Bentley Bentayga vs Kia EV3

What's the difference?

The Bentley Bentayga Azure may look a bit awkward and it surely isn't great value for money, but it is a true Bentley and a very good family SUV that not only provides terrific practicality but superb performance and comfort.

It's hard to say how this will ride on Australia's roads just yet, but the packaging and drivetrain - as well as the range from what we can tell - are all good signs for the EV3. 

A relatively small city car with what seems to genuinely be about 600km of range and a spacious modern interior? 

It’s not perfect, and there are some local specifics that could prove important, but as long as the price is right, I'm feeling pretty good about this thing.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

You'd think of all automotive brands Bentley, with its beautiful swooping and powerful saloons, would be able to floor us with something just exquisite in SUV form. But right from the 2012 concept the Bentayga has struggled to stun the world with its design.

So, while there are Bentley family traits all over the Bentayga, from the intricate headlights and mesh grille, to the oval tail-lights and body which squats over the rear wheels, the overall design looks awkward to my eyes.

To me it appears the boxy design with the tall, flat roofline and elevated ride height favours practicality over the sleekness possessed by a lower, more coupe-like SUV.

I favour dark coloured clothes because it hides my shapes, creases and bulges, but these are the things you want to see in a car and our Bentley's 'Onyx Black' paint, despite being a beautiful colour with a blue hue added, make it a featureless blob in the sunlight.

A lighter shade or something outlandish like a turquoise or yellow would look amazing, and even better, upset your neighbours.

Let's look at the interior design which is lavish with all the quilted leather and Mulliner customisation, but lacks the modern look of many contemporary cabins with its smallish media screen and busy mosaic of buttons.

I like the little chrome plungers for the air vents, the winged styling to the dashboard and the stitched leather upholstery, but it's easy to spot parts that are shared by other members of the Volkswagen Group (which owns Bentley).

For example, there are the indicator and wiper stalks, as well as the steering wheel buttons, all from Audi. Surely Bentley should have its own crafted parts?

The interior colour scheme on our Bentayga is 'Beluga' (black) and 'Camel' (tan) and the Mulliner option split the colours with a cream tone.

From a family perspective the tan and black will hide dirt, although the cream will struggle. It's possibly the best leather on the planet, however, coming from cattle living high enough that their hides are unblemished by insect stings.

Kia's new design language comes in strong here, the EV3 is bringing in EV9 vibes to a smaller shape and it pulls it off convincingly.

The sharp lines on the LEDs both at the head and tail-lights are so distinctive and so clearly related to the bigger SUV.

The geometric squared-off wheel centres are also different from anything else getting around and the side silhouette is quite cute.

It’s boxy without being aggressive, but it manages to look properly modern without sacrificing practicality by sloping the roof and eating into the interior space.

The tidy but interesting design language carries through into the interior, where some elements will look familiar to owners or drivers of current Kia models and maybe even some Hyundai EVs.

Without overdoing the attempt at sleek, futuristic vibes, the EV3’s interior blends a combination of materials to create a visually dynamic look - something that along with the large display unit and well-considered touchpoints helps distract from some of the hard, scratchy plastic around the cabin.

While the global trim options for the EV3 include some fairly bright colours, expect Kia Australia to take a more minimalist approach to make things easier on the supply side.

Being shaped like a bus does nothing for the Bentayga's beauty but makes it spacious for cargo and roomy for people.

With its large doors and elevated ride height (the car can be lowered for easier access) it's great for families.

Our Bentayga is a five-seater, which is fine for my little family of four, but there are four- and seven-seat configurations available, too.

Second row legroom is exceptional, even for me at 189cm tall, and sitting behind my own driving position there's still plenty of room.

Headroom is also outstanding throughout. We could be a family that loves top hats, on our way to the top hat championships, and not have to remove our top hats. That's how good headroom and hat room is.

Sun blinds in the second row are vital in Australia, and the electric ones in the Bentayga raise and lower quickly, not just offering protection but also more privacy.

Storage is good throughout with big door pockets and five cupholders.

It seems the cabin space eats into the cargo area because the boot isn't overly large at 484 litres with all seats in place.

Buttons in the cargo area allow the rear of the car to be raised and lowered to make it easier to hoist items in the boot.

For devices there's a wireless phone charger up front along with USB ports in both rows.

Kia says in pre-production opinion testing participants thought the car looked bigger than it is.

It's larger than a Volvo EX30 and smaller than a BYD Atto 3 - dimensions are 4300mm long, 1850mm wide and 1560mm tall - but it's inside where the space is really important. 

For a start, the 460L boot is much bigger than the EX30's (318L), and it also has a 25L frunk.

Also, because it's a dedicated EV platform, it's got a low, flat floor and its wheels sit at the corners of the car, not eating into the interior space.

It's a pretty clean, crisp space, and a combination of good light and some clever packaging make it feel closer to a mid-size SUV on the inside. 

The seats are electrically adjustable with leather and the cloth options feeling pretty nice to touch. The headrests are comfy, too.

Adjusting the seats to find comfortable positions is easy, and two adults can sit comfortably one behind the other in the EV3 without lacking knee-room.

