The Kia Ray EV has launched today in South Korea. The Kia Ray EV is the first 100% Korean made plug-in electric car that has the sound of petrol engine. The first EV car in Korea had give a promise to their customers that the car is able to travel up to 86 miles (139 km) on a single charge depending on the driving style. A normal charging time is six hours from normal 220V household electric plug. A fast-charge option is also available for the Kia Ray for whoever wants to refill the electricity in just 25 minutes.

The Kia Ray shares the same production line with the 1.0-liter petrol powered Ray CUV in order to supply to the domestic Koreamarket. This is good because when Kia developing the EV, they can still adopt the characteristic of what a petrol-powered car should has especially the exhaust sound!

What about the design? The Kia Gay EV, Opps, sorry, it is the Kia Ray. For us, it did looks a little bit gay with the dimension of 1,595 mm in width x 3,595 mm in length x 1,710 mm in height. The car is design to look just like the petrol-powered Ray. It has a petrol cap just like others but it is the inlet for fast recharge mode. Both front doors have the word “Zero Emissions EV”. With a square design, 14-inch alloy wheels are best for it. There is also an inlet for the normal charging which hide behind the front grill. As for the boot, it can’t fit in an extra large luggage. At most it can only fit in a new shoe boxes.

What about the interior? The interior is quite beautiful. It has a three round meter in front of driver with beautiful lights. It is spacious for passengers head due to its height.

What about the performance? Kia Ray EV is a front-wheel drive car powered by a 50kW electric motor. Sounds a little weird because most of the time we will say “powered by a 4-liter V8 engine”, but soon we may have to compare cars with kW. The main battery used in the car is a high-capacity 16.4 kWh lithium ion polymer battery and it is hiding under the rear seat and cabin floor. The battery is also said to have a 10-year life cycle. Let’s review it again in 2021. From zero to hundred, the record is 15.9 seconds and the top speed is 130 km/h (81 mph).

Whatever the performance is, we always give our full support to EV because of the zero-emmissions. Remember that previous we mentioned that we want a muscle car EV in our world that has everything just like ‘60s muscle cars including the V8 sound? At least the Kia Ray did it with recorded gasoline engine noises. It is an EV with petrol engine sound which not only makes the car lively but also to alert pedestrians.

What about safety features? The Kia Ray EV has six air-bags, electronic stability features, and downhill assists control.

Any special features? The car features an EV navigation system which tells the driver the where the closest recharging stations are. This is quite helpful because within few years there won’t be much electric recharging stations. The car features two driving preference, ‘E’ for eco and ‘B’ for brake. ‘B’ is specially design for the car to handle downhill or mountain roads like Touge. The way to open the car door is special, why? For the driver side, both door handles are stick together. The driver door open as usual but the rear is sliding door. On another side, both doors are opened like usual car. This is what makes this car “special” in open.

Kia Ray EV’s competitor or similar car: Nissan Leaf, BMW MINI E, Citroen C-Zero, Mitsubishi I MiEV, Smart ED, Tango, Tesla Roadster, Chevrolet Volt, and Th!nk City.

This is the first trial for an EV in South Korea, so don’t expect the Kia Ray EV will reach our country in a short time. South Korea is far from us to travel by an EV.