appreciate that Kia makes it easy to turn off for when we prefer to stop the old-fashioned way.
The EV4 is offered with one of two battery packs. The entry-level Light trim comes with a smaller 58-kWh battery, while the mid-range Wind and top-spec GT-Line feature a larger 81-kWh unit. EPA ratings and full U.S. specs are not yet available, but Kia reckons a driving range of 235 miles for the short-range battery pack, while the long-range models should deliver around 330 miles.
Although the EV4 shares its platform with the Hyundai Ioniq 6 sedan, the Kia’s electrical architecture is a 400-volt system rather than an 800-volt setup. As a result, charging times are slower for the Kia, but still class competitive at a claimed 29 to 31 minutes for a 10 to 80 percent charge at a DC station, depending on the battery size. The EV4 will come standard with a NACS port in the U.S. market, meaning it will be able to charge on the Tesla Supercharger network without an adapter.
