Watch Out ID Buzz: The Kia PV5 Starts At £32,995

If you’ve been in the market for a funky electric van with windows that's nonetheless on a car-based platform, you’ve so far had one option: the VW ID Buzz. That retro-flavoured people hauler will have to watch its back now, though, because once the futuristic Kia PV5 goes on sale in the UK, it’ll no longer have that market segment to itself.

There’s another thing, too – we love the Buzz, but with its £59,135 entry point, it ain’t exactly cheap. The Kia, meanwhile, kicks off at £32,995 – not far off half as much.

The PV5 is the production version of a concept that Kia’s been parading around for the last few months. It comes in two guises, Cargo and Passenger. We hope these names are self-explanatory.

The Cargo is bigger and boxier to help you pack in more, erm, cargo, and gets split rear doors. The Passenger, meanwhile, is basically a people carrier made sexier and will go head to head with the passenger-carrying versions of the Buzz. Unlike the Cargo, it has a more car-like lift-up rear tailgate.

It’s the Passenger we’re most interested in, because fundamentally, we’re Car Throttle, not Van Throttle. It’s coming to the UK in two guises, both with five seats for now, although a seven-seater version will arrive further down the line.

The standard range version gets a 51.5kWh battery, and this is where it loses out most to the Buzz – even the most basic version of the VW gets a 79kWh unit good for a quoted 293 miles, while the entry-level Kia makes do with a disappointing WLTP figure of 179 miles.

You can opt for a long-range version, upping the battery capacity to 71.2kWh, which increases the quoted range to 249 miles, although it’s still far from class-leading. Kia hasn’t confirmed UK pricing for this one yet. Whichever one you get, Kia quotes under half an hour to go from 10 to 80 per cent battery on a 150kW charger.

Opting for the long range also nets you a little extra performance, should such a thing matter to you in what’s fundamentally an electric Kia van. In standard guise, the motor makes 120bhp, good for 62mph in a leisurely 12.8 seconds. The long-range version gets a more powerful 161bhp unit, dropping that time to 10.7 seconds. Both versions top out at 84mph.

In terms of trims, there’s a basic version with steel wheels and manual front seats, and a posher Plus trim, only available with the long-range battery. That throws in goodies like alloys, electric seats, wireless phone charging, a powered tailgate, V2L capability and a couple of extra ADAS systems.

Orders for these initial versions open on 1 May, with the first deliveries arriving towards the end of the year. Further models will turn up next year, followed by a bigger PV7 in 2027 and a presumably gigantic PV9 in 2029.