Kia's march to electric car domination continues with 2026 PV5 revealed to tackle the Volkswagen ID.Buzz and Ford E-Transit Custom vans

Kia is quietly assembling one of the most comprehensive electric car ranges in the world.

The South Korean brand has just revealed its new PV5 electric van that’ll double as a cargo-carrying tradie vehicle and a people mover. A mysterious specialised conversion option will join the range too, but Kia hasn’t revealed what that might be.

Kia has just shown us the PV5’s design, with full details to follow next week at the company’s EV Day where it will detail the recently revealed EV4 electric hatchback and sedan.

These two cars will join the company’s current and coming range of electric SUVs, which include the EV2 small SUV, EV3 compact SUV, EV5 mid-size SUV and EV9 large SUV, as well as the hatch-cum-SUV EV6.

Once these vehicles are all launched it will give Kia a player in nearly every major vehicle segment, as well as selling a full suite of petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles.

The PV5 has a futuristic look, with a short snout, tall and boxy silhouette and large sheets of glass.

It follows a similar overall shape to the recently launched Volkswagen ID.Buzz, which resembles a shipping container on wheels that has an immense amount of cargo or passenger space inside.

The passenger and cargo version look nearly identical, and while the cargo version has a slightly boxier design, the major difference is the two side opening tailgate doors as opposed to the single lift tailgate door of the passenger version.

Kia will reveal technical details next week, but it is expected to be built on a slightly modified version of the E-GMP modular electric car platform that forms the basis of all Hyundai and Kia EVs.

It is expected to have the same set-up as the EV3, which means a front mounted electric motor driving the front wheels and 400-volt charging architecture rather than the speedier 800-Volt set-up fitted to the EV6 and EV9.

This is expected to help keep costs down, which will help it tackle the commercial vehicle segment and appeal to fleets.

If it follows the same layout as the EV3 then it will have the option of a roughly 58kWh and 81kWh battery. Range is expected to be down on the equivalent EV3’s max of 600km, as the PV5 is blogger and likely heavier and will be required to carry a load.

Kia has previously said it was targeting a €35,000 ($57,500) starting price, which would smash the competition in Australia.