Kia K4 Review 2025

If you’ve spent the last decade living in remote dwelling, inaccessible to ground-based vehicular traffic, with no human interaction and free of any form of communications technology, you won’t be aware of Kia’s meteoric rise in popularity — but also, where can one sign up for that lifestyle? In the most recent years, its growth has been amplified by a flurry of electric cars in various shapes and sizes, so it’s something of a surprise that its latest model, the Kia K4, is available without any battery-powered assistance at all.

Thanks to car buyers not yet embracing EVs as quickly as manufacturers had planned for, a final wave of box-fresh combustion-engined models are on the cusp of being launched across the brand spectrum, with the Kia K4 likely to end up being a single-generation model.

Essentially a five-door hatchback replacement for the Kia Ceed which disappeared from price lists in summer 2025, the K4’s new name is down to two factors. Ceed was latterly a contraction of ‘Community of Europe with European Design’, whereas this is a global model produced in Mexico, plus the letter K followed by a number is how Kia labels many of its non-electric models across the rest of the world.

It will sell alongside the newly launched Kia EV4 hatchback that’s already available to order, although the K4 shares no bodywork with its electric sibling. There are similar styling themes shared between them, so much so that one could imagine them being competing designs for the same model, although from these photos the K4 looks heavy handed in execution, especially with its oversized head and tail lights’ Star Map signature graphics.

Kia’s K4 will vie for family car buyers’ attention alongside a broad selection of talented alternatives, although the Ford Focus won’t be among them as it goes out of production towards the end of 2025 and, like the Fiesta before it, won’t be directly replaced.

Of course, that still leaves plenty of other serious contenders, including the soon-to-be-updated Peugeot 308, the efficiently dependable Toyota Corolla and the evergreen Volkswagen Golf. In other words, the Kia K4 needs to be a sound option and feel like good value if it’s to make inroads in the family hatchback arena.

From the get-go, the Kia K4 will be available with five engine and gearbox combinations, although at this juncture performance and fuel economy details are yet to be confirmed — this page will be updated when they’re published.

Entry-point to the K4 range will be a turbocharged 1.0-litre T-GDi petrol unit producing 115PS mated to a six-speed manual transmission. That same engine and gearbox combination will also be sold with the addition of 48-volt mild hybrid (MHEV) assistance — this will operate like a glorified stop/start system allowing the engine to be switched off when decelerating as well as providing a little electrical boost when accelerating.

Third of the K4’s options is the same 1.0-litre T-GDi 115PS MHEV engine but connected to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. This could well prove to be the most fuel-efficient version, so expect it to be sought-after.

That same DCT automatic is also fitted to the two 1.6-litre T-GDi petrol choices, neither of which feature MHEV technology, but will be sold in 150PS and 180PS states of tune. During 2026 the options will broaden further when a self-charging hybrid-powered Kia K4 goes on sale, although that’s as much as we know about that model at this stage.

At 4440mm long, the Kia K4 will be one of the larger hatchbacks of this type, which bodes well for interior roominess in theory, yet one detail that caught our attention were the figures quoted for it boot size. 

Non-MHEV versions of the K4 are quoted at 438 litres with the rear seats in use, expanding to 1217 litres when loaded to ceiling height once they’re folded over. Ordinarily, mild hybrids have much smaller, easier to accommodate high-voltage batteries than self-charging and plug-in hybrids, with little impact on interior space, yet MHEV-equipped versions of the Kia suffer at 110-litre capacity reduction for both measurements.

Cabin-wise, the Kia K4’s interior arrangement looks very like many of its other recently launched models. In particular its dashboard’s upper plane consists of a single housing for a pair of 12.3-inch digital displays — directly in front of the driver is one which contains key instrumentation data, while the central touchscreen is the multimedia interface.

Between them is a 5.3-inch interface for the K4’s climate control settings, but splendidly there are separate physical buttons to adjust the two temperature zones more conveniently than jabbing at the glazed panel.

Full specifications for the Kia K4 won’t be published until nearer its on-sale date but if true to form the trim level hierarchy will be Air, GT-Line and GT-Line S, the latter two having a sportier appearance inside and out, as well as exclusive pairings with the punchiest engines.

Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are set to be standard on all K4s, while a wireless smartphone charging pad, an upgraded Harman Kardon speaker system plus heated and ventilated seats will be the preserve of pricier versions.

Pricing and exact specifications for UK market Kia K4 models won’t be revealed until order books open in the final three months of 2025, with the first cars reaching customers around the same time. All versions will benefit from the additional reassurance of Kia’s seven-year/100,000-mile warranty.

Keep this page bookmarked further news on this important new range and to read our forthcoming comprehensive and full Kia K4 review in the weeks ahead.