Kia PV5 Van Is a VW ID.Buzz Styled by the Future, Not the Past

It looks like Volkswagen won’t be the only brand with a fun electric van for much longer. At the 2025 Kia EV Day—which was an entire day dedicated to Kia electric vehicles, if you hadn’t already guessed that—Hyundai’s little sibling unveiled a few new electric products, like the EV4 and the EV2 crossover. But there was one that stood out more than the others: the Kia PV5 electric van.

The PV5 will be the first car built on Kia’s new electric Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) … erm, platform. That dedicated EV architecture helps the PV5 van be as spacious, high-tech, and versatile as possible. For example, it can be the PV5 Passenger van for families, the PV5 Cargo van, the PV5 Crew work van, and there’s even the PV5 Wheelchair Access Vehicle.

They’re all pretty self-explanatory. The Passenger version can seat eight people (2+3+3), the Cargo version has a big empty compartment that’s walled-off from the front cabin, the Crew can seat five people with a smaller walled-off cargo area, and the WAV has a wheelchair ramp for the side doors and easy access to the back. The quick-use wheelchair ramp is sturdy, too, as it can hold 661 pounds.

Since the PV5 has to wear many hats, it looks more like a work van from Cyberpunk 2077 than a typical minivan, even in Passenger-spec. It’s boxy, upright, and has big, tall windows. That’s not to say it looks bad, though—it looks great. It looks like Kia designed it as a product placement in a sci-fi movie but decided that it should go on sale instead. The cab-over-style front end, the upright windshield, and the cool upward kink in the shoulder line where both doors meet all make the PV5 far more unique than any other van on the market. It looks far more futuristic than even VW’s ID.Buzz, whose cheerful styling is forward-looking but still inspired by the past. Kia looked solely to the future, even if it was maybe a dystopian one.

That sort of brutalist design continues inside, too. The PV5’s cabin is no-nonsense with horizontal lines, boxy shapes, and materials that look easy to clean. Even the flooring is made from Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO), which is durable and can be hosed down if need be. While that isn’t as fun or as exciting as something like the ID.Buzz’s interior, or even Kia’s own excellent Carnival, it’s pragmatic and that has its own charm.

Kia will offer two battery options for all configurations from the start—a 51.5-kilowatt-hour unit and a 71.2-kWh one—and the PV5 Cargo will get a third 43.3-kWh battery. Kia claims that the 71.2-kWh PV5 Passenger will have a 186-mile range using a single front electric motor that makes 160 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque.

There’s currently no word on whether the PV5 will make its way to North America, but golly, I hope it does. It launches in Korea and Europe later this year, and Kia says it’s headed to other markets in 2026.

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