Read Our Lips: Kia, Build This EV Overland Camper Van!

There are a lot of “production preview” type concept cars out there lately, lightly altered with a few fanciful and obviously not-for-sale touches. Squint and the underlying car that’ll head to dealer lots a few months later is clear. And sometimes, we get a good, old-fashioned concept’s concept, a real vision of something that probably won’t come to pass at all. It lets designers get more creative, and it lets our imaginations get a workout. If everything goes to plan, readers and the writers will utter a similar thought: “Dammit, they should really build that.” The Kia PV5 WKNDR concept electric van is exactly that.

Dammit, they should really build that. And, in a sense, they will. The PV5 will be a real van, part of Kia’s push into the electric commercial vehicle market, along with other vans in the PV series that ride on the PBV (Platform Beyond Vehicle architecture) with a focus on modularity and flexibility. The PV5 will lead the charge. However, what’s the likelihood that Kia will go into the turn-key camper van business? In the U.S.? With an interior that looks like a set piece from any space sci-fi show from the last decade? Never tell us the odds.

Of course, any upfitter could pop-top-ify the eventual production PV5 lacking the desired features seen here on this SEMA concept, but achieving the component fit-out we see here in this concept would require a lot more coordination with the manufacturer than we typically see. There’s an integrated winch, a radically re-configurable interior with a front passenger seat that apparently assembles out of panels that pop out of the cargo area walls, an unusual gear rack system that pushes out from the vehicle on a dual-purpose sliding door like the slide-out in an RV, a solar-panel-equipped integrated pop-top, and a modular rack system that actually seems pretty clever. 

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With all the overlanding, adventure-seeking equipment tacked on and tough, boxy contrasting fender arch extensions, the PV5 WKNDR concept that debuted online ahead of SEMA brings together a lot of disparate influences fairly elegantly. There’s the boxy first-get Mitsubishi Delica 4x4 angularity, the futuristic space buggy front end, and the slabby boxiness of the Wrangler. Hell, slap a seven-slot grille on it and it could be a Jeep Forward Control van concept. 

Whatever the WKNDR might become, it does give us a sense of the versatility of the PV5 and the rest of the PV series, which Kia is considering for the U.S. market in a few years. The passenger versions we’ve seen look more like driverless airport people movers than cool off-roady vans, so this short-wheelbase panel van with a tall, rack-equipped roof gives us a sense of how owners and upfitters might reimagine the vans to appeal to the Ford e-Transit and Mercedes-Benz eSprinter crowds.

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Kia also showed off the EV9 ADVNTR, a concept both equally averse to vowels and equally comfortable with weekend warrior gravel road duties. The 3-inch lift is almost certainly not going to come to a factory softroader version of the large three-row SUV, but perhaps the overall look—with a roof rack, knobby tires, tow hooks, and light bars—foreshadow an EV9 X-Pro trim? It’s not only possible, it may be likely. Just look at the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT, which gets some aggressive cladding, tow hooks, a mild (but not insignificant) 0.9-inch lift, and all-terrain tires. Given that, and Kia’s other X-Pro trim SUVs, an off-road version might suit the EV9.