Kia Ray 2023 first drive

Not that it’s an unrefined unit: quiet on start-up and commendably eager to pull away, the Ray happily keeps pace with the army of enthusiastically driven saloons and sports cars that dominate Seoul’s centre (difficult not to, when every main road is a car park), and – though the under-ratioed gearbox rarely has another cog to offer up on kickdown – stops some way short of deafening when under high load. It's not particularly frugal, mind - Kia quotes a downtown consumption figure of 28.7mpg, which makes the Ray a good deal more thirsty than anything this small with a blown triple. 

Kia doesn’t list an official 0-62mph time for the Ray – though we’re assured it will get there eventually – which probably is the clearest reflection of its positioning. This is a car that, were you to own one in London, could effectively be geo-restricted from ever leaving the bounds of the M25, such is its focus on low-speed manoeuvrability and short-distance comfort. 

Efficiency and performance gripes aside, the biggest frustration is that the Ray shows just how much is possible in such a small footprint; just as Japan’s kei cars have long sought to offer big-car practicality in bubble-car footprints, so too has the Ray been carefully conceived to make the most of every last available square inch of floorpan and glasshouse. For a car that occupies not much more road than the lovable-but-impractical Citroën Ami, it’s remarkable that it can convey four adults – and their associated gubbins – calmly and comfortably through one of the world’s most congested cities. 

The ride is agreeably composed, the steering is tight and predictable (if almost completely numb), the seats are comfortable and the in-car tech and build quality are more than adequate for the price. Plus, because it looks so harmless and jovial, you’d struggle to incite road rage from fellow road users even with the most blinding of metropolitan motoring gaffes. (I should know, having had to ease myself into the front of an obscenely long queue at a junction, having chosen a wrong lane, and received a cheery wave from the taxi driver behind.) And the right-hand-side rear door slides, which makes entry and egress easier while also allowing drivers to park closer to other cars, walls, lamp-posts and the like. 

So why frustrating? Because cleverly conceived urban mobility solutions such as this are few and far between over in our neck of the woods, where they are needed more than ever before. The cheapest new car (and I mean car) on sale in the UK is 500mm longer than this (but scarcely more roomy and practical), and the cost of producing electric cars at the moment means we’re unlikely to see an EV that’s remotely this compact or affordable for a while. 

The chances of Kia exporting the petrol Ray are at about the one-legged ballerina level, and converting the EV variant to right-hand drive – then shipping it – would be a loss-making exploit for the Korean giant, which would understandably much rather keep launching more profitable, full-sized EVs and selling them in astronomical numbers worldwide. 

All of which is to say that we’d do well to lament the Ray’s absence from the UK market just as much we do sporting heroes like the Toyota GR Corolla and Subaru WRX. Save perhaps the odd airport run, there is no journey within the city walls this boxy supermini could not complete admirably. Hell, how many Ubers routinely carry more than two people and a load of luggage? Far better to have 10,000 of these zipping around a European city than a load of lardy MPVs, surely. In a world where the smallest Mini measures 3800mm long and a Fiat 500 EV pushes north of £30,000, genuine low-frills urban runarounds such as this have started to hold extra-special appeal.