Ranked #126 car in the UK · SUV (EV) · 11,168 units sold last year

Kia EV3

The Kia EV3 is the award-winning compact electric SUV - named 2025 World Car of the Year and UK Car of the Year - that brought EV9 styling and genuinely usable range to a smaller, affordable package. Built on Kia's 400-volt platform with a large 81.4kWh battery option, it offers long range, a clever, roomy cabin and Kia's strong warranty. One of the most accomplished and sensible used or nearly-new electric family SUVs you can buy.

Kia EV3
Photo: Alexander Migl via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Body
SUV (EV)
Years
2024–2026
Fuel
Electric
Range
— mi

WLTP

Insurance
Group 25

The short version

36/100

Forecourt score

Value 8 · Reliability 63 · Insurance 38

The Kia EV3 loses value faster than most cars and is dearer to run than most. Its MOT-based reliability is good, 77 out of 100, ahead of 63% of the cars we track. On three-year value retention it ranks better than 8% of models.

The Forecourt score blends how this car ranks against the catalogue on value retention, reliability and insurance cost (weighted 40/40/20). Higher is better; running cost is not yet folded in.

Eligible for £1,500 off — UK Electric Car GrantBand 2

Applied at point of sale by the dealer — no application needed. Details on gov.uk.

Pick your version

Estimates are tuned to the version you choose.

Fuel

Electric

Power

204 ps

Drivetrain

FWD

Efficiency

4 mi/kWh

The volume EV3. 81.4 kWh, 204 PS, ~375 mi WLTP - the longest range in its class. Heat pump standard.

Tell us about the one you're looking at

2024
20242026
15,600 mi
0Expected: 15,600180k
good
PoorFairGoodExcellent

Tidy and well looked-after for its age — the typical car.

Remembered as you browse other cars.

Optional — fills in the exact year and ULEZ status for your specific car. The registration isn’t stored.

Estimated market value

How we got this number — click for the breakdown, or to challenge it.

£26,800

Range £21,300£32,800

medium confidence

When new (2024)£36,000Age-based value£21,600Mileage adjustment+£0Condition & region+£24Market calibration+£6,826Forecourt price£28,450Private sale£25,150Part-exchange£22,100

The depreciation curve

How a 2024-registration Kia EV3 loses value over time.

What it costs to own

Over

Based on the 2024 car with 15,600 miles you entered above — worth about £26,800 today — here is the cost of owning it for the next 5 years, at roughly 7,800 miles a year.

5-year total

£16,962

Per year

£3,392

All-in per mile

£0.43

Fuel per mile

6.6p

If a company carAround £40/mo Benefit-in-Kind tax at the 40% rate (£20/mo at 20%) — 3% band (EV)

Depreciation£5,754
Fuel / energy£2,568
Servicing£1,765
Road tax£975
Insurance£5,900

If you're a company-car driver

At 3% BIK, this would cost a 40% taxpayer about £40/month in company-car tax (£20/month at 20%) — one of the strongest cases for choosing an EV via salary sacrifice. Full BIK table below for context.

Best age to buy — around 7 years

A 7-year-old example loses roughly £1,650 a year — under half the £3,750 a one-year-old sheds. The steepest drop is behind it.

Uses current UK pump and home-charging prices (DESNZ weekly), typical-driver insurance and manufacturer service intervals. "Fuel per mile" is just the energy input — so an EV at ~9p and a diesel at ~22p make running-cost comparison direct. A guide; your own costs will vary.

How it compares

Where this car ranks against the 340 vehicles in our index — higher is better.

Holds its valuebetter than 8%
Reliabilitybetter than 63%
Cheap to insurebetter than 38%

Percentile rank across our full index. A measure is shown only where the data spreads meaningfully across the index.

Petrol, diesel, hybrid or EV?

How the available versions compare on price, running cost, and the headaches each tends to develop.

