Although Kia calls the Ray EV its first production EV, the car won’t be commercially available. Instead, the company will build 2500 of the electric boxes and distribute them to Korean government fleets. While we’ll probably never see one here, the Ray EV is a precursor to an electric crossover that Kia plans to launch globally in 2014.
The Ray EV is based on the gas-engined Kia Ray, which also is not available here. It trades the standard car’s 1.0-liter engine for a 67-hp electric motor that can produce 123 lb-ft of torque. Energy comes from a 16.4-kWh lithium-ion battery that needs six hours to charge at 220 volts, or 25 minutes using a super-high-voltage quick charger. Kia claims it will have a range of about 86 miles.
Our (Brief) First Drive
On a recent trip to Korea, we had the opportunity to take the Ray EV for a quick spin. Actually, it was more like a half-mile down-and back. The two things we noted were the car’s slowness—Kia estimates the 0-to-62-mph run at 15.9 seconds and says top speed is 81 mph—and poor brake calibration. The odd disconnect between the brake pedal and palpable deceleration is similar to the problem we’ve noted with Kia’s Optima hybrid. We drove a preproduction car, so it’s possible the braking delay has been sorted since then.
Kia will use the limited Korean rollout of the Ray EV as part of its R&D process, which hopefully will see benefits for the global EV crossover the company expects to bring to market for 2014.
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