The EV3 is where it starts to get serious for Kia’s performance GT subbrand.

So far we have had the super-saloonish EV6 GT and the hulking EV9 GT, but these are the big-money flagships and seldom seen. GT-ifying the smaller EV3 takes Kia’s performance sub-brand into sub-£50k territory, and as the most accessible model in the snowballing GT range, this is the one that matters.

So what constitutes an EV3 GT, beyond the acid-green accents, neatly repro led bumpers and skirts and a set of Pirelli P Zero tyres? Under the skin, the 81.4kWh battery is borrowed from the mainline EV3 Long Range, for 311 miles of claimed range with a modest maximum charging speed of 128kW. It supplies a front motor that with 194bhp is exactly 100bhp more powerful than its rear counterpart.

All said this powertrain makes 288bhp – enough to send the EV3 GT to 62mph from rest in only 5.7sec, despite a kerb weight of more than two tonnes.

In terms of the dynamic DNA, while there has been plenty of R&D crossover, there is deliberately less ambition with Kia’s GT cars than we’re used to seeing with the N models of sister-brand Hyundai. Kia wants these models to be undemanding performance EVs that offer a bit more bite than the regular cars, but not so much that it risks wearing thin in daily use.

As much was apparent during a brief drive on a corner-starved route around the company’s Namyang development facility. With a comparatively relaxed spread of rates for its three-mode dampers and a heavyset demeanour, this car is GT by nature as well as name. Those looking for an electric replacement for their Toyota GR Yaris should therefore steer clear, but that isn’t to say the GT is only for those who like the idea of owning a hot hatch more than the reality.

It steers accurately and controls its mass well, and the ergonomics are genuinely superb. Of course, given the arrangement of the motors, the balance gives more of a front-drive hot hatch feel than Kia’s hitherto rear-biased more senior GT creations, so the EV3 GT can’t be steered gently on the accelerator in the way a Cupra Born can. The less powerful rear motor exists mainly to neutralise the cornering balance, not fundamentally alter it for tailhappy antics.

There’s no form of diff lock at the front, either, only a torque-vectoring programme that uses both physical and regenerative braking to help the car pivot. Traction is not generally a problem, and in Korea there was no sign of axle-tramp or torque-steer, but trail the EV3 GT into a tight bend and the attempt at a swift exit can scruffily expose the limitations of the torquevectoring system.

The EV3 GT prefers to sit back and carry momentum through more sweeping bends. It does this well. Mind you, the car seen here isn’t quite the finished article. European specification GTs will have revisions to make them feel a touch more alive and responsive. Chiefly, there will be a more pronounced ramping up of weight in the action of the steering as it loads up, and the dampers will be recalibrated for closer body control.

Without these improvements the EV3 GT is still quietly enjoyable, quick transport, although it does ultimately feel a bit one-dimensional.

The car does have one trick up its sleeve, though: the Virtual Gear Shift (VGS). It mimics a six-speed DCT and can be toggled on and off via the touchscreen (slick graphics, but with a little bit of latency in our test car). Hit the unmissable green button for GT mode and VGS is triggered automatically, ready for you to rip a synthesised fourcylinder turbo engine to the rev-range.

This is decent fun for a short while, but the real strength of the system is the way it works when you set the system to ‘automatic’ mode and you’re simply mooching about in less frenetic driving modes. The gentle build-up and ebb of revs at well-calibrated shift-points is of course made up, but it suits the EV3 GT’s laid-back persona and really does add some charm.

So what will the EV3 GT be measured against? A surprising number of rivals includes the Mini Countryman JCW Electric, Skoda Elroq vRS, Volkswagen ID3 GTX, the tightly wound Abarth 600e, Cupra Born VZ and, at a push, Alpine’s smaller, pointier A290. In this company the Kia is not notably powerful, entertaining, visually striking or cheap, and neither is 4WD any kind of USP. But the VGS is strangely compelling in daily driving, and if the aim was a more broad-batted, keyed-in take on the already excellent EV3, it’s job done.

Kia EV3 GT 

Verdict: Ought to be a capable and balanced, if slightly unexciting, addition to the EV hot-hatch ranks.