58 / 81 kWh

Cheapest gateway into Kia's E-GMP family. 81 kWh Long Range at 373mi WLTP is class-leading for small EV. Cross-shop Niro EV (sister), Volvo EX30, Vauxhall Mokka Electric. Won numerous EV of the Year awards 2024/25.

New price
£36,000
Annual fuel / energy
£800
3-yr depreciation
45%

Watch for

  • ·Too new for clear patterns
  • ·FWD only (Niro EV likewise; bigger Kia EVs are RWD/AWD)
  • ·100kW DC slower than 800V Kia EVs

Fuel/energy costs based on this week’s UK averages (w/c 22/06/2026) · Petrol 153.3p/L, Diesel 172.5p/L, Electricity 27.0p/kWh · DESNZ

Estimated insurance

Group 25 of 50 (mid — around the UK average) · Comprehensive · 3 years NCB

Indicative annual comprehensive premiums for this car, by driver age band and risk profile. Pick the combination closest to your circumstances.

3 years
0 yearsBaseline: 3 years15+
Risk profile:

Estimated annual premium · typical, age 33-39

£1,180/ year

Roughly £98 per month

Typical

Average UK driver — 3 years NCB, average postcode, no recent claims.
Age bandLower riskTypicalHigher risk
Age 17-25£2,690£3,363£4,372
Age 26-32£1,404£1,652£2,015
Age 33-39Selected£1,038£1,180£1,392
Age 40-49£881£979£1,136
Age 50+£786£873£1,030

How we estimate this

Indicative annual comprehensive premium estimates. The 'Typical' figure represents an average UK driver in each age band; Lower and Higher risk show the realistic spread driven by factors UK insurers legitimately price on (postcode, occupation, claims history, NCB, voluntary excess, modifications). Based on 10,000 miles/yr, £250 voluntary excess, and the no-claims bonus selected above. Always get individual quotes before buying.

Expected annual costs

Adjust the annual mileage to match how you'll actually use the car. Insurance is what you selected above (age 33-39, typical risk, 3 yrs NCB).

7,800 mi/yr
2,000UK avg for this model: 7,80030,000

Routine service

£185

Annual main-dealer service

Major service

£210

Every 2 years, annualised

Road tax

£195

Standard rate, post year-one

Electricity

£527

4.1 mi/kWh, 27p blended

Insurance

£1,180

Age 33-39, group 25

Clean-air zones

ULEZ compliant
  • Electric variants are compliant with London ULEZ and all UK clean-air zones.

Based on London ULEZ standards — Birmingham, Bath, Bristol, Sheffield, Glasgow and other UK clean-air zones generally follow the same rules.

Total expected£2,297 / year

Excludes depreciation and unscheduled repairs (see next section).

Unexpected costs

What out-of-warranty repairs typically run, by mileage band. Your selected mileage is highlighted.

0-30k miles

£80

per year · low risk

30-60k miles

£240

per year · low risk

60-100k miles

£520

per year · medium risk

100k+ miles

£900

per year · high risk

Tyres

215/65 R17 · 235/55 R18 · 235/50 R19

What a full set of four will cost you (including fit and balance), and which brand each tier of buyer should pick. A typical set lasts about 24,000 miles.

Budget

£400

set of 4, fitted · £85 per tyre

Mid-range

£580

set of 4, fitted · £130 per tyre

Premium

£840

set of 4, fitted · £195 per tyre

What to fit

Optional extras worth paying for

Factory options ranked by how much of their original cost they recover at resale. Anything above 70% return tends to make money back; below 40% is paying for your own enjoyment.

OptionNew costAdded used valueReturn

Tow bar (factory-fit)

Niche, but the buyers who want one will pay for it.

£650£45069%

Parking sensors & reversing camera

Near-expected now — its absence costs more than its presence returns.

£500£30060%

Heat pump

Genuinely useful in winter; buyers increasingly look for it.

£1,000£45045%

Heated seats / cold-weather pack

£450£20044%

Faster on-board AC charger

£800£30038%

Metallic or premium paint

Almost universal — an unusual colour is the bigger resale risk.

