2025 Kia Carnival

Despite its fourth-place position in our ranking of all minivans, we think the Kia Carnival is a solid pick in its own right. Compared to other minivans, however, the Carnival isn’t nearly as refined, and it lacks a killer app that could make it stand out in the field. But the upcoming refresh could tip the scales in the big Kia’s favor. The 2025 Kia Carnival sports a boldly designed new face with sharp new daytime running lights, and the new Dark Edition swaps the bright exterior trim for darkened elements. But the biggest news is reserved for what’s driving the wheels.

We like the current Carnival’s modern interior design that mixes physical and digital buttons but are less impressed by the haptic controls, which require quite a bit of driver attention to operate effectively. Kia has gone back to the drawing board with the 2025 refresh, returning with a far slimmer center stack. The single control panel appears to incorporate haptic climate controls flanked by audio system volume and tuning knobs. We’ll reserve final judgment about the increased use of haptic controls until we try them out for ourselves — it’s possible Kia improved their functionality and usability — but on the surface, it’s not a step in the right direction. Thankfully, the Carnival’s voice assistant can interface with the climate control, so there’s hope yet for distraction-free temperature adjustment.

The refreshed 2025 Carnival has a handful of new add-ons that give the minivan a fighting chance. But it's the forthcoming hybrid variant that seems poised to shake up the segment.

The Kia Carnival is a minivan that offers a lot of features for the price, comfortable seats and a great warranty. Just three years into the Carnival’s first generation, Kia unveiled in South Korea a model with refreshed styling both inside and out. It’s unclear, though, whether the freshened-up Carnival will appear in the States for 2025. Kia has also said the Korean-spec Carnival will be available as a hybrid for the first time, but we don’t know if that powertrain is destined for the U.S., though it would better equip the minivan to compete with rivals like the Toyota Sienna.

Edmunds spotlight: A whole new look

We already liked the Kia Carnival's distinctive styling. It stood out from the crowd of minivans, which was kind of the whole point. Kia calls the Carnival an MPV — as in "multi-purpose vehicle," which is a not-so-subtle way to avoid calling it a minivan. Whatever moniker you choose, its SUV-like styling might be convincing enough to sway you if you're among the minivan-allergic. If the Carnival's refreshed styling unveiled in South Korea makes it here for 2025, it will only reinforce that you don't need to sacrifice looks for utility when picking a minivan.

Competitors to consider

The Kia Carnival competes in a loaded category. Our highest-rated minivan is the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, a plug-in hybrid with all the latest tech that gets an EPA-estimated 30 mpg combined. If you want even better fuel economy, go for the Toyota Sienna, which only comes as a hybrid and gets an EPA-estimated 35 mpg combined. The Honda Odyssey is a great pick if you want the capability of a minivan but also care about driving dynamics, an area where the Carnival could do better.