2026 Kia EV4 Earth review

Its proportions are decidedly unusual, with a short, tight front overhang, and then a bizarrely distended rear end that doesn't seem to want to stop. Friends described it in all manner of different ways, from a cockroach to something from Botched, that awful TV show about cosmetic surgery gone awry.

I thought it looked ungainly at first, but the longer I spent with it, the more I admired – and then grew to love its daring styling.

We get this fastback shape instead of the more conventional hatch because Kia builds the former in South Korea, while the five-door hatch comes from the distant climes of Slovakia. And Kia hasn’t yet developed a convincing business case to ship and market the hatch at a competitive price here.

For some years, sedans have been having a tough time of it in Australia. Compared to SUVs within their class, they're very much the minority players, so Kia doesn't expect the EV4 to rival the sales performance of either the EV3 or the EV5.

Across the various marques, the intra-marque sales ratio of SUVs to their sedan equivalents currently stands at roughly 4:1. The Toyota Camry fares a little worse than that, while the Tesla Model 3 and the BYD Seal manage a little better.

So it seems as if the EV4 is up against it a bit. Dig a little deeper, though, and you can start to come up with all sorts of justifications for this unusual and charming car.

The Earth sits in the middle of the three-variant EV4 range and will most likely be the one Aussie buyers overlook.

The EV4 range is otherwise pretty straightforward to understand. At the entry-level is the EV4 Air. It's powered by a smaller 58.3kWh lithium-ion battery than the other two models, and wings in with an RRP of $49,990 plus on-road costs.

Step up to this particular variant, the EV4 Earth, and your battery swells in size to a respectable 81.4kWh, but then the invoice gets a bit spicier too, at $59,190 plus on-road costs. That's quite a step, but there are equipment upgrades too.

Earth buyers can expect 19-inch alloy wheels, an exterior vehicle-to-load socket, two-tone synthetic leather upholstery, a 10-way powered driver's seat with heating function, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, and a pale colourway for the interior rather than the Air's rather dour black cloth seating.

The list highlights – by omission – a few spec holes that are readily apparent on the EV4 Earth.

If you're paying nigh-on $60,000 for a car, I think it's reasonable to expect a wireless phone charger, a 360-degree reversing camera or a head-up display. Or a passenger seat that adjusts electrically. Or, come to that, if you're sitting on artificial leather in the Aussie sun, a cooling function for the seats.

In other words, were you pondering the Earth, I'd counsel that you dig a little further down the back of the sofa and see if you can come up with the additional funds for the GT-Line at $64,590 plus ORCs. You can thank me later.

Clear White is the only non-cost paint finish for the EV4, with the Ivory Silver of our test car, Snow White Pearl, Aurora Black Pearl, Shale Grey, Yacht Blue, Honeydew or Magma Red adding $600 to your bill.

By way of comparison, you'll need $64,900 for a comparable Tesla Model 3 Long Range with all-wheel drive, $78,500 for the mid-spec Hyundai Ioniq 6 with a 77kWh battery or $52,990 for the BYD Seal Premium with its 83kWh battery. All prices without on-road costs.

Find new and used Kia EV4 vehicles for sale at Drive Marketplace by clicking right here. There's no shortage of tempters here to browse through and get a feel for what's available.

Find your nearest Kia dealer here if you want to try the EV4 for size, just kick some tyres , see whether you get on with its styling or to arrange a test drive.

If you're looking for more pricing, specifications, and latest offers on the Kia EV4 range, click here.

That 2820mm wheelbase is key to understanding the appeal of the Kia EV4. It's long. To add some frame of reference, it's a mere 3cm shorter than that of a seven-seat Toyota Prado. That's why the EV4 feels so spacious, for leg room at least.

In terms of overall length, it's not extreme. You're not going to have to worry about reverse parking this one in town, although the lack of a 360-degree camera might have you wishing you'd sprung for the GT-Line.

Stem-to-stern, the EV4 measures 4730mm, which is significantly wieldier than, say, a 4920mm Camry. Because of its unusual proportions, it's not an easy car to immediately pigeonhole in terms of size, but it's 2cm longer than a Hyundai i30 Sedan, which we wouldn't typically think of as a hefty unit.

In other words, Kia has really done well in stretching out the cabin dimensions while keeping the overall size of the car manageable and still packing a big 490-litre boot.

The boot of the EV4 pips the Hyundai's in terms of outright size (490L versus 474L), although it's not quite on a par with the cavernous 524-litre maw at the back of a Camry. The boot lid is manual, lacking the power function of the range-topping GT-Line.

The loading lip is low and the boot is generally well shaped, with stowage space beneath for your charging cables, but no spare wheel set. Instead, you get some tyre sealant and an electric pump.

