Kia EV6 GT review: more powerful than the greatest ever Ferrari
This Kia electric isn’t just crazy fast – it’s amazingly good to drive, too.
The initial, feverish promise of electric vehicles was not only that they would save the world, but that they would change everything in ways we couldn’t imagine. Tesla was certainly keen to deliver, producing cars that made fart sounds and replacing practical, familiar buttons with screens the size of board games, which also let you play games.
Other car companies, however, brought us EVs that felt less shocking and more familiar, or at least met our expectations: Porsche’s first electric car, the Taycan, was very fast; Jaguar’s debut effort, the iPace, was nice to look at but about as reliable as making toast using Jewish space lasers.
Finally, however, something genuinely electric shocking has happened with the launch of the Kia EV6 GT, a car that’s more powerful than one of the greatest Ferraris of all time, the 458, and so much fun to drive that it makes you see the Kia brand, and Korean cars in general, through a whole new, almost priapic prism. In terms of riotous reinvention, this GT is like Scott Morrison emerging with a six-pack stomach and a devotion to devil worship, or Nick Kyrgios winning something.
Yes, I quite liked the original Kia EV6, but this version is around 150 per cent more powerful with 430kW and 740Nm, and it has a Drift mode, and can hit 100km/h in 3.5 seconds, which means it’s quicker than a Porsche Taycan 4S and yet it costs less than half as much. And did I mention that it’s a Kia, and that it’s so good that people are lining up to pay $99,950 for something that has a Kia badge, and that no one who goes for a drive in one will question their sanity for doing so?
What is actually most shocking about the EV6 GT, however, is not that it’s crazy fast – thanks to twin motors that can spin at 21,000rpm, so wild that they have to be oil-cooled – but how good it is to drive in general.
Kia went to some trouble and great expense to tune the suspension and steering for local conditions and the results are little short of astonishing. On winding Australian back roads, with the inevitable imperfections, the GT is imperious, providing steering feedback that’s noticeably better than the lesser EV6 and at the same time connecting you to the road, and coping with those bumps, with a brilliant ride and handling balance.
It still feels heavy, as all EVs do, but then so does a V12 Ferrari. And while it can either scare you or make you produce loud “Wheeee!” sounds, depending on your driving personality, it doesn’t have to. Drive it in its Normal mode and it doesn’t give you all of those kilowatts, just enough to keep you happy.
Sport mode adds more fizz, arguably the perfect amount, in fact, with around 390kW – and if you press the big, tempting, fluoro green GT button on the steering wheel, it unleashes Hell. This mode is for “closed-circuit driving”, according to Kia, and if that seems like a strange pastime for an EV owner, then it won’t be for long.
We took the EV6 GT to a hill-climb circuit and it showed itself capable of carving up corners like a serious sporting machine. With its vast reserves of power, however, I was almost glad that they didn’t let us engage Drift mode (Kia calls this “the icing on the cake”, which makes me worry about their dietary habits), which sends all the power to the rear wheels, throws the car sideways and no doubt makes your insurance company have a pink fit.
I drove the EV6 GT for many, many hours at its launch, around all sorts of corners, and only stopped smiling long enough to make stupid noises and to chunter on to my colleague in the passenger seat about how surprisingly good it was.
But then I had to get out to swap sides and it did strike me that this car might represent the greatest disparity between performance and presentation in the history of car design. Yes, Kia has tried to make the GT version look more malevolent than the basic EV6, mainly by sniping it with a paintball gun full of bright green paint (and giving it properly sporty seats), but it still looks like something that’s not sure whether it’s a sedan trying to be an SUV or a duck attempting to be a donut.
I’m not saying it’s ugly, I’m just suggesting that if you didn’t know what it was and someone took you for a drive in it, you’d be in for the shock of your life. Vehicles that can perform supercar-level feats of acceleration and corner chewing normally look as exciting as they are.
It’s yet another way that the EV6 GT is changing things, I guess, along with the fact that I would use its almost $100k price and the word “bargain” in the same sentence, with a straight face.
Yes, I’m a bit curious about the range question – if you drive it in the way its makers intended I doubt you’ll get anywhere near its claimed 424km figure – but we’ll have to borrow one for a few days to find out. And I very much look forward to doing that.
Kia EV6 GT
- Engine: Twin electric permanent magnet synchronous motors (430kW/740Nm)
- Economy: 206 Wh/km
- Transmission: 1-speed automatic, all-wheel drive
- Price: $99,950
- Rating: 4.5 stars