Kia PV5 Passenger vs VW ID.Buzz LWB

The VW ID.Buzz LWB costs £34,750 more than the Kia PV5 Passenger. For that premium it adds 99 miles more WLTP range, 50 kW faster peak rapid charging and 130 kW more power. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Kia PV5 Passenger comes out ahead overall.

The Kia PV5 Passenger is £34,750 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £176 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Kia PV5 Passenger comes out roughly £34,870 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 163 miles for the Kia PV5 Passenger and 246 miles for the VW ID.Buzz LWB - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The VW ID.Buzz LWB goes roughly 83 miles further between charging stops.

The Kia PV5 Passenger is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 73 mm narrower than the VW ID.Buzz LWB. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 488 mm of total clearance for the Kia PV5 Passenger and about 415 mm of total clearance for the VW ID.Buzz LWB. The Kia PV5 Passenger also turns in a 1.0 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Kia PV5 Passenger and 84% for the VW ID.Buzz LWB. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.