£600£20033%

Panoramic / opening roof

£1,100£35032%

Larger alloy wheels

£700£20029%

Parts most likely to fail

Drawn from owner reports and warranty data. Filtered for relevance to 15,600 miles.

Watch now

Failure typically happens around your current mileage.

Upcoming

A known weak point — but you haven't reached its usual mileage yet.

Already due

Past its usual failure mileage. Either already fixed, or about to.

Lighting & signallingUpcoming

Typical at 30k-60k milesCost £15-£120low severityParts high

Recorded in 5.0% of MOT tests 30k-60k miles — from 21,419 DVSA MOT tests analysed.

Tyres & wheelsUpcoming

Typical at under 30k milesCost £80-£500low severityParts high

Recorded in 1.7% of MOT tests under 30k miles — from 21,419 DVSA MOT tests analysed.

"Parts low/medium/high" indicates how easy the replacement part is to source — discontinued or specialist parts mean longer workshop time and bigger bills.

Safety rating

Euro NCAP's independent crash-test rating for the Kia EV3, from its 2025 assessment.

4/5
TEST YEAR2025
Rating expired (test protocol superseded)

The passenger compartment of the Kia EV3 remained stable in the frontal offset test.

Independent crash-test data from Euro NCAP. Star ratings reflect the test protocol of the year shown — newer protocols are stricter, so a 5-star from 2024 represents a higher bar than a 5-star from 2014.

MOT outlook

How this model fares at its MOT as it ages — from 23,957 real DVSA test records.

Longevity

Not enough older examples yet to gauge longevity.

Common MOT failures by mileage

The defect categories this EV3 fails on most often, and how the failure rate climbs as the miles add up — from the same DVSA test records.

Category0-30k30-60k60-100k100k+
Lighting & signalling5%
Tyres & wheels2%

Share of MOT tests in each mileage band with at least one defect in that category. The peak band for each is highlighted.

Typical mileage by age

The average odometer reading for a EV3 at MOT, by age — measured from the same DVSA records, not assumed. A useful yardstick for whether a given car has done more or fewer miles than its age suggests.

  • 0 yr1,122
  • 1 yr27,006

Mean recorded mileage at MOT by vehicle age, from DVSA test records (ages with at least 10 tests shown).

Reliability

77/ 100

Good

Composite of MOT pass rate, defect prevalence and cohort survival from 21,419 tests — low confidence.

MOT outlook

Insufficient MOT history at this car's reference age — too few tests to compute a reliable percentile.

Things owners say

  • 01The long-range 81.4kWh battery delivers genuinely useful range - a key reason for its award wins.
  • 02400-volt charging is solid (around 10-80% in half an hour on a rapid charger) rather than 800-volt fast.
  • 03Kia's long transferable warranty and strong reviews make it a low-risk nearly-new EV buy.

Safety recalls

Manufacturers occasionally issue safety recalls to fix a fault free of charge. You can check whether the Kia EV3, or your exact vehicle, has any outstanding recalls on the official DVSA service.

Check on GOV.UK

Opens the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency recall checker. Choose the make, model and year of manufacture — no registration needed.

Theft risk

A general indicator from UK 2025 theft data and this car’s characteristics — not a prediction for any one vehicle.

Whole-car theft

Higher

Desirable SUVs like this are relay-theft targets — keyless entry can be exploited from the driveway in under a minute.

Parts theft

Lower

As an electric car it has no catalytic converter, so the most common parts-theft vector doesn't apply.

Worth doing

  • Keep keys in a Faraday pouch and away from the front door to block relay attacks.
  • A visible steering lock is a cheap, strong deterrent on a frequently-targeted car.

Clean-air zones

Whether driving a Kia EV3 into a UK clean-air zone will cost you anything. Rules use the same Euro standard across most zones — petrol from 2006 and diesel from 2015 onwards are exempt; pure electric is always exempt.