In terms of the tech functionality, Kia leans a little further into using the touchscreens than feels necessary. Having a climate panel always accessible is good and the shortcut buttons below the main multimedia screen are useful, but menus are more distracting than they need to be at times.

Storage in the cabin is above the standard for a small SUV: you get the aforementioned quasi-desk that pulls out from under the central armrest, cupholders and bottle storage isn't in the way and even the phone charging pad is roomy.

Behind my own seating position, I've got a nice amount of knee and headroom at 178cm tall, the backrest has a wide adjustable range and there's a standard fold-down armrest with cupholders, too. The rear seat is also where access to the interior V2L socket is.

The EV3 is going for a premium feel in a small SUV package, and the features list proves it.

While the base model we drove on launch gets cloth seats and no sunroof, the seats are still electrically adjustable and there’s a massive 30-inch panel with 12.3-inch driver display, 5.0-inch climate control touchscreen and a 12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen as standard across the range.

That means even if you only opt for the lowest spec the EV3 is primed to impress, especially if you’re coming from a car several years older.

Depending on how Kia Australia decides to go when it comes to features, expect the more expensive variants to have a sunroof, heated and cooled front seats, a heated steering wheel, heated rear seats and maybe even some options for contrast trim colours.

A few other locked-in features are the cabin’s ambient lighting, an adjustable central table that slides out from the armrest and V2L (Vehicle-to-Load) capacity for powering appliances from the car’s battery.

The price of the EV3’s going to be pretty important, but we don’t know exactly what figure Kia has in mind this far out from its Australian launch.

Expect pricing for the EV3 to have it battling the higher-end variants of rivals like the BYD Atto 3 or MG ZS EV - which land around $50,000

It’s pretty much guaranteed it’ll be priced lower than the mid-size EV5 SUV, though eventually a GT-Line version of the EV3 is likely to show up and cause overlap between pricing for the two line-ups.

When Bentley stopped putting its W12 into the Bentayga this year I was unsurprised yet sad. The world is moving toward tighter fuel emissions but the twin-turbo petrol V8 in this Azure is still a beast.

The 4.0-litre turbo-petrol V8 is from the Audi family and I love it as much for its plentiful torque and superb acceleration as the deep rumble of its exhaust.

Making 404kW and 770Nm the V8 can lift and throw the 2.5-tonne Bentayga to 100km/h from a standstill in 4.5 seconds and onto a top speed of 290km/h. I reckon you could get it to 300km/h with the wind behind you.

Drive goes to all four wheels via an eight-speed transmission and a Torsen-type centre differential.

Default drive balance is 40/60 front to rear, with up to 70 per cent of power able to be sent to the front wheels and up to 85 per cent to the rear axle.

I don't think you'll be astounded to hear this powertrain uses a lot of fuel? Let's go there...

At launch, the EV3 will come in a single-motor, front-wheel drive layout with a power output of 150kW and 283Nm of torque.

A standard-range 58.3kWh and a long-range 81.4kWh version will make up two battery choices, but later an all-wheel drive GT-Line variant is set to show up with more power.

Power outputs for future variants remain unconfirmed by Kia, so we’ll wait until a local confirmation comes along in regards to Australian line-up and outputs.

Bentley says the Bentayga Azure with the V8 petrol engine will use an average of 11.4L/100km over a combination of open and urban roads.

But what happens if you live in the suburbs not far from the city and drive the Azure every day to do the school drop offs and trips to the shops and then take in some fun country roads? You use an average of 22.8L/100km according to the car's trip computer.

This is still not as high as I was expecting. I've driven V6-powered SUVs which use more than this under the same conditions.

That said, even when using as much fuel as Bentley says you should, an 85-litre fuel tank is only going to deliver an approximate 745km driving range.

While Kia says the maximum driving range under WLTP testing should be about 600km, its standard range 58.3kWh battery doesn’t yet have a confirmed claim.

A proper power consumption figure also hasn’t been confirmed, but during the launch the EV3’s anticipated range even after quite some driving suggested a 600km run on one charge is reasonable.

Kia Australia hasn’t confirmed charging speeds, but specs from the UK suggest the smaller battery can charge up to 102kW on DC charging, while the long-range battery maxes out at 128kW. 

The EV3 uses a 400V architecture instead of the 800-volt used by larger Kia EV models, thus its slower charge rate. Both should charge in around 31 minutes from 10-80 per cent, Kia says.

No independent safety testing has been carried out for the EV3 yet, but a five-star rating from the likes of ANCAP is crucial for an SUV from a high-volume brand like Kia.

The EV3 does come with plenty of safety kit, including an advanced driving assistance suite with an electric dynamic torque vectoring system, forward and reverse collision avoidance assist, lane keep assist and a pretty well-sorted smart cruise control that, in Korea at least, can automatically let you know your average speed over a stretch of road to avoid getting pinged by point-to-point cameras.

The Bentayga is covered by Bentley's three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended every 12 months or 16,000km.

The good news is all new Bentley's have five years regular servicing included in the cost of the vehicle.

Australian servicing costs won’t be confirmed for some time, but Kia has a very competitive seven-year warranty on all its cars.

It’s usually unlimited-kilometre, but Kia only covers its EVs for up to 150,000km over that period.