Kia’s entry into the van market was unexpected, but it’s created one of the smartest vehicles you can buy today
Bold and imaginative vehicle design is something that, by and large, the commercial vehicle buyer has traditionally been deemed uninterested in.
Boxy conservatism reigned supreme and unchallenged for years, because why bother making your utilitarian workhorse look good when all it does is gather dirt, hold your tools and move your trade materials? If it looked good, it would only distract people from the name of your up-and-coming plumbing business, surely?
Well, the reimagining of the LCV for the electric age would seem to be an opportunity to change all that, giving van and MPV drivers more to feel good about – and it’s an opportunity being driven by an all-new player in the field.
Does that make Kia the van market’s Tesla-style grand electric disruptor? Is it out to offer a similarly emphatic, clean-slate break from the old way? Perhaps – but if it is, it won’t be using digital technology and a proprietary rapid-charging network to supercharge its success but rather simpler lures.
That’s because, besides looking so wonderfully progressive, fresh and unusual, the Kia PV5 is very cleverly packaged, appealing to travel in, really well mannered to drive – and it’s outstanding value for money.
It’s shorter than conventional box-van rivals but, because it’s more efficiently laid out, just as big inside. It comes with up to 161bhp of power and a drive battery of up to 71.2kWh, making performance and range less compromised than in a number of other commercial-market EVs.
And yet, because it uses an adapted version of the same underpinnings found beneath Kia’s electric cars, it’s cheap: yours for less than £23,000 as a van (without accounting for VAT but including the government’s Plug-in Van Grant) or from little more than £30,000 as the entry-grade Passenger MPV – when the cheapest Volkswagen ID Buzz is literally double that.
With clever seven-seat and wheelchair-accessible conversion variants due soon, the PV5 looks set to be one of the smartest ways you could spend a modest budget on a big, quirky family car for some considerable time to come and we like it a lot.