Kia EV4 concept car previews forthcoming all-electric saloon

• Kia’s slinky take on the four-door saloon
• Likely to be built on well-established E-GMP electric car platform
• Expected on UK roads in 2025

Kia has unveiled the latest in a line of recent all-electric concept cars, and this time – would you believe? – it’s not an SUV. The EV4 Concept hints at a forthcoming electric saloon car, which we’d expect to hit UK roads sometime in 2025.

Not that the SUV obsession has subsided completely, mind. The car does have a conventional four-door layout, but the design looks to be heavily influenced by coupe-SUVs. This is particularly evident at the rear end where the tapering roofline plunges downward over the long rear overhang, and then kicks up at the very end to form a spoiler. Darkened panels on the rear pillars give the roof a ‘floating’ effect - something that’s quickly becoming something of a Kia trademark - while the C-shaped rear lights placed at the sides of the car frame the chunky rear wheelarches.

7

LED light strips for headlights are also becoming something of a Kia trademark, and on the EV4, these run vertically down either side of the front end, just ahead of the front wheelarches, on what is an extremely short front overhang. It all sounds quite odd, but to our eye, the results are very handsome.

The minimalist interior is reminiscent of those in the recent Kia EV9, EV5 and EV3 Concept, with an oval-shaped steering wheel sitting in front of a twin-screen digital infotainment display, and very little else in the way of physical features on the fabric-trimmed dashboard. To help achieve this, there’s an air-conditioning panel that can be stored in the floating centre console when not in use, says Kia. The company also claims that, like with all its future models, the interior will make heavy use of recycled and sustainable materials.

Like with the EV3 Concept that was revealed on the same day as part of Kia’s first annual ‘Kia EV Day’, there’s no technical detail available on the EV4. However, we’d expect it to be built on the same E-GMP platform that underpins the similarly sized Hyundai Ioniq 6, along with the Kia EV6 and several other electric models from the Korean pair. We’d also expect the EV4 to run the same 77kWh battery as the Ioniq 6, which currently delivers a range of up to 338 miles in that car.

7

Competition will be fierce once the EV4 finally does arrive, as facelifted versions of the Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2 will by then be well-established, and other rivals such as the Ioniq 6 and the BMW i4 will also be going after the same customers. As such, Kia might have some work to do on the EV4’s powertrain to compete, considering that the Tesla Model 3 Long Range can do up to 391 miles on a charge.

To check out what we think of one of Kia’s other EVs, read our review of the EV9…