We got our first good look at the EV6 last March and nearly a year later he finally got to sit in it, drive it, and press every button in the cabin during a day-long press event in Northern California last week. It is the first Kia vehicle to be produced under the company’s brand new electrification strategy Plan S and nearly a dozen more new EV models are expected to be added by 2026 – with Kia noting that “all dedicated Kia EVs will start with the prefix ‘EV’ followed by a number indicating the size and position of the car stated in the list. not its chronological place in the starting cadence.”
Hyundai Motor Group
And these are just vehicles built on the Hyundai Group (which Kia owns). E-GMP battery propulsion platform. When the EV6 arrives in all 50 states later this spring, it’ll be going up against the likes of them Ford Mustang Mach-E, that Volkswagen ID.4, that Tesla Model Y, that Ioniq 5 and Nissan’s Ariya – not to mention Kia’s own Niro EV and its brother from a Hyundai mother, the Kona EV – also probably the one Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra when they finally arrive.
The EV6 will be available in three trim levels: Light, Wind and GT-Line. There’s technically a fourth version, the First Edition, but the 1,500 units in this introductory lot sold out in about 11 hours, so your chances of snagging one for sale at the local retailer are pretty slim.
Hyundai Motor Group
The EV6 Light is Kia’s introductory trim level, retailing for $40,900 and offering performance to match. Its 58kWh nickel cobalt manganese battery powers a 168kW rear engine with 167hp. That translates to 8 seconds 0-60 with an electronically limited top speed of 115 MPH and an EPA-rated range of 232 miles. In terms of efficiency, the Light will get you around 136 eMPG around town (thanks, regenerative braking!) and 100 eMPG at highway speeds. Like its better equipped brethren, the Light uses MacPherson struts up front and multi-link suspension at the rear.
Unfortunately, its powertrain can only handle a 400V charging architecture, which extends the amount needed to fully charge. It’s not bad, mind you, with a full charge from a 50W DC fast charger it takes just over an hour – and a cool 18 minutes if you’re lucky enough to snag a 350W station. If you use a 240V/48A socket at home (i.e. a home charger) you will need just under 6 hours for a full charge, but with a standard 110V/12A socket (like the , to which you connect your coffee machine). this will take days. It would need to be charged for literally more than a weekend – 51 hours and 5 minutes according to Kia figures – to maximize its battery capacity. You won’t see the same lag on either the Wind or the GT, as they use the same 800V-style powertrains that we see on higher-end EVs like GM’s Hummer EV, Porsche Taycan, Audi’s E-Tron and even the Mach-E.
Hyundai Motor Group
Additionally, the Wind (starting at $47,000) and GT (starting at $51,200-$55,900) both offer larger 77.4kWh packages, as well as the option to have both front and rear engines, giving AWD allows. You’re looking at 310 miles of range with a 7.2 second 0-60 and 117 MPH top speed with the RWD iterations; 274 miles of range and 5.1 seconds 0-60 for the AWDs. The AWD achieves 134 eMPG in cities and 101 eMPG on highways, although the efficiency of the AWD is noticeably compromised with 116 eMPG and 94 eMPG respectively.
In terms of charging, the Wind and GT take 73 minutes for a full charge on a 50W DC outlet (and again 18 minutes with a 350W outlet, giving around 217 miles of extra range), around 7 hours on a 240 -V plug and a whopping 68 hours at 110V. They will also offer another first for Kia, V2L (Vehicle to Load) features similar to that Ford F-150 Lightning This means that in the event of a power outage, you can use the EV6 as a giant rolling battery pack to power various accessories, 110V power tools and various household items.
Hyundai Motor Group
Trim levels and powertrain differences aside, given the shared E-GMP underpinning, the various EV6s are virtually identical from the outside. Each measures 114 inches on the wheelbase (like the Telluride SUV) with an overall length of ~184 inches. The crossover is 74 inches wide and 60.8 inches high. The EV6 might look like a sleek sports coupe in its promotional photos, but in real life this is a burly boi – not quite as tall as the Mach-E, but just as wide and sporty, beefy 19-inch wheels (dubs are optional on the GT). It really fills up a standard parking space, although Kia is offering a cool valet feature with the EV6 (optional on the Wind, standard on the GT) that lets you line the vehicle up with a parking space, get out of the car, and then use the key fob to get around put it back in place remotely.
The EV6 has a damn comfortable interior. Its cabin is disturbingly quiet with the doors closed and windows open. There’s a total of 102 cubic feet of space inside the EV6, of which 24.4 is dedicated to storage in the rear cargo area (50.2 cubic feet if you fold the seats down). You’ve got plenty of headroom and legroom whether you’re sitting in the front or the back, although you might have to bend down a bit to fit three pairs of shoulders over the rear seat. On the plus side, there’s no central driveshaft running under the cab (thanks, e-motors!), so you don’t have to endure a hump if you’re sitting in the middle.
