It’s fair to say that we’ve been rather large fans of quite a few Kias over the years at Electrifying. It appears quite a few of you have been too because Kia has just hit the 100,000 EVs milestone in the UK. But a moment of silence, please, for the Niro EV, which has just been killed off.

Beloved of London-based private hire taxi drivers, it first went on sale in 2018 before the much better looking second generation model came along in 2021. A facelift was announced for 2026, but it seems that only the hybrid petrol version will benefit, because the PHEV and fully electric versions are no longer available. 

But congratulations are otherwise in order for the Korean carmaker, which has sold precisely 104,794 electric vehicles in the UK as of 1 April. And the 100,000th car? A well-speced EV5 GT-Line S in Iceberg Green sold on 11 March 2026. 

Kia's first, however, was the Soul EV all the way back in 2014. It was a well loved little thing too. It arrived a few years after the first generation Nissan Leaf but boasted great standard equipment such as a reversing camera and even a heat pump. That last one is often still an optional extra on many new EVs today.

EV adoption overall was pretty slow in the early days and Kia's electric sales figures initially reflected that fact. The first Soul EV’s warranty had just expired by the time it sold 10,000 EVs (that’s the same seven-year affair as you get on all Kias today). However, just two years later in 2023, Kia passed the 50,000 mark and now just another three years after that, it has hit six digits. An impressive acceleration.

How far the carmaker has come from that first Soul too. The Kia EV/PV line-up now spans some seven dedicated models, with an impressive 11 variants across them. From the compact EV2 that impressed Ginny when she drove it recently, to the goliath EV9 and the speedy EV6 GT. There truly is an electric Kia for almost every purpose. Well done, Kia. Here’s to 200,000.