► CAR drives the revised Kia EV6
► Longer maximum range, fresh looks…
► … and every bit as excellent as before
Crikey, the Kia EV6 is such a great electric car – and my early impressions of this late-stage prototype suggest the brand has made it even better it for its facelift. It now has a longer maximum range, a bigger battery and a slightly plusher interior, meaning it’s now even more recommendable.
Before I tested this prototype, it’d been about a year since I last drove an EV6 – and I’d forgotten just how much of a thrashing it hands out to its competitors. It’s now one of the oldest electric SUVs on the market, but it’s still head and shoulders above newer rivals such as the Skoda Enyaq Coupe and Volkswagen ID.5.
What makes this especially impressive is that Kia has only really been a serious player in the UK’s family car scene since the turn of the century. Before that, it busied itself by building affordable (and frankly awful) cars for the lowest echelons of the market.
I had to remind myself that just two decades ago, Kia was building miserable econoboxes like the Pride and Cerato. By comparison, the EV6 feels like it was made by a different manufacturer from a different planet. Scroll down to find out what I made of it.
At a glance
Pros: Great performance, long range, super-fast charging and excellent refinement
Cons: New safety tech is annoying, some more physical buttons would have been good
What’s different?
I’ll start with the EV6’s biggest change – a new battery pack. Kia has boosted its capacity from 77.4kWh to 84.0kWh, which has jacked up its maximum WLTP range from 328 to 361 miles. That’s a 10% improvement which, crucially, puts the EV6’s range 17 miles ahead of the most long-legged Volkswagen ID.5.
There’s also some new safety tech, which I’m far less fond of. To be fair to Kia, though, it wasn’t its decision to fit it. To keep EU legislators happy., the brand was forced to give the EV6 a speed limit warning dinger, lane-keeping assist and a driver monitoring system – all of which are utterly infuriating. They’re far too keen to scorn you.
The first system bongs every time the speed limit changes, and it’ll scream at you if you accidentally stray 1mph over the speed limit. The second one chimes in if you so much as brush a white line, and the final one will beep at you if you look at your mirrors, check your navigation instructions for too long or – get this – wear sunglasses.
I drove my EV6 loaner through a series of small towns linked by narrow country lanes on a sunny day – and the symphony of chimes emanating from the dashboard was enough to induce a swearing fit after just 10 miles. To make it worse, the controls to switch all the safety tech off are buried in several layers of sub-menus on the touchscreen.
Kia has also made some subtle mechanical and cosmetic changes, which I’ll touch on throughout this review. Alternatively, you can read this news article on the facelifted Kia EV6 to learn more about them.
What are the specs?
My test car was a pre-production prototype, so it didn’t slot neatly into Kia’s model range. To further complicate matters, its cabin was pieced together using whatever spare parts the factory had laying around – the seats don’t match the spec, for example.
However, I’d never have known it was a prototype if Kia hadn’t told me. It felt every bit as polished as production-ready EV6s I’ve driven in the past which speaks volumes of Kia’s quality control department. Take note, Tesla.
The nearest model to my prototype was the GT-Line S. It had that car’s sporty body kit, 20-inch alloys and adaptive LED headlights. However, it also had some extras we won’t get in the UK, such as black and white leather upholstery and a clever digital rear-view mirror (like a Land Rover). Shame. I rather liked both.
At least it had a production-spec powertrain. It was Kia’s 320bhp all-wheel drive system and, having spent a morning reacquainting myself with it, I was left wondering why Kia bothered to build the EV6 GT.
The GT-Line S is more than fast enough for a family car. It can get from 0–62mph in 5.3 seconds and, thanks to its healthy 446lb ft torque figure, it has enough ‘in-gear’ acceleration to blow past anything short of a super saloon.
All that torque is available the second you flex your big toe, too. So, while a similarly powerful Volkswagen Golf R is waiting for its turbo to wake up, this EV6 is already nudging the neighbouring parish. Like the old car, performance tails off at motorway speeds but, as a traffic light dragster, you’ll struggle to do better.
Range and charging specs
Kia’s made more improvements here. That new 84.0kWh battery means even the least efficient dual-motor GT-Line S model should now have a maximum real-world driving range of more than 300 miles.
When you do eventually need to charge, you won’t be waiting around as long. Kia has cranked up the EV6’s maximum DC charging speed from 239kW to 258kW. That means it now only takes 18 minutes to get from 10–80% capacity. For comparison, the Skoda Enyaq takes about half an hour to complete the same charge.