Charging zones for cars

CityAreaDaily chargeLikely outcome
LondonAll of Greater London (within the M25)£12.50
Likely exempt
Battery-electric — exempt everywhere.
BirminghamInside the A4540 Middleway£8.00
Likely exempt
Battery-electric — exempt everywhere.
BristolCity centre and part of the Portway£9.00
Likely exempt
Battery-electric — exempt everywhere.
GlasgowCity centre
Likely exempt
Battery-electric — exempt everywhere.
EdinburghCity centre
Likely exempt
Battery-electric — exempt everywhere.
AberdeenCity centre
Likely exempt
Battery-electric — exempt everywhere.
DundeeCity centre
Likely exempt
Battery-electric — exempt everywhere.

Zones that don't charge private cars

  • BathCity centre (Private cars and motorbikes are not charged).
  • BradfordOuter ring road and the Aire Valley (Private cars are not charged).
  • SheffieldInside the A61 inner ring road (Private cars are not charged).
  • Newcastle & GatesheadCity centres and the Tyne, Swing, High Level and Redheugh bridges (Private cars are not charged).
  • PortsmouthPart of the city centre (Applies to taxis, PHVs, buses, coaches and HGVs only).

Model-level guidance only. To check a specific registration, use the official gov.uk clean-air zone checker. Zone charges and boundaries are set by local councils and change over time.

EV reality check

64 kWh
Winter range
285 mi
Cold-weather realistic
DC charge 10–80%
31 min
Typical
Heat pump
Standard
Standard fit
Battery chemistry
NMC
Higher energy density, faster charging, charge to 80% daily
Cost to charge
~£17
full charge · ~£6.75/100mi

Winter range estimates assume ~5°C ambient with cabin heating; figures from manufacturer cold-weather testing where available, otherwise derived as a fraction of WLTP. DC times are manufacturer-claimed 10–80% on the headline charger; real-world sessions on UK rapids can be slower. Charging cost is a full battery at the home/blended electricity rate; public rapid charging costs more.

UK charging network

119,080 public chargers across the UK

As of 2026-04-01, the UK has 119,080 publicly available EV chargers, up 12.6% on the prior year (13,281 added in 2025). 23% of those are rapid (50 kW+) or ultra-rapid (150 kW+), so the network can support both home and on-route charging.

3-8 kW

50%

Standard

8-50 kW

27%

Standard plus

50-150 kW

12%

Rapid

150 kW+

11%

Ultra-rapid

Source: Department for Transport / Zapmap · Released 2026-05-21 · DfT statistics

Company car tax

What HMRC's Benefit-in-Kind charge looks like if you ran this Kia EV3 as a company car, by tax year and income-tax band. Calculated from a CO₂ of 0 g/km, using £40,000 as the P11D value.

EVs sit at the bottom BIK band — currently 3% — so this is one of the cheapest ways to take a company car.

Tax yearBIK %Tax @ 20%Tax @ 40%Monthly @ 20%Monthly @ 40%
2025-263%£240£480£20£40
2026-274%£320£640£27£53
2027-285%£400£800£33£67
2028-297%£560£1,120£47£93
2029-309%£720£1,440£60£120

P11D value is approximated from the latest new price; the exact figure on your tax code will depend on options fitted. The 4% diesel surcharge applies only to non-RDE2 (pre-2021) diesels — we assume RDE2 compliance for current models. Bands and rates from HMRC's Autumn Budget 2024 confirmation through 2029/30.

Servicing & the dealer network

How well-supported Kia is across the UK — a practical read on how easy servicing, parts and warranty work will be to find.

Franchised UK dealers

~190

Large network

Mass-market

Network size relative to the UK's largest (Kia is 4.2% of all franchised outlets)

Servicing, parts and warranty work are easy to find UK-wide, and most independent garages know the brand well — which keeps maintenance competitive.

For context, the UK has roughly 4,500 franchised car-dealer outlets in total, plus about 15,500 independent garages.