Unfortunately, the boot floor panel that lifts to reveal the underfloor storage is disappointingly flimsy. I could imagine heaving a wheelie bag in here and either bending or breaking this part. The first thing I'd do as an owner is some sort of home hack that involved reinforcing the underside with some strips of metal so that it felt sturdier.

Up front, there's a really pleasant, airy feel to the EV4's cabin, helped by the fact that the Earth is trimmed in a pale grey artificial leather, which contrasts with a darker dash top and upper door cards. The two-tone cabin is smart and interesting, with plenty of recycled materials used.

Because the gear shifter is on the right-hand side of the steering column, the entire centre console is given over to storage, with a number of rubberised pads on display.

The EV4 Earth probably takes the award for 'most things that look like a wireless phone charger that aren't a wireless phone charger'. I know. Hotly contested category, but there we are.

Dominating the dash, in true contemporary Kia fashion, is a widescreen that houses both the infotainment touchscreen and the driver's dial pack. To provide a clear view of the latter, the steering wheel is fairly large, with a low, bulbous boss. On each arm of the wheel is a sensibly laid-out set of controls that marshals the audio functions and adaptive cruise.

A set of paddle shifters nestle behind the two-tone finished steering wheel, and you can use these to shift through the four levels of available battery re-gen.

The mirrors are big and clear and the driving position is good, although only the driver gets electric adjustment for the seat. There's also a decent glovebox and well-contoured door pockets. What the EV4's cabin lacks is a deep centre bin to chuck things into and have them remain out of sight.

I don't often mention head restraints in the course of vehicle testing, largely because they're usually unexceptional. The EV4's head restraints, on the other hand, feature a mesh 'tennis racquet' effect and are gloriously soft and spongy as a result. Recline the seat, rest back and put on one of the relaxing 'sounds of nature' programs and you'll wish you brought an eye mask and pyjamas with you.

Move round to the back and it's far more of a mixed story. The rear seats sit surprisingly high, which makes the door aperture feel very low. If you're on the taller side, you may well find yourself having to really crane your neck to prevent you from hitting your head on the way in.

You then find yourself sitting with your head nestling against that sloping roof, with your eyes at the level of the window tops. It's all a bit odd. Of course, shorter passengers won't find any issue whatsoever.

They'll adore the ample leg room, even if there's not really space to slot your toes under the seat in front. A centre armrest pulls down to reveal another pair of cupholders, and USB-C outlets mount in the sides of the front seats.

That's really good, because most cars will have you grovelling around in a dark footwell looking for non-illuminated USB outlets in the dark. In the EV4, they're right there at eye level.

The Kia EV4 Earth comes standard with both wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. In practice, this was a little glitchier than I'd have liked.

I had a number of dropouts from Android Auto from interference with overhead toll gantries. This is a common occurrence in Melbourne, but in most cars, the system quickly does a handshake and reacquires the connection. In the EV4, it would often kill it and not be able to reacquire.

In fact, the problem was so severe that, even when pulled over, restarting the car and so on, the system couldn't or wouldn't restore the connection. The only way to force a reset out of this loop was to connect the phone with a USB-C cable, which would appear to defeat the point of a wireless connection.

On other occasions the Android Auto connection would be in place, but phone calls would see the audio diverted to the handset rather than the car's speakers. In short, I've had far better phone integration experiences.

That's a bit of a shame, as the infotainment interface is otherwise good to use. It can require a bit of sideways swiping, as Kia likes to use very large tiles, but the processing speed seems acceptably punchy.

The no-name six-speaker stereo (four speakers and two tweeters) has limitations in power and bass response, but the cabin is so refined that you rarely feel the need to turn up the volume. It's all quite calming.

The two 12.3-inch LED screens sandwich a 5.0-inch heating, ventilation and air-conditioning touchscreen. This sits awkwardly for both occupants: the steering wheel obscures it for the driver, and the passenger has to stretch to reach it.

Fortunately, there are physical 'piano key' buttons for temperature and fan speed on both sides of the dashboard.

The EV4 features AM, FM and DAB radio bands, and there's also a native navigation system that may well come in handy if your phone mirroring has contrived to shoot itself in the head and you find yourself at a loss for a USB cable.

Kia offers the Connect smartphone app for the EV4, which allows you to monitor vehicle status such as range and charging status, precondition the cabin, and perform functions such as operating the doors, windows and charging flap and geolocate the vehicle.

The Kia EV4 has earned a full five-star safety score from ANCAP.

As a result of its 2025 test, the EV4 scored 84 per cent in the adult occupant protection category, 86 per cent for child occupant protection, 77 per cent for vulnerable road user protection and 81 per cent for safety assist. That's a solid set of numbers, if not class leading.

The EV4 scored maximum points for adult occupant protection in the side impact and oblique pole tests.

