Kia PV5 Debuts As All-New Ford E-Transit Rival

In Europe, the Ford E-Transit has quickly caught on with consumers, which makes sense given the fact that it’s based on the best-selling ICE Transit in a van-crazed part of the world. The Transit lineup is so successful in Europe that Ford plans to focus more on the commercial side of the business as it struggles on the passenger vehicle side of the equation, though the E-Transit, specifically, continues to face new competition – most recently, the new BYD E-Vali. Now, that list has grown again, to include the just-revealed Kia PV5.

The Kia PV5 will be sold in both Europe and South Korea to start, and it’s the brand’s very first all-electric commercial van, in general. It’s the mid-size option in between the PV1 and PV7 concepts that it was shown alongside of roughly a year ago, but now, we’re getting all of the pertinent details pertaining to this specific model. The Kia PV5 is the first production model in the brand’s Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) business, and rides on the new E-GMP.S platform that was specifically developed to accommodate all sorts of body styles and configurations.

To start, the Kia PV5 will be sold in passenger, cargo, and chassis cab configurations, with the first featuring three rows of seats and designed to be used for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft. The cargo PV5 will be offered in standard, long, and high-roof configurations. Max cargo capacity comes in at a little over 180 cubic-feet, with space for two Euro-sized pallets. As for the chassis cab, it pairs the cab of the PV5 cargo with a flat section out back with mounting brackets, though Kia also plans to expand the lineup with a crew, camper, and wheelchair-accessible model.

In terms of power, the Kia PV5 will come equipped with either a 51.5 kWh or 71.2 kWh battery pack, while the cargo version will also offer a 43.3 kWh LFP option. Regardless of battery choice, all vans feature a single front-mounted electric motor churning out 161 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque, with a maximum range of 248 miles using Europe’s WLTP cycle, and it can go from a 10-80 percent state of charge in around 30 minutes. The Kia PV5 will be built in South Korea, with sales kicking off there and in Europe in the second half of 2025. It isn’t slated to come to the U.S. at this time, however.