Approximate figures, curated from public UK industry sources (NFDA, Car Dealer Magazine). Franchised networks shrink year on year — these indicate network size, not an exact count.

Dimensions & weight

Length

4,600 mm

Width

1,880 mm

Height

1,650 mm

Kerb weight

2,100 kg

Boot

500–1,600 L

Battery

64 kWh

How many are still out there

Of every Kia EV3 ever registered in the UK, this is what's actively on the road, parked off the road on a SORN, or gone for good.

Total ever registered

12,050

Currently taxed & on road

11,931

99% of all registered

SORN (off road)

119

1% of all registered

Scrapped or exported

0

UK fleet trend — 2024 to 2025

+1021.3% vs 2024
1,06411,931

Source: DfT VEH0124 vehicle licensing statistics (year-end 2025) · Updated 1 Jul 2026

Common questions

Kia EV3, answered

Is the Kia EV3 ULEZ compliant?
Most petrol Kia EV3s from 2006 and diesels from September 2015 meet the Euro standards for London ULEZ and other UK clean-air zones, so they are generally exempt from the daily charge. Pure-electric versions are always exempt.
What insurance group is the Kia EV3 in?
The Kia EV3 sits in insurance group 25 of 50. Your actual premium still depends on age, postcode, annual mileage and no-claims history.
Is the Kia EV3 reliable?
Our reliability score for the Kia EV3 is 77 out of 100 (good), derived from DVSA MOT records.
What economy does the Kia EV3 get?
Expect roughly around 4.1 miles per kWh for a typical Kia EV3, based on official figures and our running-cost model. Real-world figures vary with driving style, load and conditions.
What are the common problems on the Kia EV3?
On the Kia EV3, the issues that come up most by mileage include Lighting & signalling and Tyres & wheels. The section above breaks down each one with its typical mileage, repair cost and severity.
How many Kia EV3s are on UK roads?
About 11,931 Kia EV3s are currently taxed and on the road in the UK, from DfT vehicle-licensing data.

Same underpinnings

Built on the Kia BEV (smaller) platform

Sub-E-GMP EV platform for smaller, lower-cost models (EV3/EV4/EV5/EV2). Different badges, often substantially different residuals, but broadly the same mechanicals and repair cost profile.

Hyundai-Kia smaller-EV platform · Hyundai Motor Group

Common questions

Kia EV3, answered from the data

Is the Kia EV3 reliable?
The Kia EV3 scores 77/100 on Forecourt's MOT-based reliability measure. That is computed from 23,957 real DVSA MOT test results.
How much does a used Kia EV3 cost?
A 2024 Kia EV3 with around 15,600 miles is worth roughly £26,800 today (typical range £22,700–£30,900). Dealer forecourt prices sit higher and part-exchange offers lower; newer or lower-mileage examples cost more.
How quickly does the Kia EV3 depreciate?
A new Kia EV3 typically loses about 50% of its value over the first three years, then depreciates more slowly. Buying at three to five years old avoids the steepest part of the curve.
What insurance group is the Kia EV3?
The Kia EV3 sits in insurance group 25 of 50 — the middle of the scale. Exact premiums depend on the trim (some versions sit a few groups higher or lower), your age, postcode and no-claims history.
What goes wrong on a used Kia EV3?
The most common age-related issues we track for the Kia EV3 are: lighting & signalling (typically around 30k-60k miles, £15-£120 to put right); tyres & wheels (typically around under 30k miles, £80-£500 to put right). A full service history and a recent MOT with no advisories are the best protection.
What does the Kia EV3 cost to run?
Expect around 4.1 miles per kWh, £195 a year in road tax, about £185 for a standard annual service. The full cost-of-ownership table above breaks this down per year and per mile for the exact year and mileage you choose.

Answers are generated from this car's Forecourt data — DVSA MOT records, DfT licensing statistics and our valuation model — and update with the weekly data refresh.

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