2025 Kia EV3 to play second fiddle to bigger EV5

Kia Australia has forecast its box-fresh EV3 to become its second-best-selling electric model behind the bigger EV5, largely on the grounds of supply.

Speaking to media at last week’s national launch of the 2025 Kia EV3, chief operating officer Dennis Piccoli said the local division was anticipating selling between 4000-5000 EV3s per annum compared to 5000-6000 EV5s.

“The car’s launched pretty well and been very well received in … Korea, and Europe as well, so at this stage the volume plan is around 4000-plus, 4-5000 [units] per annum,” he said.

“We’ll see how it goes – that volume is predicated on what we can get in terms of supply.”

Korean and European market prioritisation has long been the thorn in Kia Australia’s side when it comes to the supply of electrified vehicles of any description – hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery-electric – and was one of the driving factors behind the operation’s decision to source the EV5 out of China instead of Korea.

With the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) bearing down on the market however, word is those priorities are starting to shift more in Australia’s favour, and good thing too seeing as the brand has become something of a safe haven for diesel SUVs, not to mention the upcoming release of the Tasman pick-up truck.

“EV3’s very important for us and we need to sell a nice number with NVES looming and coming our way,” Kia Australia product planning general manager Roland Rivero said.

“We have every intent of still continuing very a broad range of product in the Kia stable and EV3 has to play an important part in allowing the ICE products to be still sold.”

Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith predicted the brand would sell 90,000 vehicles in 2025 – a figure buoyed by the introduction of both the EV3 and especially the Tasman – of which Piccoli forecast approximately 10,000 to be EVs.

Marketing general manager Dean Norbiato added that EV3 and EV5 would complement rather than cannibalise one another, describing the set-up as “more of a tag team than tug of war” owing to their different intended audiences: empty nesters and small families for EV3 vs multi-kid families, fleets and small businesses for EV5.

On the pricing front, the e-GMP-underpinned EV3 starts from $47,600 plus on-road costs and tops out at $63,950 while the N3 eK-riding EV5 spans $56,770-$71,770.