Kia EV6 review

It’s pretty good. It’s more composed than the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (which is an altogether more relaxed machine), and the abundance of torque under your right toe means you can easily get a lick on whenever you need to. Even in the single-motor, rear-wheel drive variant, although that performance is probably best described as ‘nippy’ rather than ‘face-shredding’.

The downside is that with such heavily assisted steering, there’s a distinct lack of connection between you, the car and the road. And you never escape the feeling that this is a car that weighs in excess of two tonnes.

Ah. It’s not a sports car then?

Not by a long shot. Customers told Kia the old car was too firm, so it’s played around with the dampers to soften the ride a bit. Our initial impression is that it still feels fairly stiff, and can be pretty thumpy at slow speeds and on rougher sections of road. Hmm.

No one but no one is going to be hooning in one of these, though. It still resists pitch under braking pretty well, and at a cruise it’s very refined indeed. There are also steering-wheel mounted paddles for adjusting the regen which always adds a bit more engagement to an EV, and there’s more insulation now, so there’s less noise intrusion. Not that there was much in the first place. Ahh.

Oh, and the dual-motor remains a force to be reckoned with: plonk your foot down and the EV6 surges forward with more muscle than a family car has any right to. Or perhaps ought to. You’ll never miss a gap in the traffic again. Drinks might go flying, mind.

Remind me of the powertrain options…

There is but one single-motor, rear-wheel drive version of the EV6 that’s also fitted to a 63kWh battery: that promises 167bhp, 0-62mph in 8.7 seconds and 265 miles of range. We’ve not tested that one yet.

All other EV6s get an 84kWh battery and 800-volt charging ability (we’ll come to that shortly). The single-motor RWD option is capable of 225bhp and 258lb ft, amounting to 0-62mph in 7.7 seconds.

Then there’s the twin-motor AWD EV6, which is good for 320bhp and an unruly 446lb ft. End result? 0-62mph takes 5.3s. That really is rather fast for a non-hot, non-hatch… thing.

Naturally the more sedate one is better for range; 361 miles plays 339 (or a little less, depending on trim) and it’s more than fast enough. Over 116 miles in the RWD car on UK roads we managed 3.3mi/kWh. Not great – that’d result in a max range of just 277 miles – but that was without paying any attention to our efficiency at all. You could easily do better.

Last but not least… there’s the EV6 GT.

Ooh, tension. Does that mean it’s good?

It does. It too gets the big battery and dual-motor setup, but here that’s good for a colossal 641bhp and 568lb ft. That’s a good chunk more than before. 0-62mph is unchanged at 3.5s, though. And Kia hasn’t just thrown power at it and slapped on a badge, there’s an electronic limited slip diff to keep the wilder end of the torque curve in check, and traction control is now managed through the motors themselves to make the system more reactive. The damping has been fine-tuned to optimise handling, and the steering response has been tinkered with too.

The result is… transformative. Acceleration is ballistic, and when you get to a bend the GT pendulums round like you’ve just dropped an anchor off the starboard side. The steering trickery has done its job – there’s notably more connection to your inputs and changes of direction – and the calibration of the pedals is spot on; no lag or mushiness here.

Alternatively, maxing out the regen means breezy one-pedal driving when you dial it back. This is still a 2.2-tonne whopper, mind, and you won’t ever give it full beans. But as a seven-tenths car that’ll belt along the motorway without breaking sweat? Superb. It’s a lot like the Cupra Born VZ, only bigger.

You’ve also got to commend Kia for bothering with the extras. While something like the Enyaq vRS does the bare minimum to justify its badge (and fails), the GT makes the effort (and succeeds). Is the virtual gear shift a bit much here? Probably, but the 5 N proves that feature can work and we’d sooner have it than not. New for the GT is the GT mode – accessed by means of an exciting neon button on the steering wheel – for max performance, plus MyDrive GT mode so you can fiddle with the motors, steering, suspension and diff as you see fit. Such fun.

Time to be boring. How’s the charging?

For the facelift Kia has upped the peak rate to 258kW, which means a 10-80 per cent juice ‘n’ dash takes just 18 minutes. So, more than 200 miles added in the time it takes to park, pee, peruse and purchase. Perfection. You’ll be on your way again before that extortionate coffee’s come down to a reasonable drinking temperature.