Kia EV5 Wkndr Modular Micro-Camper Concept

Those of you who know me know that there was a bit of a mantra in series 1 VWLT circles – campers not campers – and this is why I’ve never really understood the trend for smaller being better when it comes to campervans. After all you can park a MWB van (like my current Mercedes Sprinter) in the same space as a large family car. So it was with a certain grin that I first clapped eyes on the new micro-camper concept from Kia.

Don’t get me wrong – there’s no doubt it’s a beauty – I mean just look at the influence of the current trend for @highuptransporters and #liftednotlowered whatevers, but the form factor is all wrong. It’s been the main problem with light cargo vehicle manufacturers ever since the series 1 VW LT. So much so that the only really choice is the Fiat Ducato. This is the only cargo van that is wide enough to allow a transverse bed, which (in an MWB van) is the only way to allow you a decent kitchen, shower and loo. This is all the more evident given the huge after-market for side flares for most other vans.

So why the big push for everyone to jump on the micro-camper concept wagon? Well there are a couple of things at play here: 1) the end of the world chic styling appeals to a slightly more diverse market, and 2) many households use an additional vehicle as a multi-purpose Swiss army knife: something good for carting building materials as much as it is for sticking your daughters friends in the back on the way to funplex. And so the marketing machinery of capitalism grinds on – “where are our new audiences?”, well, for Kia, maybe it’s here?!

And so I present to you reader reader the Kia Wkndr.

God I spent ages to type that name.

Still I suppose kids will be able to more easily help Kia do their marketing for them by missing out all of the e’s in weekender.

It’s a nice van isn’t it, but I for one can safely say without even seeing it in the flesh that I am very likely to wake up in a sweat in the night in that thing thinking that I’d woken up in a coffin in a mausoleum in a Mexican cemetery! (can you guess the film reference)