Kia EV9 vs Kia PV5 for Camping: SUV or Electric Van? (2026)

The Kia EV9 and the Kia PV5 are both electric Kias you can sleep in, but they come at car camping from opposite directions. The EV9 is a big three-row SUV that happens to be excellent for camping; the PV5 is a purpose-built electric van designed to be configured, loaded, and lived out of.

Both share Kia’s headline camping trick — Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) power that turns the car into a giant battery for your gear. After that, they diverge: the EV9 wins on comfort, range, and refinement, while the PV5 wins on raw usable space and configurability.

This comparison walks the things that actually matter when you’re sleeping in the vehicle: interior space and shape, the sleeping platform, power, access, and which one suits the kind of camping you do.

The core difference is geometry. The EV9 is long and low like an SUV; the PV5 is shorter bumper-to-bumper but far taller and boxier like a van.

That tall, square PV5 body is the headline for van-style camping: more vertical room to sit up, change, and organize gear. The EV9 counters with a longer, flatter floor when the seats are down — better for actually stretching out.

Think of it as floor area versus cubic volume. The EV9 gives you a bigger flat footprint to lie on, which is what you want for sleeping. The PV5 gives you more total enclosed space stacked vertically, which is what you want for living — standing to cook, hanging wet gear, mounting cabinets or a bed platform on its L-track rails. The shape that’s right for you depends on whether you mostly sleep in the vehicle and move on, or settle in and use it as a tiny mobile room for days at a time.

This is where the SUV-versus-van split gets real.

Fold the EV9’s second and third rows and you get a roughly 7.5-foot-long, 5-foot-wide flat platform — long enough for most adults to lie down fully without sleeping diagonally. The flat floor and generous width make a two-person setup genuinely comfortable, which is why the EV9 has become a favorite for SUV campers.

The PV5’s advantage isn’t floor length — it’s volume and headroom. Its seats fold and sink to create a full-flat floor, and the tall roof means you can sit upright, stand stooped, or build a raised sleeping platform with storage underneath. The Cargo version takes this further with a long, square load bay built for conversion.

So if your priority is simply lying flat tonight, the EV9 is ready out of the box. If your priority is building a livable little camper you can stand and organize inside, the PV5’s shape is the better canvas.

It’s worth being honest about the EV9’s floor, though. Like most SUVs, it isn’t perfectly flat or level once the seats fold — there can be small gaps and a slight slope toward the front. The fix is the same one SUV campers always use: a foam topper or an inflatable mattress sized to the cargo area that bridges the seams and gives you a genuinely flat surface to sleep on. The PV5’s flat-sinking seats get you closer to a true level floor, which is one more reason it suits a more permanent build.

Both vehicles can run your camp off their drive battery through V2L, and this is the biggest reason to camp in an electric Kia at all.

The EV9 offers V2L up to 3.6 kW — enough to run a portable fridge, lights, a kettle, device chargers, and even some power tools, straight from the car. The PV5 carries V2L on its Plus and Elite grades, with cabin and cargo-area outlets plus L-track mounting points that make it easy to wire a camp setup neatly.

The practical caveat is battery size. The EV9’s larger drive battery gives you more nights of camp power (and more driving range to reach remote sites) before you need a charger. The PV5 is built around a smaller, city-and-work-oriented battery, so plan your power budget and range with that in mind on longer trips.

Either way, many campers still carry a separate portable power station as a backup so they’re never drawing the drive battery down too far from home.

What makes V2L such a game-changer for car camping is that it removes the single biggest hassle of sleeping in a vehicle: keeping things powered overnight. With a regular car you’re rationing a 12-volt battery and worrying about a no-start in the morning. With either of these Kias you can run a fridge all night, charge phones and a laptop, and power lights or a fan without a second thought — the drive battery is simply enormous by comparison. That’s the real reason electric vehicles like these have become such compelling campers.

How you get in and move around inside matters more than the spec sheet suggests once you’re camping.

• Doors: the PV5’s sliding side doors and low step-in make loading gear and climbing in and out easy, even in a tight campsite. The EV9 uses conventional doors that need swing room.
• Seating: the EV9 carries up to seven in three rows when you’re not camping — a real daily-driver advantage. The PV5 Passenger seats people too, with a flexible, fold-flat layout.
• Standing room: only the tall PV5 lets you change clothes or cook a meal without crouching the whole time.
• Privacy: both benefit from a set of window shades for sleeping and a fitted camping mattress cut to the folded floor.

The EV9 feels like a premium SUV you can sleep in; the PV5 feels like a small apartment you can drive.

For most people a camping vehicle also has to be the everyday car, and that’s where the EV9 pulls ahead.

The EV9 is a polished, long-range three-row SUV: comfortable on the highway, quiet, and built to cover big distances between charges — ideal for road-trip-style camping where you’re driving far to reach a spot. The PV5, as a newer van built primarily for urban and commercial use, prioritizes space and flexibility over long-haul range and luxury.

If your camping looks like long drives to national parks with the family along, the EV9’s range and comfort are worth a lot. If it looks like a configurable basecamp you build out and use closer to home — or a true DIY camper conversion — the PV5’s van bones are the better foundation.

Charging access shapes this too. An EV you camp in is only as good as your ability to refill it, and the EV9’s longer range gives you more margin between charging stops on a trip into less-developed areas. With the PV5’s smaller battery, you’ll want to plan charging more carefully if you wander far from town. Neither is a problem for basecamp camping where you drive out, set up for a night or two, and drive back — but it’s a real consideration for ambitious, range-hungry itineraries.

Match the Kia to the kind of camping you actually do:

• Choose the Kia EV9 if you want a vehicle that’s a comfortable family SUV first and a ready-made flat-floor camper second, with the range to reach far-off sites and strong 3.6 kW V2L power.
• Choose the Kia PV5 if you want maximum usable space, standing-height room, sliding-door access, and a square, L-track-equipped interior that’s ideal for a built-out camper — and you camp closer to home.
• Want one vehicle to do everything? The EV9 is the easier all-rounder. Building a dedicated mini-camper? The PV5 is the better platform.

Budget and timing matter too. The EV9 has been on sale longer and is widely available now, while the PV5 is still rolling out and its grades and pricing vary by market — so if you want to buy and camp this season, the EV9 is the surer bet, with the PV5 the one to watch as it lands.

The Kia EV9 and Kia PV5 aren’t really rivals so much as two answers to different questions. The EV9 is the better all-around vehicle — comfortable, long-range, seven seats — that also makes a genuinely good flat-floor camper thanks to its 7.5-foot platform and 3.6 kW V2L.

The PV5 is the better dedicated camping shape: taller, boxier, with sliding doors, a low floor, L-track mounts, and the kind of square interior that rewards a thoughtful build-out. Its trade-offs are a smaller battery and a more utilitarian feel.

Pick the EV9 if it has to be your daily driver too; pick the PV5 if you want the most livable space and plan to build it out. Either way, V2L power, window shades, and a mattress cut to the floor turn a Kia into a capable basecamp.