Plus, the EV6 runs on Kia’s superfast 800-volt electrical architecture, which is still somewhat of a novelty in the electric family car market. All the EV6’s rivals feature slower 400-volt underpinnings, which simply can’t take on electricity as quickly.
How does it drive?
The same as it did before, which is no bad thing. It’s easy to drive once you get over the sheer width of it. There are three driving modes (Eco, Normal and Sport) – and each one feels different enough to encourage you to use them.
Regenerative braking is intuitive and controlled with the paddles on the back of the steering wheel. Tap the left paddle (marked -) to increase the regen, or the right paddle (marked +) to reduce. At its maximum setting, you can drive around without touching the brakes – and it feels very natural.
The EV6’s handling is similarly fluid. It weighs 2,165kg, which means it’s far from being the heaviest electric SUV in its class – and Kia has deployed some clever chassis trickery to make it feels far lighter than it is. It has stiffer spring rates compared with its platform sibling, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, as well as increased damper force.
And it worked! The EV6 has admirable agility in tight bends and high-speed direction changes. You can even – in greasy conditions – enjoy a dash of controlled oversteer on your way out of a corner, with the rear-biased powertrain allowing deft adjustability through each phase of the bend. Not that I expect any EV6 buyer will drive car with that much verve, but the fact the platform allows for such hooliganism is impressive.
The most remarkable thing about the EV6, though, is that it can do all this without rattling its occupant’s joints out of their sockets. Even on Kia’s most ridiculous 20-inch wheels, it’s incredibly comfortable. Yes, it’s firmer than the Ioniq 5 – but it’s damped in the same way as a BMW. It cushions you from bumps rather than ironing them out entirely, so you can still feel what the road is doing under your backside.
However, I’ve driven a pre-facelift EV6 on Kia’s smaller 19-inch wheels – and this was a far better setup than this prototype. It offered the same amount of grip but it was ever-so slightly less brittle. If you’re sizing one up, swerve the massive alloys if you can.
What about the interior?
As before, you get a pair of 12.3-inch screens – one for the gauge cluster and one for the touchscreen. They’re mounted in a new surround, and they now offer support for wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but they’re otherwise unchanged. And why would Kia change them? They were great before the update.
Higher spec cars gain features like an augmented realty head-up display, along with a wireless phone charger and a greater spread of driver assistance tech. I’m particularly fond of Kia’s side rear facing cameras which activate when indicating. They give you a clear over-the-shoulder view on the dash display.
The rest of the interior tweaks are subtle. The biggest change is a new steering wheel, which Kia nabbed from the larger EV9 SUV. I much prefer it to the single-spoke, Allegro-aping steering wheel fitted to the pre-facelift car. It’s a little more upmarket.
There’s also a new dash pad and some ever-so slightly different soft-touch plastics on the centre console. It feels as well-built as the previous car, though.
I also like how the climate control dials double up as the radio volume adjustment and tuner at the touch of a button. Just watch out for the small, capacitive digital heater controls – they can be fiddly, and adjusting the fan speed is a frustrating experience for folk with big fingers. Like me.
It isn’t half practical, though. Thanks to its sheer size, the EV6’s cabin is vast. The lack of a transmission tunnel means there’s a huge amount of storage space under the front centre console. The flat floor also means rear-seat passengers gain some extra foot room, which is useful if you need to carry three on the bench.
The EV6’s boot space is less impressive. The space is quite shallow and narrow thanks to its intruding wheelarches, but there’s still enough room for 480 litres worth of luggage with the rear seats in place and 1300 litres with them folded flat. The ‘frunk’ meanwhile, is barely worth mentioning. It only offers 20 litres of space, but at least it has a covered box to stow your charging cables.
Verdict
The Kia EV6 has always been one of the best electric SUVs on sale – and this facelifted model has only cemented its position on the podium. The new battery tech means its more usable than before, the styling tweaks have increased its kerb appeal and it’s still absolutely brilliant to drive.
My only criticism is the new safety equipment – and I’m cautious about marking the brand down for this because, if Kia had its own way, I suspect it wouldn’t have made it quite so draconian. Still, the calibration could be better and the menu to switch it all off could be a little easier to access.
Perhaps Kia’s engineers will have done a better job of calibrating the tech by the time we get behind the wheel of the finished car. I certainly hope so. Because otherwise, this is still the perfect all-round electric SUV.
Watch our Kia EV6 video review