Tested: 2025 Kia Carnival Hybrid Is Not a Quick Brick

• The Kia Carnival Hybrid is slow, even by minivan standards.
• If its fuel economy is good in the real world, all is forgiven.
• There's only one problem ...

How slow is the Kia Carnival Hybrid?

Pretty slow! We recently added this 2025 Kia Carnival Hybrid to our One-Year Road Test fleet, so we'll be putting it through its paces over the course of 12 months and 20,000 miles. Part of those paces includes taking it out to our test track and recording all sorts of data, from acceleration to braking to how many lateral g you pull driving in a tight circle (seriously!). 

So, how does the Carnival Hybrid stack up to the competition? 

How about some context? We tested a 2021 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid and a 2021 Toyota Sienna (which was also part of our One-Year Road Test fleet). All three vehicles have front-wheel drive, but the Pacifica stands out by having a V6 instead of an inline-four like the Sienna and Carnival.  

The Pacifica and Sienna posted identical 0-60 mph times of 8.5 seconds — a good margin ahead of the Kia's 9.2-second run. And the Sienna was actually quicker to the quarter mile at 16.2 seconds vs. 16.6 seconds. Both of those beat the Carnival, though the difference is much more noticeable early in the run. 

Braking is a little more favorable to the Carnival, which went from 60 mph to 0 in 134 feet. That's a little better than the Pacifica (136 feet) and a little bit worse than the Sienna (130 feet). How quickly the Carnival stops in an emergency is probably more important to you than how quickly it pulls away from a stoplight, so this is good news for the Kia. 

We were impressed by the Carnival's handling, too. Its lateral g-force mark (0.78) beats both the Pacifica (0.82) and the Sienna (0.83). This basically means it handles better hooking around sharp turns than the competition. File that under "nice to have, not gotta have."

How about fuel economy?

These are all hybrids, so it stands to reason that if you're interested in buying one, you care about fuel economy. The EPA estimates the Carnival Hybrid will get 33 mpg in combined driving. That's better than the Pacifica Hybrid (30 mpg), though keep in mind it's a plug-in hybrid so you'll get an EPA-estimated 32 miles of all-electric driving before dipping into the pure hybrid system. The Sienna gets an EPA-estimated 35-36 mpg. We have not owned a Pacifica Hybrid, but when we tested it, we got around 30 mpg without factoring in the extra distance we got on the electric battery, which is true to the EPA estimate.

In reality, we've struggled to hit all of those EPA estimates. We finished our year of ownership of the Toyota Sienna with nearly 19,000 miles and 32.9 mpg. That's still very good for a minivan. We're much earlier in our journey with the Carnival, but at the time of writing, we're merely getting 27.7 mpg. That is disappointing, and we will be sure to update with more information as our test continues.