2025 Kia Carnival Hybrid Review and Test Drive

New styling, an updated interior, and a fuel-efficient hybrid powertrain keep Kia's people mover fresh for 2025.

Perry Stern | 

Oct 10, 2024 | 7 min read

Perry Stern

It's hard to beat a minivan for moving people and cargo. However, minivans have fallen out of favor with consumers who prefer a crossover SUV's styling and perceived capability. That's why Kia tries to straddle the middle ground between those camps with the refreshed 2025 Carnival, which the automaker prefers to call a multipurpose vehicle.

The 2025 Kia Carnival comes in LX, LXS, EX, SX, and SX Prestige trim levels, with base prices ranging from around $38,000 to around $52,000, including the destination charge to ship the minivan from the Gwangmyeong, Korea, assembly plant to your local dealership. Except for the LX, all trims are available with the new hybrid powertrain for an additional $2,000.

For this Carnival review, I test-drove the Hybrid SX Prestige in San Diego, California. As the top-level trim, almost all equipment is standard, but my test vehicle had optional Ceramic Silver Paint, bringing the manufacturer's suggested retail price to $54,490, including the $1,395 destination charge. Kia provided the vehicle for this Carnival review and paid for airfare, lodging, and meals during the evaluation period.

Perry Stern

Is the 2025 Kia Carnival Hybrid a Good Minivan?

Most car companies have pulled out of the minivan market. Aside from the Kia Carnival, the remaining members of this small class are the Chrysler Pacifica and Voyager, Honda Odyssey, and Toyota Sienna. But the 2025 Kia Carnival easily stands out thanks to its muscular styling, and it offers a range of high-end features along with a new fuel-efficient hybrid powertrain.

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What's New for the 2025 Kia Carnival

Kia has been making minivans since it launched the Sedona in 2002. In 2022, the Korean brand completely overhauled its people mover, giving it the new name of Carnival at the same time. Now, a refreshed Carnival rolls into the 2025 model year with significant design, feature, and powertrain updates.

With a look similar to the Kia Sorento and Telluride SUVs, the 2025 Carnival gets new vertical LED headlights, distinctive daytime running lights, and a redesigned grille and bumper. Fresh LED taillights span the rear hatch, complementing the large Kia logo, and a rear skid plate reflects the Carnival's SUV-inspired styling. Redesigned wheels are also available across the board.

If the exterior looks more rugged, updates to the dashboard and controls give the Carnival a modern, streamlined style. The most noticeable change is the single curved panoramic display housing two 12.3-inch driver and infotainment screens. Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity is standard on all trim levels, and other updates include larger cupholders and an available color head-up display.

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Unfortunately, the Carnival adopts the same dual-function climate/audio control panel found in other Kia models. While the approach adds to the clean design, I find it frustrating.

Toggled to the infotainment controls, the dual-function panel provides the Carnival with physical volume and tuning knobs and capacitive buttons, providing quick access to navigation and other audio controls. That's great. But instead of a separate climate control panel, you select the toggle switch and transform the knobs into temperature controls while the rest of the buttons access climate functions.

I found that paying attention to which set of functions is active while driving is challenging. On more than one occasion, I turned the temperature up while trying to adjust the volume. However, it's possible to change the cabin temperature and audio tuning via the innovative multizone voice interface.

A new feature, the voice interface activates with the phrase, "Hey, Kia," and recognizes the position of the person speaking in the front seats or second row. When my front seat passenger said, "Hey Kia, I'm cold," the right-side temperature changed to 78 degrees. The system also works to lower or raise windows, set navigation, change the audio source and station, and make hands-free calls.

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The 2025 Carnival Joins Kia's Expanding Electrified Lineup

Kia offers a 3.5-liter V6 engine making 287 horsepower as standard equipment in the 2025 Carnival. The new hybrid powertrain is an option featuring a 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine and a 54-kW electric motor, the most powerful one Kia has ever put into a non-plug-in hybrid. Together, they produce 242 horsepower and 271 pound-feet of torque.

While the output of the two powertrains is similar, fuel economy is dramatically better with the hybrid. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the 2025 Kia Carnival Hybrid achieves 34/31/33 mpg in city/highway/combined driving, while the V6 earns ratings of 18/26/21 mpg. With its impressive efficiency, the Carnival Hybrid has a range of 627 miles between fill-ups. During my mostly highway driving, the trip computer indicated just over 30 mpg, close to the EPA estimates.

The Carnival Hybrid also takes advantage of the powerful electric motor to improve handling and ride quality in various situations. One of these features is adjustable regenerative braking, which slows the vehicle while capturing power to recharge the battery.

Drivers can choose between three levels of braking by using the paddles on the steering wheel, adjusting how much the Carnival slows when you take your foot off the accelerator. The electric motor can also help smooth the ride over bumps and provide additional control during emergency steering maneuvers.

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Driving the 2025 Kia Carnival Hybrid

I was impressed with the Carnival the last time I drove it, so I wanted to see if this more efficient hybrid powertrain would adequately motivate this large family hauler. While the short answer is yes, there's more to the story.

Heading out of downtown San Diego in morning traffic, the Carnival's large size was quite apparent, but good visibility made maneuvering the minivan easy. The hybrid system turned off the gas engine when I was coasting or light on the throttle, allowing me to cruise along in EV mode. When the situation required more power, the engine started up seamlessly.

As I drove the Carnival Hybrid on a mix of highway and two-lane back roads, I found the powertrain's response could have been crisper. Acceleration isn't rapid, and the small turbocharged engine had to work hard when accelerating uphill, getting somewhat noisy in the process.

But in most situations, the Carnival gets moving quickly enough, and acceleration to highway speed is more than adequate. The Carnival's V6 delivers better performance, which isn't surprising. It has 40 more horsepower and weighs about 125 pounds less than the hybrid.

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As with the standard Carnival, the hybrid delivers a comfortable, smooth ride I found pleasing as a daily driver. Handling is reasonably good for such a large vehicle, and while most owners aren't going to carve up a mountain road, it's nice to know that the Carnival can hold its own when driven briskly. That said, the Carnival feels more at home quietly cruising down the freeway or slogging through traffic.

Kia has added to that highway cruising experience for 2025 with the addition of Highway Drive Assist 2 and navigation-based adaptive cruise control. The technology provides steering input to keep the Carnival centered in the lane, maintains a safe speed and distance from the vehicles ahead, and includes lane-change assistance. Activate the turn signal, and that enhancement will provide steering to the appropriate lane after checking to ensure a lane change is safe.

Testing the system on Interstate 8, I set the speed at 70 mph. It works well, including the lane-change assist. The navigation-based system also considers the road ahead and slows automatically for curves, resuming the original speed after the road straightens, which is helpful or aggravating depending on the situation.

Perry Stern

In my opinion, the Kia Carnival was already a compelling option among available minivans. With the updates for 2025, it maintains that standing, even if some of the controls have become confusing. Better yet, consumers can choose a fuel-efficient hybrid powertrain, adding to the overall appeal of this stylish, roomy people mover.

Perry Stern

I have loved cars and trucks since childhood, and that fascination with anything that drives is just as strong today. As a teenager, I knew I wanted to become an automotive journalist, and during the past three decades, I have driven, written about, and photographed all manner of automobiles ranging from affordable econocars to exotic supercars. With the idea that there is a perfect car, truck, or SUV for everyone, my goal is to help consumers determine the right one for their wants and needs.