Kia’s PV5 Could Be The Small, Cheap Electric Pickup We’ve Been Waiting For

Today's electric pickups are big and prohibitively expensive for most. Kia could change that.

Kia PV5 At CES

Tim Levin

By: Tim Levin

Jan 9, 2024 at 3:25pm ET

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At CES on Monday, Kia unveiled a snazzy new lineup of electric commercial vehicles designed for ride-hailing, logistics and the like. But before you go clicking away from a story about boring delivery vans, you should know there’s something in it for you, too.

Would a small, $35,000 electric pickup truck hold your attention? Let me explain.

Kia’s sleek, pill-shaped PBV (“Platform Beyond Vehicle”) family isn’t just for businesses. Kia thinks the series of highly customizable, modular vehicles could appeal to regular people too—people who are interested in a mobility solution outside the confines of the standard passenger-car paradigm.

Gallery: Kia PV5

Kia PV5 At CES

It’s kicking off sales in 2025 with a few versions of the medium-sized PV5, which we saw in near-production concept form at CES. On top of a delivery van and robotaxi, Kia is considering adding a pickup to the mix. It even showed off renderings of a cute, cab-forward truck during a press conference, but those plans aren’t set in stone, Kia CEO Ho Sung Song told media.

“The PV5 pickup truck is not fixed yet,” he said. He added that the truck is just an example of the types of vehicles that are possible with the PV5 chassis system, which allows for different body styles to fit on a shared platform.

Kia PBV Lineup.

Let’s hope the PV5 pickup actually makes it to reality, because it’d add a game-changing option to the limited, expensive EV pickup market.

Kia is targeting a starting price of $35,000 for the PV5 series, Song said. That means customers could soon get into an all-electric truck for a fraction of what a lumbering Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevrolet Silverado EV or Rivian R1T will cost you. Right now, there aren’t any EV truck options for people who are on a budget and live in cities where big trucks are impractical. The PV5 could solve that.

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At 4.7 meters (or 186 inches) long, the PV5 will be nearly four feet shorter than an F-150 Lightning, which spans 231.7 inches. It’ll stand a solid foot shorter than the Ford Maverick, one of the only truly small trucks we have in the U.S. (The other is the Hyundai Santa Cruz, from Kia’s parent company.)

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What’s more, buying a PBV pickup from Kia wouldn’t necessarily lock buyers into the truck life exclusively. Remember that modularity we talked about earlier? Kia says PBVs will have interchangeable bodies capable of “turning the PBV into a taxi during the day, to a delivery van at night, and a personal recreational vehicle on weekends.”

Contact the author: tim.levin@insideevs.com

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