Kia PV5 Cargo Review: International Van of the Year Lands at $55,990

$55,990. 416 km of WLTP range. 4,420 litres of cargo space. Kia is back in the van business.

The Kia PV5 Cargo marks Kia’s return to the Australian commercial vehicle market, and it’s the brand’s first cargo van here since the Pregio bowed out around 20 years ago. It rides on Kia’s new dedicated electric van platform, it’s priced squarely in diesel HiAce territory, and it arrives already crowned the 2026 International Van of the Year.

I’ll be upfront. I’m no tradie, and I couldn’t get a heavy load in the back during my loan, so I can’t tell you how it tows or drives fully laden. What I can do is walk through every inch of it and tell you how it drives as an EV.

Size and dimensions

There’s one variant, the Cargo S Long Range. It measures 4,695 mm long, 1,895 mm wide and 1,899 mm tall on a 2,995 mm wheelbase. That’s roughly the footprint of a Volkswagen ID. Buzz Cargo, with the Kia about 9 cm narrower.

It sits on 16-inch steel wheels with plastic covers and 215/65 R16 Nexen tyres. Up front is a double wishbone setup, which is rare in a van, paired with a torsion beam rear. Kia Australia has given it a local ride and handling tune, and ground clearance is 143 mm.

Towing is rated at 750 kg braked and unbraked, with a 75 kg towball limit. Payload is 740 kg against a 2,650 kg GVM.

Price and warranty

The PV5 Cargo S Long Range is $55,990 before on-road costs. At launch that made it Australia’s cheapest electric van. Kia’s pricing kicked off a price war, and rivals have since cut deep.

	Kia PV5 Cargo	Farizon V7E Extended Range	LDV eDeliver 5 SWB	VW ID. Buzz Cargo
Price	$55,990 + ORC	$53,990 drive-away	$47,990 drive-away (ABN)	$69,990 + ORC
WLTP range	416 km	329 km	Not stated	431 km

Kia’s seven-year warranty applies, capped at 150,000 km for commercial use, which is where most of these will end up. The battery is covered for eight years or 160,000 km. Servicing is every 24 months or 30,000 km, with prepaid plans from $528 for two years to $2,246 for eight. Roadside assistance renews each time you service with Kia, for up to eight years.

Powertrain

Pop the bonnet and there’s not much room for anything. Drive comes from a single front-mounted motor making 120 kW and 250 Nm. Kia doesn’t quote a 0-100 km/h time, but expect something in the 11 to 12 second range.

The battery is a 71.2 kWh CATL lithium-ion pack, good for a claimed 416 km on the WLTP cycle, with official consumption of 19.1 kWh/100km. On my unladen driving it tracked close to that, using around 50 per cent of the battery over just under 200 km.

V2L delivers up to 3.6 kW, from an outlet in the cargo area and an adaptor that plugs into the external charge port. AC charging tops out at 10.5 kW on three-phase power, and DC fast charging at 128 kW into the 400 V battery.

Charging

I took the PV5 to a 240 kW Chargefox site, which happens to sit at a KFC. Show your charging session on your phone and you get 10 per cent off. That’s a win.

I plugged in at 39 per cent at 9:00 pm without preconditioning the battery. It opened at 74 kW, then climbed to about 95 kW by 63 per cent. It hit 80 per cent at 9:20 pm, beating the car’s own 24-minute estimate.

That’s 41 per cent in 20 minutes on a cold battery. Precondition it first and I’d expect it to get closer to the 128 kW peak and the claimed 30-minute 10 to 80 per cent time.

Cabin

The cabin is basic and utilitarian, like any base-spec tradie’s vehicle, and I don’t mind it at all. There’s a market for low-cost passenger cars with this kind of no-frills layout, and more manufacturers should take note.

You get cloth seats, two smart keys and a Kia steering wheel with media controls on the right and cruise on the left. Behind the wheel sits a column drive selector stalk lifted straight from the $150,000 Kia EV9 GT, now in a commercial van. The indicator stalk is on the right where it belongs.

A 7.5-inch digital cluster is clear and customisable, with a handy storage box behind it. There’s no head-up display. The 12.9-inch touchscreen runs Kia’s quick, intuitive software with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, built-in sat nav and Kia Connect telematics for eCall, remote control and vehicle status through the app.

The 360-degree camera is quick and clear, and seeing that big square van from above never gets old. Storage is everywhere: door pockets, cup holders, trays, a big bin between the seats and a dedicated rubbish bin under the dash. If you carry paperwork for deliveries or jobs, it will all find a home.

A few things need work. The window switch sits directly above the door release, and passengers kept reaching for the window and opening the door instead. The glovebox lid is oddly thick and eats into storage. And the large rear-view mirror is useless with the bulkhead behind it. A digital rear-view mirror would have made a lot of sense here.

The seats are fully manual apart from two-way lumbar, slightly firm, and comfortable once you’re used to them. The driver’s armrest moves with the seat. The sun visor is the biggest I’ve seen in any EV, wider than my forearm, with a vanity mirror but no light.

USB charging test

Port	Output
USB-C (100 W rated)	48 W
USB-C (data)	13 to 14 W

My test device doesn’t accept 100 W, so 48 W from the fast port is a strong result. Use that one for charging.

Cargo bay

Access is through sliding doors on both sides and barn doors at the back. Inside there’s 4,420 L of space, measuring 2,255 mm long, 1,565 mm wide and 1,520 mm high.

There are tie-down points everywhere, eight just from where I was standing, plus pass-through ports into the chassis for wiring extra equipment. The bulkhead is bolted in and can be removed, as can the sound baffling on the walls, and there are mounting points for shelving and cabinetry.

The standout is a 230 V power outlet in the cargo area, standard. Mobile car washes, dry cleaners, grout cleaners and any trade that brings its own equipment on site can run it off the van rather than the client’s power. Last-mile delivery and mobile services are exactly the work that needs electrifying, and this van is built for it.

On the road

One word: unexpected. The PV5 is genuinely pleasant to drive, and I say that as someone whose first car on my licence was a Toyota Tarago.

Vans are usually top-heavy and act like sails in a freeway crosswind. The PV5 barely noticed. The suspension is on the soft side, so there’s some lean through corners, but nothing like a conventional van, thanks to the heavy battery sitting low in the floor. Unladen, it can feel bouncy over small bumps, much like a BYD Shark 6 in EV mode, which makes sense for a vehicle tuned to carry weight.

The steering is fantastic. Medium to light, natural rather than artificial, and exactly what you want when the hard work is loading the back. Visibility is ridiculous. The windows are huge, the A-pillar triangle windows kill the blind spots, and with the window down it feels like driving a bus.

The air conditioning only has a small front cabin to cool, so it gets cold fast. And the looks work: black up front fading to white towards the back. I’ll go further than calling it the best-looking electric van. It’s the best-looking van, period, and for a business vehicle that represents your brand, that counts.

Safety

The PV5 Cargo earned a Platinum grade with a 91 per cent score in ANCAP’s new commercial van assessment, which focuses on collision avoidance. In Europe it scored the maximum five stars in Euro NCAP’s commercial van rating.

Where it fits

Kia may have lost the cheapest-van crown it started the price war with, but the PV5 still offers a lot for the money. It has more range than the Farizon V7E, a cheaper ticket than the ID. Buzz Cargo, and the strongest warranty in the segment.

If you run last-mile deliveries or a mobile service business and want to cut your running costs, the PV5 Cargo belongs on your test drive list. With a seven-seat Passenger version on the way, Kia’s electric van story is only getting started.