420 km (261 miles) at a gentle pace — and just 323 km (201 miles) on the highway. Independent EV tester Bjørn Nyland ran the front-wheel-drive Kia EV5 Long Range through Norway at 12–14 degrees Celsius, and the gap with the car’s official 530 km WLTP figure turned out bigger than most owners would expect.
At higher speed, everything changed fast. Holding a steady 120 km/h, energy use jumped to 249 Wh/km, or 24.9 kWh/100 km — nearly 40% more than the gentler pace. By the time the gauge read 2.5% charge, the odometer showed 323 km. That is not quite the full range: a small energy cushion was still left in the battery. But the trend already tells the story.
Cool weather isn’t the whole explanation. The Kia EV5 wears a tall, boxy body, so aerodynamic drag starts working against the driver as speed climbs. None of this contradicts the official spec sheet: WLTP is measured over a mixed cycle with a lower average speed, while Nyland’s test mimicked exactly the kind of sustained highway driving where EV5 owners will feel the difference most.
The European EV5 runs an 81.4 kWh battery on a 400-volt architecture. Kia promises a 10-80% charge in 30 minutes. Norway’s NAF motoring federation checked that independently and got the same 30 minutes, clocking a peak of 153 kW against the claimed 150 kW. It won’t win any speed records, but the factory promise held up.
At roughly 4.6 metres long, the EV5 offers a 566-litre rear boot plus another 44 litres up front. Family practicality remains its strongest card. On the motorway, though, drivers should plan charging stops more often than the 530 km brochure figure suggests.
