New Kia EV1: small electric city car to rival the Renault Twingo

Kia is working on an all-electric equivalent to its smallest car, the petrol-powered Picanto. Expected to be called the Kia EV1, the electric city car will sit below the recently-revealed EV2 in the brand’s line-up and is likely to cost just over £20,000. Our exclusive images show how it could look when it’s revealed in 2027. 

The new Renault Twingo and Volkswagen ID. Lupo rival will be extremely important for Kia, with the Korean company’s head of advanced design, Jochen Paesen, confirming how significant the city-car segment is, and that any electric entrant will be a car that firmly aligns with the brand’s values.

Paesen told Auto Express: “We are very conscious that the small-car market is really important, so I think we need to keep working on it. We’ll do it in the Kia way… I think we want to make sure that we will be noticed. There’s a lot happening in that space.”

How will the Kia EV1 be so cheap?

The EV1 will be designed to appeal to global markets, but it’s in Europe that the competition is at its hottest. High-end electric cars are fairly easy to engineer and build at a profit, but achieving this in a smaller model, with the packaging and cost constraints, is far harder. It’s a challenge that firms such as Volkswagen and Renault are quickly finding solutions for.

To compete, Kia will need to work alongside sister brand Hyundai, which we already know is gearing up its European production plants for a new electric model of its own.

We expect the EV1 to be one of the models that pushes its maker’s design into a new phase. The minimalist, ultra-contemporary language that Kia is known for has largely spread across different market segments, but Paesen acknowledged that the firm is now transitioning towards a new design generation.

“We’ve built a good foundation, I think now we’ve got a good presence, but how do we become more aspirational, and how do we get people to walk in the showroom and say, ‘I want that Kia’?. That’s part of our strategic thinking,” he said. “And we’re doing that from a design point of view, so that we have a stronger leverage to keep that momentum. EVs obviously lead our Kia values most.”

There are then the physical aspects of designing an A-segment EV, and the size and cost restrictions, plus the fact that the larger EV2 has obvious crossover or SUV influences. 

What will the Kia EV1 look like?

As our exclusive images show, we think Kia will shape the EV1 as a more urban-focused car, rather than include obvious SUV references. This could manifest itself in the silhouette, which has more of a monobox shape closer to that of the short-nosed EV4’s. Kia’s use of black plastic on the bumpers and sills is intended to give the electric city car a sense of urban toughness rather than suggest any off-road ruggedness.

Elements such as non-radial wheel designs and vertically orientated LED lighting will also be integrated, but potentially including more curves and fewer creases, as previewed in the firm’s Meta Turismo concept.

Paesen also gave us an insight into Kia’s future interior designs, telling us: “We are looking at what’s working well, what’s getting a good response, what’s getting a bad response. Where can we improve, where are the things we can improve on?

“As our digital system gets stronger and better, we still have work to do there. How do we slide these learnings into one another and make sure the system is future-proof, but the system carries you along and doesn’t mean you need to learn new things.”

In contrast to its exterior design, Kia’s interior design has been subject to some criticism for being too similar across its various models. All of its electric vehicles incorporate the same triple-screen layout, but as the manufacturer moves forward, this set-up could change - for the value-focused EV1, we could see a more simple setup. 

What about the Kia EV1 GT?

It’s no secret that Kia is developing a hot GT version of each of its all-electric, EV-branded cars. The most recent of these were the EV5 GT and EV3 GT, shown off at the 2026 Brussels Motor Show.

Given the positioning of the EV1, a GT model seems unlikely to gain a dual-motor setup which in the EV3 GT at least produces 288bhp. Expect to see a modest power bump, though perhaps no more than the 147bhp produced by the front-wheel drive EV2. 

As for design, we’re used to seeing Kia’s neon green accents on its sporty GT cars. Despite the EV1 GT being the baby of the range, the Picanto GT-Line S showed us Kia can still bring aggressive bumpers and big wheels to even its smallest models. 

What cars will the new Kia EV1 have to beat?

Kia isn’t alone in wanting to bring an electric city car to market, but given the razor-thin margins in this segment, there are only a few rivals.

Renault’s new Twingo comes with more than a hint of nostalgia and cool that European buyers have already responded to favourably in the marque’s larger Renault 5. This model has also been developed in record time, with the French company outsourcing to Chinese-based technical partners much of the time-intensive development work that is required to bring any new model into mass production.

The upcoming Volkswagen ID.Lupo could also be a big player in this market, because it’s not just a stripped-out version of the larger ID. Polo. It also introduces a new hardware and software platform from VW’s joint venture with US EV maker Rivian.

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