Kia EV6
Impressive performance and driving range make Kia’s first dedicated EV a hit, says John Challen.
SECTOR Crossover PRICE from £40,080 CHARGING 11kW AC/350kW RANGE 300-328 miles
A few years back, Kia blew us away with the petrol-engined Stinger and now it’s repeated the trick with the battery-powered EV6.
Prior to driving the car, Kia had already done a fantastic job in getting the word out. On the day of the launch, two people independently said that they’d seen adverts promoting the car and – more importantly – they very much liked what they’d seen.
They were right to think that way and clearly they were not alone. Figures from the SMMT for October registrations showed that Kia was top of the EV charts. The 1,699 units registered were buoyed by EV6 and EVs in total, accounting for more than a fifth of total units sold.
Inside, the EV6 is spacious in both the front and rear. The seats are wide with plenty of support around the edges.
From the driver’s seat, in front of you are two 12.3-inch touchscreens, combined to offer a curved panoramic display.
There are a whole host of viewing options, but with the space available, it is great to have both the navigation and infotaiment options laid out clearly. There’s a bit of a half-way house between buttons and touchscreen, which works really well.
Kia has adopted a strip of controls with haptic shortcut buttons below the front air vents, which can be switched between HVAC and infotainment at the touch of a button. Just below that – at the head of the armrest – are heating and cooling controls for the passenger and driver’s seat as well as a button to activate the heated steering wheel. Just behind those controls, the start button is angled towards the driver, while gears are selected using the rotary dial nearby.
To highlight the car’s capabilities, we stepped into the GT-Line S AWD model with 77.4kWh and 321hp – produced from front (226hp) and rear (99hp) motors and a whopping 605Nm of torque. This set-up enables a zero to 62mph time of 5.2 seconds and top speed of 112mph. Yep, it’s quick. What’s more exciting – for those who want a bit more speed – is that there’s a GT version coming. But more on that in 2022.
Back to the current offering, the GT-Line S is the range-topper and, even with that level of performance, still has a theoretical range of 300 miles. Elsewhere in the line-up, there’s a RWD version of that car with 226hp and 313-mile driving range, standard GT-Line AWD (321hp; 314 miles) and RWD (226hp; 328 miles) options and an ‘Air’ model (226hp; 328 miles). Basically, whichever EV6 you choose, there’s ample power and miles in the ‘tank’.
EV6 sits on the same E-GMP platform as Hyundai’s Ioniq 5, which means it offers 800V hardware that enables charging speeds of up to 239kW.
Going from 10-80% charge on a 350kW charging station takes just 18 minutes. That’s quick enough to tempt even the most staunch EV sceptic to get behind the wheel.
But if they still had doubts, the dynamics of the EV6 mean that any preconceptions of electric cars go out of the window. The handling has been tuned to offer less SUV and more sportscar feel. The chassis inspires a lot of confidence on A- and B-roads, especially when you hit the ‘Sport’ button.
Despite being a drain on the battery, it provides plenty of fun and proves that the EV6 has a Jekyll and Hyde character. The dash turns red, the seat grips you and the ride gets that bit more firm. But in eco mode and with i-Pedal deployed, you can recoup some of those ‘lost miles’ on the twisty roads. That combination is perfect for in town or on the motorway and enables one-pedal driving a lot of the time. That’s probably why many will opt for a mid-range model that offers fewer smiles, but more miles.
THE LOWDOWN
KEY FLEET MODEL
EV6 GT-Line RWD
STRENGTHS
PERFORMANCE, VEHICLE RANGE, ULTRA-FAST CHARGING CAPABILITY
WEAKNESSES
MIGHT BE TOO BIG FOR SOME BUYERS; NOT THE CHEAPEST
THE VERDICT
The EV6 could well be the electric vehicle that many have been waiting for. Performance with no – or little – compromise on range. Another future success story from Kia.