This rating is scheduled to expire in December 2031 and was ported across from Euro NCAP testing. It also covers AWD variants sold in New Zealand but not imported to Australia.

We need to talk about the speed limit recognition. It still requires a bit of finessing, because quite often it picks up spurious speed limits.

Fortunately, a long press on the steering wheel-mounted volume roller will mute the chimes, but be careful of relying on the on-screen speed sign. I almost managed to blow past a mobile speed camera in a 60km/h zone because the system was telling me the limit was 80km/h and hadn't recognised a previous limit change. In its defence, nor had I.

The active cruise control is well calibrated, braking smoothly and predictably, and the lane-keep is generally good. The driver attention monitor is also well judged, only chiming when you generally have strayed in your attention to the road ahead.

Again, the most notable miss for this variant is a 360-degree parking camera. In tight multi-storey city car parks, a surround-view camera takes the stress out of nudging into tight bays.

The GT-Line variant offers a surround-view camera and a number of other safety features, such as Safe Exit Assist, Parking Collision Avoidance (Reverse), and a Blind-Spot View Monitor.

The Kia EV4 is covered by a seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, with seven-year or 150,000km coverage for the battery.

Service intervals are set at 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

Kia offers prepaid EV service plan pricing at $688 for three years (averaging $229pa), $1308 for five years ($262pa), or $1929 for seven years ($276pa). The reason the prices per year increase is that servicing older cars becomes more costly, with major service items taken into account.

Given how well the EV4 rides, we'd think twice about changing the OE-fit 215/50 R19 Goodyear EfficientGrip tyres. In short, Kia has tuned the dampers to work in concert with the sidewall stiffness of this particular tyre. You should be able to find these tyres for around $240 each. Check the tyres for signs of uneven wear on a regular basis to prolong their life.

The Kia EV4 Earth is reasonable to insure. We found a sample price of $1704.34 per annum to comprehensively insure based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The 81.4kWh battery pack of the Kia EV4 Earth is rated for a 612km range. Kia also claims a watt-hours-per-kilometre economy figure of 149, which translates to the more regularly used 14.9kWh/100km.

Over more than 800km of testing, we averaged an energy consumption of 13.2kWh/100km, some 12.9 per cent better than the factory claim.

Incidentally, 13.2kWh/100km is bang on Tesla's WLTP tested figure for the base Model 3 RWD. The Model 3 is often cited as the benchmark for electric efficiency in this class, and during testing, we returned a 13.8kWh/100km real-world efficiency mark for the RWD variant.

Therefore, to better that figure in testing is quite the feather in the Kia EV4's hat.

The EV4 usefully features a range meter in the vehicle that displays the projected range, and also cites a maximum and minimum possible range, which helps stave off range anxiety.

On the downside, the peak charging speed of the EV4 on a DC charger is a modest 135kW, some way behind the 150kW of the BYD Seal Premium and the 170kW of a Tesla Model 3 RWD. Should you want real scorching charging speeds, look at the Zeekr 7X RWD, which can charge at a rate of 450kW.

The reason is that like most cheaper Kia and Hyundai products, the EV4 is built around a cheaper 400-volt electrical architecture rather than the far zippier 800-volt foundations of the bigger and more expensive vehicles.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the EV4 isn't fitted with a heat pump, so your efficiency will take a dive on colder days. It's something to consider if you live in Tassie, Canberra or southern Victoria.

On the face of it, a front-wheel-drive EV seems a bad idea. Sending drive to the front treads was something that manufacturers traditionally did for reasons of packaging, simplicity and cost.

Given that you're just sending power along a cable to a small motor in an EV, none of those reasons particularly apply. What's more, you can buy a dual-motor EV4 in other markets, so quite why Kia would delete the rear motor and not the front one has me scratching my head.

After all, you're trying to deploy 283Nm of instant torque to the front tyres, which is quite an ask. And when you go to accelerate briskly out of a junction onto a fast-flowing road, there are occasions when you hear a chirp of wheelspin that you probably wouldn't get with a rear-driver like, well, pretty much all of its key rivals.

I can only think it's due to providing a big boot while packaging the motor, inverter and such up front. As a result, the EV4 has no front storage area, which something like a Tesla Model 3 provides as well as an ample luggage bay.

So no, there really aren't that many convincing reasons why the EV4 sends power to its front wheels rather than its rears. It would undoubtedly be a better car if it did.

Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to schlep about in. It's not one of those EVs that goads you into mashing the throttle at any opportunity, probably because all you're going to do is cremate your front tyres. Instead, it rewards a more measured pace.

Drive it gently and it is genuinely delightful. Key to this is the ride quality, and this cannot be praised enough. You could quite reasonably make the case for buying an EV4 purely based on how it rides. We'd understand.

