DESIGN TO THE FORE(some text hidden)

By Jonathan Crouch

Ten Second Review word count: 30

The EV4 is yet another interesting mid-sized electric Kia. Offered in hatch guise and four-door Fastback forms, it stands out in its crowded segment. As it very much needs to.

Background word count: 146

Given how successful Tesla has been globally, it's remarkable how few competing brands have sought to directly replicate its formula for mid-size sales success based around offering saloon and hatch versions of a common design. But that's what we got here in the form of this car, the Kia EV4. Like its American arch-rival Model 3 and Model Y designs, it comes in four and five-door forms, but sets itself apart with exterior design that even Kia admits is 'polarising', especially as a sedan. Perhaps more significantly, this is Kia's first European-built EV, based around the same E-GMP engineering already seen in the brand's EV3 and EV5 models - which means it lacks the advanced 800V fast-charging architecture that the older EV6 originally led us to expect in mid-sized Kias. So can the EV4 make its mark in this over-crowded sector? Let's take a closer look.