Kia officially launched the 2025 Ray EV in Korea with the same low starting price of under $21,000. However, the new model year gains additional features. With incentives, the entry-level electric car can be bought for as little as $15,000 (20 million won).
The “New Kia Ray” was reborn as an entry-level EV last year. After opening pre-orders last August, starting at around $20,500 (27.35 million won), the Kia Ray EV secured over 6,000 reservations in less than a month.
As someone who drove an original fiat 500e with a similar range, I can assure you this is not enough battery for anywhere but the market it’s designed for (South Korea). You will eat through that “best estimate” of 120 miles in a day’s worth of driving, especially with additional passengers and the AC running.
The average US daily drive is less than 40 miles. Accounting for outliers and a margin, let’s conservatively say 60 miles. That’s still probably more than most average commutes.
That’s half the best case rated mileage, which is for sure more than the “realistic” mileage with a full vehicle and A/C running. There’s no way that would reduce it by half, even from the best case rating.
You’re going to get 100 miles of real world range out of that 120 rating. Then you will lose 20 for running the AC. That’s 80 miles. If you add passengers, that’s another 20 you will lose. You’re now down to 60 miles of range. Better hope your commute is under 30 miles each way and that you don’t have to stop for groceries or something on the way home. Also that last 20 miles of battery power, the car is going to go into power saving mode and will turn off the AC.
I have an EV with 250 miles range. Typically gets more than that, not less, in the summer with AC on.
Losing range has way more to do with speed than AC or an extra passenger. Taking side roads going 40 mph will give me a massive range boost vs the highway going 70-75 mph (2011 Leaf with “82 miles” range on the fully charged GOM).
I barely notice a difference with extra passengers and weight (which makes sense since an extra passenger adds about 0.5% to the cars weight.
And running heat kills battery much more than AC. AC will impact it a bit, but usually only about 5% in my estimation
I have a 2016 EV with 130km of range. Your estimates are pessimistic unless you add in snow and change AC to heat and your passenger is huuuuge.
BTW its range is fine for town and nearby so it’s a great daily driver.
Most people really do drive less than 80km/day. We need two vehicles so the 21-year old ICE vehicle is used for road trips. Otherwise we would simply rent for the rare long haul.
