2024 Kia EV5: Next electric SUV concept unveiled

Kia has unveiled its next electric car in concept form. The Toyota RAV4-sized SUV is due in overseas showrooms by the end of the year – though Australian buyers will need to wait.

The 2024 Kia EV5 has been revealed in concept form overnight, with a striking resemblance to the Kia EV9 full-size seven-seat family SUV unveiled last week.

Kia showed the Concept EV5 at a Chinese electric-car event and announced it will be the next model to join its battery-powered range.

As with the Kia EV9 – which was first shown as a concept in late 2021 and unveiled in production guise earlier this month – the Kia EV5 is expected to carry much of its exterior design through to production.

MORE: 2024 Kia EV9 electric SUV unveiled, due in Australia this year

The concept car’s interior – which has a minimalistic design with neutral earthy tones and materials – is thought to be more of a design study than an accurate indication of what buyers can expect in showrooms later this year.

The company says the concept’s cabin has been created from materials including seaweed extract and upcycled plastic bottles, with the space designed to blur the lines between inside and outside environments.

The images released by Kia of the concept don’t reveal the EV5’s exact size.

While it appears to be a scaled-down version of the EV9, the EV5 model name suggests it will be smaller than the EV6 – possibly sharing similar dimensions with the Kia Sportage.

MORE: 2023 Kia EV6 GT review – Australian first drive

Kia is for now tight-lipped about the EV5’s technical specifications, but it’s a safe bet the car will ride on the company’s E-GMP platform – the same electric car architecture that underpins the EV6.

In the EV6, the 77.4kWh battery delivers up to 528 kilometres of driving range in the rear-wheel-drive model, while the premium all-wheel-drive GT-Line model has 484km of range and outputs of 239kW and 605Nm.

The South Korean car-maker has confirmed the 2024 Kia EV5 is due on sale in China “later this year”, with other global markets to be detailed at a later date.

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