Hyundai Motor Group
Kia has also distributed USB and USB-C ports in the front and rear seating areas, so you don’t have to stretch very far to plug them in. Hell, there’s even a wireless charging pad on the front armrest (next to the engine start button and drive). voters). My only Bugaboo with the seating arrangement was a small one: the front seats use a rather elaborate headrest that tends to obscure forward-facing vision for those in the back of the vehicle and, conversely, blocks a noticeable portion of the rearview mirror.
However, blind spots aren’t really an issue given how many cameras Kia has been able to cram into the vehicle. For example, when you flick your turn signal, a live rear-facing video feed from the side mirror is overlaid on the driver’s instrument cluster, so you don’t cut off cyclists or get caught in a trailer truck’s lane. They also have a range of 21 different ADAS (driver assistance) features including reversing cameras for parking, lane departure warning, lane departure warnings, automatic high beams and forward collision avoidance.
Hyundai Motor Group
I was particularly impressed with Highway Driving Assist 2, the EV6’s Level 2 highway autonomy driving feature. Simply click the corresponding button on the steering wheel and the adaptive cruise control will automatically center the vehicle in lane and maintain its course and speed, even when cornering. There were a few times where the system and I (and the car in the next lane) would have slightly different opinions as to when a turn in the road started or ended, but as long as I kept my hands on the wheel there weren’t any minor course corrections that were major Matter.
If anything, the reduced need to keep my eyes on the road gave me ample time to figure out how the rather confusing central infotainment system worked. The EV6 comes with a 12.3-inch color TFT touchscreen navigation display mounted in the center console. It offers AM/FM/Sirius radio running through a Meridian sound system, Bluetooth connectivity, a WiFi hotspot and Android Auto/Apple Carplay – oh, the phone needs to be physically tethered to activate Carplay/Auto? Really? Will we do that in 2022?
Hyundai Motor Group
I’m a fan of the physical volume and temperature controls that Kia has incorporated into the design, less a fan of the bottom, secondary touchscreen that alternates between a quick-select bar for the media, navigation, and climate menus. The problem is that the button area that toggles functionality between the menu selection screen and the dedicated climate control menu isn’t well defined or really delimited in a meaningful way (I honestly thought it was the hazard warning button until a Kia PR rep showed up) . I otherwise) So unless you know what you’re looking for, or happen to tap into it, there’s no direct way to change the cabin temperature, adjust the fan speed, or activate the demister — or conversely, quickly access the navigation map or radio. And asking the onboard virtual assistant for help was like talking to an (even more) incompetent Siri; There wasn’t a lot of pronunciation that could get this thing to understand the words that came out of my mouth.
Hyundai Motor Group
There was one feature that really stood out to me and redeemed the secondary touchscreen’s learning curve easily, and that was the AR display. It’s absolutely awesome. I raved about Kia’s use of AR 2019 when I drove the Niro EV. This one seemed more of a proof-of-concept with its little pop-up screen mounted on the steering shaft. The EV6, on the other hand, is a much more finished and polished product, beamed directly onto the windshield with amazing clarity. The vehicle’s speed, the road speed limit, the status of various cruise control functions, and upcoming bends all appear to be floating a car’s length in front of you. It’s a fantastic, streamlined alternative to what I find to be an overly busy driver’s cluster layout. The information can be a little tricky to read when wearing sunglasses (especially the polarized variety), but otherwise the display is easy to understand no matter how bright or dark it is outside and can be adjusted to suit the driver’s size and viewing habits.
Of course, all of those technological bells and whistles would become obsolete if it was handled like the decrepit Elantra I normally ride. Thankfully, the EV6 doesn’t. It’s not as overtly aggressive as the Mach-E, nor is it as nimble through corners as the Polestar 2 – it’s certainly nowhere near as ostentatious as the Model Y – and the EV6 doesn’t need to be. From what I gleaned from the company’s pre-drive presentation, Kia is positioning the EV6 as a Gen Z family sedan, the Taurus SHO for millennials, and for that I applaud them. Cranking through hairpins on the 175 and accelerating on quiet sections of the 101 was fun, and everything but this car isn’t built for racing – it won’t suck the fillings out of your teeth if you floor the accelerator, It’s you I won’t take street bikes through corners on the inside. What the EV6 will do is help take your ankle-biters to soccer practice before running errands around town in the afternoon – maybe even glamping with the family at the weekend – and do it in comfort, style and safety.
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