The Kia EV5 was named South Korea's Electric Vehicle of the Year at the EV Awards 2026, held alongside the opening of EV Trend Korea 2026 on the 25th, the country's leading electric vehicle industry exhibition. The EV5 also won the Consumers' Choice Electric Vehicle of the Year award, taking home two titles.
Launched in September last year, the EV5 is a compact electric SUV equipped with an 81.4-kWh nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery, giving it a range of 460 kilometers on a single charge under domestic certification standards. Second-row legroom measures 1,041 millimeters, the longest in its class.
Top Overall Ranking in German Magazine Review
The EV5 recently topped a comparison test by a leading German automotive magazine, beating out the Tesla Model Y and Chinese-made electric vehicles. In the electric SUV comparison conducted by Auto Motor und Sport, the EV5 finished first overall, ahead of the Tesla Model Y, XPeng G6 and MG S6 EV.
Auto Motor und Sport is a German automotive publication recognized across Europe as well as in Germany. The test covered four models: the EV5, Model Y, XPeng G6 and MG S6 EV. The magazine compared them across seven categories: body, safety, comfort, powertrain, driving performance, environmental impact and cost. The EV5 scored 404 points in the combined vehicle characteristics assessment, which evaluates vehicle performance. The Model Y scored 337 points, a gap of 67 points. The EV5 outscored the Model Y in four of the seven categories: body, safety, comfort and driving performance.
An End in Sight for the EV Chasm
Led by the EV5, Kia sold 72,078 electric vehicles in South Korea in the first half of this year, its highest first-half total on record. Sales were driven by the EV3 compact electric SUV at 18,431 units, the EV5 midsize electric SUV at 15,965 units and the PV5 purpose-built vehicle (PBV) at 15,000 units. Tesla sold 56,147 units over the same period.
Surging oil prices amid the war between the United States and Iran this year fueled demand for electric vehicles, with some local governments exhausting their subsidy budgets. According to the Korea Automobile & Mobility Association (KAMA), 198,509 electric vehicles were newly registered in the first half of this year, up 113.6% from a year earlier. Electric vehicles accounted for 23.3% of the 850,636 vehicles newly registered in the first half. Some in the market read the figures as a sign that the EV chasm, a temporary lull in demand, is drawing to a close.
