Kia's EV3 GT gains 27 hp and loses 71 km of range
Kia now sells a GT with 292 hp and a GT with 650 hp
Kia has put prices on the EV3 GT, EV4 GT and EV5 GT and opened order books across continental Europe. The three were not revealed this week: all of them appeared at the Brussels motor show in January, alongside the EV2. What is new is the money, and the money is the interesting part, because it puts a GT badge within a few thousand euros of a car Kia already sells.
One 81.4 kWh battery and two motors across all three GTs
The EV3 GT and EV4 GT both make 292 hp and 468 Nm, reaching 100 km/h in 5.7 and 5.6 seconds. The EV5 GT gets 306 hp and 480 Nm and takes 6.2 seconds, its extra size costing it the advantage its extra power should give. All three run the same 81.4 kWh battery through two motors. WLTP range is 501 km for the EV3 GT, 537 km for the EV4 GT Fastback and 505 km for the hatchback, and 476 km for the EV5 GT.
€53,990 in Germany, €54,400 in France, €59,190 in Belgium
Kia has quoted the EV3 GT at €53,990 in Germany, €54,400 in France, €55,895 in the Netherlands and €59,190 in Belgium, a spread of more than €5,000 on the same car once national taxes are applied. The EV4 GT and EV5 GT sit above it, at €57,840 and €59,990 in Germany and €56,390 and €58,290 in France. British prices have not been published, and Kia UK is not taking the EV4 GT Fastback at all.
The EV3 GT gives up 71 km of range to the EV3 AWD
Kia already sells a twin-motor EV3. Since April it has offered an all-wheel-drive version with 265 hp and 385 Nm, which does 0 to 100 km/h in 6.6 seconds and carries a WLTP range of 572 km. On the German price list that car starts at €46,880 and the GT starts at €53,990. The GT therefore asks about €7,100 for 27 hp and nine tenths of a second, and takes 71 km of range away in exchange. The EV3 was already a convincing small SUV before any of this.
Both the EV3 AWD and the EV3 GT stop at 170 km/h
The GT is not faster at the top end than the car below it. Both the 265 hp all-wheel-drive EV3 and the 292 hp EV3 GT are limited to 170 km/h, and the EV5 GT manages 180 km/h. That matters most in Germany, which is the market where these cars look cheapest and the only one where the ceiling is a real constraint. The EV6 GT, by contrast, makes 650 hp and 770 Nm, hits 100 km/h in 3.5 seconds and runs to 260 km/h.
Electronic suspension, launch control and a Virtual Gear Shift
What the badge does buy is a genuine chassis specification rather than a styling pack. All three GTs get electronically controlled suspension, GT-specific drive modes, launch control and a rear-biased setup Kia says will allow a degree of drift, plus 20-inch wheels, neon-green calipers and semi-bucket seats. They also inherit the EV6 GT's Virtual Gear Shift and Active Sound Design, which simulate gearchanges through the paddles and pipe in an engine note that does not exist.
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GT used to mean one car at Kia and one set of numbers. The EV6 GT is 650 hp, 3.5 seconds and 260 km/h, and nothing about the EV3 GT lives in that world: it is 27 hp up on a car in the same showroom, no faster at the top end, and 71 km worse on range. That is a trim level with a power bump, which is precisely the job GT-Line was invented to do. Stretching the badge down the range is how a halo stops being one.
The commercial logic is easy to follow. Kia sells small electric cars in real numbers now, and its first van outsold every rival in Europe, so a performance flagship on a car nobody buys is worth less than a performance version of one everybody does. The problem is that the EV3 GT's closest competitor is the EV3 AWD sitting next to it, roughly €7,100 cheaper on the German list and better on both range and top speed. Kia has to explain why the badge is worth the difference, and right now the specification sheet argues the other way.
