Electric mini gets 233 km from tiny battery
Where are our $20k EVs??
Kia has just launched a new electric version of one of its smallest cars. The Kia Ray EV is a home market supermini that gets a 32.5 kWh battery for a limited range but impressive efficiency.
The Kia Ray is a city car that is designed and built for sale in Korea, normally powered by a range of 1.0L engines. The 2011 Ray EV was Kia’s first production EV, and it got a 67 hp motor with 138 km of estimated range.
Kia revealed the latest gas-powered Ray in 2022, and once again it is getting electric power.
It only has a 32.5 kWh battery, but Kia says it can manage an impressive 233 km of range in the city. That’s if you get the standard 14-inch wheel and tire package. The motor makes around 85 hp, giving it more acceleration than the gas-powered version.
The Ray EV can charge from 10 to 80 percent in 40 minutes on a 150 kW charger, which isn’t particularly impressive. On a 7 kW L2 charger, a fill takes around six hours.
Kia sells the Ray EV in passenger and cargo variants, with a price starting from just under 28 million won. That’s just under $28k Canadian. It’s pricey for a city car, but Kia says it qualifies for 6.47m won in government incentives, bringing the price down to around $20,000 CAD. It’s also exempt from most taxes, making it a better bargain for South Korean shoppers.
The company says the minicar has gotten 6,000 pre-orders already, 50 percent more than the annual sales target. So expect to see a lot of them, just not on the busy streets of Toronto or Montreal.
