Hot off the release of pictures of the upcoming Kia EV9, Kia has released images of their EV5 concept. While the EV5 is said to be a bit further away from its planned production compared to EV9, it is safe to say that it will look a lot like the bigger EV9.
Kia EV5 Exterior
If you’ve seen pictures of the EV9, you may already understand the design of the EV5. While the vehicle is far from exactly the same, at a high level, the EV5 shares many of the boxy and sharp lines found on the EV9, reinforcing what looks to be Kia’s design language moving forward.
Karim Habib, Executive Vice President, and Head of Kia Global Design Center had the following to say regarding the design:
“The Kia Concept EV5 takes influence from the contrast and complementarity of natural landscapes and man-made architecture. It is designed to inspire our customers on every journey, while providing sustainable and environmentally responsible solutions. Created for those who seek inventive new ideas, the SUV brings together emotional form language with innovative, user-focused interior architecture,”
With many body lines remaining straight and, some might call “sterile,” the big draw of the EV5 are its lights. Throughout the concept, lighting makes a big impression on the car. The headlights span across the whole front of the vehicle before zigzagging down the corners of the front, producing a lighting impression you will not mistake for any other car. The side features a light bar running down the bottom portion of the windows, eliciting an even greater futuristic feeling. Finally, the rear features a lighting configuration that almost draws a complete rectangle, reminiscent of the taillights found on the Polestar 2 but upside down.
The concept features suicide doors, but considering the fact that those doors didn’t survive the concept-to-production transition for the EV9, it won’t be likely that we’ll see these doors make it to production.
Kia EV5 Interior
The interior, by far, looks more concept than the exterior, but I would again expect it to look similar to what the EV9 shows off. It’s not too hard to predict most interiors in upcoming EVs; a minimalist dashboard with a limited amount of buttons and a screen that spans from the gauge cluster to the center line of the interior. The concept shows an aggressively squared-off steering wheel that I doubt will make it to production.
Just like the EV9, the EV5 showed off a swivel seat concept. But while in the EV9, the swivel seats primary were for talking to the third-row passengers, in the EV5, the seats are shown to look out the side of the vehicle. Whatever views you get would be more impressive with suicide doors and no b-pillar, so it’ll be interesting to see if the swivel seats remain if regular doors are used in the production version.
The concept also showed an expansive panoramic roof which Kia said doubles as a solar panel, which is a cool implementation.
Not For The US
For now, Kia has no plans to bring the EV5 to the United States and only plans to launch the EV in China. Small SUVs sell like hotcakes in the States, so it would be surprising if eventually the EV5 or some equivalent model doesn’t end up on our shores.
Source: Kia