The EV4 has been treated to an extensive program of Australian local chassis tuning. Graeme Gambold and his team at Kia have given the dampers and the anti-roll bars a tweak or three, and the result is that the EV4 smothers the sort of lumpy Aussie B-roads that'd tie a base Zeekr 7X in knots.

It's not the very sharpest steer if you find your favourite set of corners, but horses for courses. If you want an easy-driving EV that does a brilliant job of de-stressing every single drive, you will adore the EV4.

There are some quirks, though. There's something off about either the length, the position or the material of the throttle pedal. When I pivoted my heel from brake to throttle, I found that on numerous occasions my toes would slip off the end of the pedal, with it bouncing back up with an alarming clack. It's a bit of an arcane nitpick, I know, but it hasn't happened to me in any other vehicle recently.

I'm no great fan of the twist-gear shifter, as it also houses the start button and is hidden behind the steering wheel.

Drive modes run through Eco, Normal, Sport, Snow and a custom My Drive setting. Because the EV4 runs on a passive damper, none of these modes do anything to alter the ride quality, but there are noticeable differences to the throttle mapping in each of the three modes. Sport feels noticeably crisper at the front of the throttle map.

Punt the EV4 Earth off the line and you'll see 100km/h come and go in a VBOX-measured 7.15 seconds, which certainly isn't slow, but is about a second behind the likes of an entry-level rear-drive Tesla Model 3 or Zeekr 7X. Rear-wheel drive certainly helps with putting traction down versus front-wheel drive.

Noise suppression in the cabin is good, and such is the materials quality and build integrity that it seems unencumbered by squeaks, rattles or any other extraneous sounds.

The seat coverings are a little slippery, so any exuberant cornering is going to see you sliding about a bit in the broad, flat seats. We found re-gen Mode 1 (one setting off zero re-gen) to just give a nice facsimile of an internal combustion engine deceleration curve.

Yes, the Kia EV4 can perform light towing duties. It can tow a 1000kg braked trailer or a 750kg unbraked trailer.

As with most electric vehicles, it can tow about as well as my cat can swim. Range will drop off sharply and, let's face it, most people will choose something a bit beefier to tow with. Sourcing a towbar, at the time of writing at least, is not the work of a moment either.

The 443kg payload would also be something to bear in mind when towing with the EV4. Once you'd factored in the 100kg downball weight of a 1000kg laden trailer, and accounted for the weight of the tow bar too, you'd probably be looking at a payload of around 300kg.

That's not much for a family of four and their accoutrements. In other words, if you're looking to tow, there are many, many better vehicles for that particular assignment than the Kia EV4.

Overall, the Kia EV4 Earth emerges as a very competent and endearing electric sedan. So should you buy it?

No. And here's why.

I feel a bit dirty for saying this, but if you had your heart set on an EV4, you probably ought to spend the additional $5000 on the GT-Line. You'll get a much better equipped car that expresses the potential of this model more articulately.

The reason I don't particularly like to make this recommendation is that Kia has manipulated the trim walk-up of the EV4 range to engineer exactly this end. As a result, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the Earth variant, and if you want the best EV4 value for your money, you have to spend up.

The Earth variant, with its somewhat cynical equipment omissions, comes across as what software designers call 'crippleware' – a product that's been deliberately nerfed in certain key regards. Wireless phone mirroring without any wireless way to charge your devices? Pointless.

That's a shame, as the most affordable variant in the EV4 line-up with the big battery seems to be a potential sweet spot for buyers. This ought to have been a variant that was a no-brainer recommendation. But sadly not.

While Kia might be patting itself on the back because of this outcome, forecasting a comparatively big slice of the EV4 pie for the GT-Line flagship, it also creates another significant issue.

Do buyers want to pay $65K plus on-roads for the GT-Line, a 150kW front-drive Kia? After all, that sort of money buys you a Tesla Model 3 Long Range with more than double the power, all-wheel drive and the option of subscribing to Full Self-Driving (Supervised). That seems a tough battle for Kia to win.

As you can probably appreciate, it's possible to find the Kia EV4 Earth charming, intriguing but also singularly frustrating. Its path to success contains a number of formidable obstacles.

Should you be a loyal Kia customer who wants a low-fuss EV sedan that rides like a dream, the EV4 has much to commend it. For the floating purchaser, it's a considerably tougher sell.

Andy brings almost 30 years automotive writing experience to his role at Drive. When he wasn’t showing people which way the Nürburgring went, he freelanced for outlets such as Car, Autocar, and The Times. After contributing to Top Gear Australia, Andy subsequently moved Down Under, serving as editor at MOTOR and Wheels. As Drive’s Road Test Editor, he’s at the heart of our vehicle testing, but also loves to spin a long-form yarn.

Read more about Andy Enright