The new Kia EV6 will give Tesla a run for its money
Kia’s been on to a bit of a blinder of late. While its former life as a cheap and barely cheerful car company still causes a few to turn their noses up, today’s Kia makes solid cars and has legions of satisfied customers. When it comes to a car that would fit somewhere you’d want to be seen, Kia has struggled. The Stinger almost did the job, but it suffers the problem of not being a BMW 4 Series. Now you can buy a Kia your friends might be jealous of: the EV6.
Styled by the school of “EVs don’t have to look like normal cars, so why bother?”, the EV6 looks wonderfully alien on the road, dwarfing hatchbacks and small SUVs alike – its War Of The Worlds-esque curves cut as fine a figure as they come. Following one, you’re drawn in by its fanned-out rear lights; catching one in your rear-view mirror it looks like something out of I, Robot. Side on it’s a little… slabby, but considering Kia’s got to pack a 77.4kW battery pack under the floor and create space for a family to go road tripping it kinda has to be.
Inside is pretty slick, with a couple of screens up front for driver info and nav duties, a tidy centre console and a neatly sculpted dash – there’s little “wrong” aesthetically. OK, there are a few too many bits of fingerprint-baiting plastic and the touch bar that swaps between infotainment and air con controls adds needless faff to proceedings, but it’s not a difficult car to get used to.
On the infotainment front, Kia’s own efforts are decent enough, but wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay mean most people won’t bother with it. The touchscreen is lag free and easy to navigate, while the few physical controls on offer complement them nicely. Kia’s found almost the perfect ratio of buttons to touchscreen, something that German rivals can struggle with (VW Golf… it’s you… we’re talking about you). The top-spec dual-motor GT-Line S comes with 321bhp and 446lb ft. It’s good for 0-62mph in 5.2 seconds, which is pleasingly brisk for a 2.1 tonne car.
On start up the EV6 is, as you’d expect, silent. In Eco mode, a gentle prod on the throttle moves you forward smoothly, more pressure equalling more aggressive acceleration. Power delivery is as smooth as they come, though Eco mode needs some pushing to get it to move if you need to: all the inputs have been tuned to save as much energy as possible and give the EV6 its claimed 300-mile combined driving range as consistently as possible. Paddles mounted to the wheel allow you to adjust how much power the car regenerates when you lift off the throttle: from none to “as much as possible”, there’s a comfortable setting for everyone. As a thing to simply transport yourself around in, it’s calm, quiet and, well… just a good car to drive.
Jabbing the steering wheel-mounted drive mode button leaps you from Eco to Normal and does so keenly. Of course, your foot will be on the throttle to cruise in the Eco setting and that position in Normal means you get more grunt, so you lurch forward when you press the button. It can catch you out if you’re not ready for it. While it is irksome, if there was any delay you’d be annoyed the EV6’s transformation isn’t instant.
Normal mode is perkier and feels more like a regular car, offering an exciting turn of pace when you want it. However, it’s largely pointless because it doesn’t feel like a huge leap from the car’s more conservative setting and the next one up, Sport, feels like a more meaningful change. It delivers the EV6’s power more aggressively, adds weight to the steering and primes the car to be driven hard. With all four wheels being fed electricity, you can add numbers to its digital speedo alarmingly quickly.
As with all EVs, the turn of pace is entertaining but as a party piece it wears thin after a while. It’s here that the EV6’s handling has to pick up the slack. The steering is smooth and decently communicative, though perhaps not quite as keenly as Sport would have you believe. Weight, as is always the way, is a fun-killer here. The EV6 is heavy and in corners you feel it lean and wallow. Sure, most people won’t be going balls to the wall with their electric family SUV, but with all that performance on offer you’d hope it would feel more sturdy. Ride aside, with Eco doing a fine job at regular stuff and Sport turning the wick up when you want it, there’s no real need for the Normal setting.
It looks good, is quick (if spongy if you ask too much of it) and there’s room for people and things. When it comes to charging, a fast charger will get it from ten to 80 per cent in just 18 minutes – barely enough time for a mid-drive bathroom break and certainly not long enough for Costa’s finest to cool.
While this isn’t Kia’s first EV, it’s the first one that’s caused heads to turn both on and offline. Currently, Kia UK can’t get enough of them, which is a decent sign. With prices for the top-spec EV6 GT-Line S kicking off at just shy of £52,000, some may take some convincing though.
Kia didn’t used to do style, it was all about making sensible cars that did sensible things for sensible people. The EV6 may well be its first to breach into not quite so sensible territory. When the choices on offer include Tesla and the image that goes with, Audi and its very serious look at the world or BMW’s questionable design, perhaps you should take a look at Korea’s latest.
This was originally published on GQ Australia.