Electric performance car bargain? Kia EV6 GT 2023 review | Should you wait for Hyundai Ioniq 5 N?

Well, how did that happen? And does it live up to the hype? Heres? The big talking point that purchase price for the ev6 GT. Yes, a hundred thousand dollars is a lot to pay for a family SUV with a Kia badge, but the GT is much more than that. Youll know what Im talking about when we take it for a spin in a moment, in fact, you can hit the cars Guide website and find the full written review of this car with full specifications. Meantime you have to remember that a lot of the running costs of an EV are up front and that the tech involved isnt, cheap or easy to come by either on the plus side. Theres plenty of kit here, including LED Matrix headlights 21, inch wheels and tires sporty front seats, which are also heated: full connectivity, a sunroof dual 12.3 inch screens inside acoustic, solar, glass and Digital radio. The bigger missions seem to be the lack of powered front seats, but thats, because manual seats are lighter and can be mounted lower for helmet wearing drivers doing track days. The lack of a power adjustable steering column is a little harder to explain Music. The Kia should get extra design marks, for is the fact that we arent just getting the cookie cutter one size fits all ev6 GT. Instead, Kia has continued with the theme of using local suspension experts to tailor the ride and handling to suit Aussie conditions.

Beyond that, the need for bigger brakes, thanks to the GTs extra Pace, has been a switch to 21 inch. Non ev tires for grip and a redesigned lower ball joint in the front end so that everything fits. Thank you, Music. A long wheelbase means a lot of leg room in the GT, although its a more comfortable four seater than a five thanks to the heavy sculpting of the rear bench. Headroom will be an issue for taller folk who will find that the sunroof eats into that territory. There are plenty of USB and charge points, wireless phone charging and a bottle holder in each door and the rear seat folds flat to give the GT similar practicality to any other hatchback its size. Gripes well, theyd include the starter button that is in an odd place. Reflective silver buttons on the steering wheel and a gear selector that is dimly lit and hard to see. In some light conditions, the ev6 GT is a pure electric car. It has a motor on the front axle and another motor on the rear, axle Bingo. All wheel drive, which you need to harness all those newton meters, how many newton meters uh 740 and 430 kilowatts, which is pretty outrageous. Its also got Drive modes, including a drift mode. Theres extra body bracing theres huge brakes, which are forced 21 inch wheels with very sporty Michelin, tires and even an electronically locking rear diff to make the most of that grip and to make this car track worthy, which is what Kia claims for it.

The transmission is a single speed which is actually typical for electric vehicles. Basically, it doesnt need a gearbox, its got so much torque. You want to go faster, you spin the electric motor faster and oh boy. Does this car understand faster foreign under the floor of the GT is a 77.4 kilowatt hour lithium ion battery pack, which Kia says, is good for up to 424 kilometers of range and if you cant see the charge port anywhere its because its hidden? How cool is that the on board charger can handle 10.5 kilowatts and takes about seven and a half hours to go from 10 to 100 charge using a 50 kilowatt fast charger youre, looking at 73 minutes to go from 10 to 80 charge and if you can Find a 350 kilowatt fast charger and actually extract 350 kilowatts from it. That time drops to just 18 minutes. Foreign subjective always is, but I reckon this car looks pretty good theres more sporty car about it than SUV, and I think thats a step in the right direction. Its also got a very long wheelbase, which again gives it a slightly lower look than it might have had, and that means great leg room in the back. It really is quite good itll seat four people, four adults really comfortably as far as the actual driving goes well its a lot firmer than I thought it was going to be in terms of its suspension. I kind of thought theyd soften it off a little bit to make it a nice comfy Road car, but the reality is its really quite firm in any of its three settings.

Youve got normal sport, comfort and then theres another setting Ill get to that in a minute. But the dampers are quite firm but because theyre electronically controlled and because the people that set them up have set them up for Australian conditions. And these guys really know what theyre talking about these are world class Engineers this car, even though it is quite firm, it actually really rides quite well. It doesnt lift wheels. It doesnt want to skip and bounce about and thats, even in its firmest setting its actually really really really sporty, but yet retains a certain civility that you really dont expect when you first jump in and feel how tall it is. The other thing Im surprised about is how fast the steering is its actually got a quicker steering rack than other ev6s in the range, and that means it turns in Fast, and it turns in very accurately and of all the cars Ive driven over the years with Electrically powered power steering this is among the top handful, its that good. Now I know what you really want to know is how fast this thing is well. The short answer is very very in one mode: its got 200 and something kilowatts in sport mode. Its got 300 and something kilowatts, but if you press this green button, this GT button on the steering wheel that liberates the full 430 kilowatts and it is stunning if theres no other word for it.

Its like youre, accelerating in a cartoon its that Vivid, if youve, never driven an electric car, you should go out and try one, because all of them Get Off the Mark pretty smartly. But this thing is on another level: its from another planet forget variable geometry: turbochargers, forget sequential manual, gearboxes EV, electric power is absolutely where its at these days. Trust me. So is there anything I dont like about it? Well, it doesnt have some of the things I thought it might. Doesnt have electrically controlled, steering column, it doesnt have uh electrically controlled front seats which in other cars at this price point you would expect. However, the payoff here is. It keeps weight out of the car. Now one of the claims Kia makes for this car and its its a little bit hard to believe at first until you drive it is that the car is what they call track, ready or track worthy or you could use it on track days at a racetrack. Well, that sounds kind of like its a little bit at odds with the family car, but in this case they have actually gone through a bit of trouble. This car has got huge brakes, although, with the regenerative braking from the from the electric motors, you dont really use the brakes as much as you would in some cars and also the seats I was talking about, that are non assisted, non power, assisted, apparently thats manual Mechanism allows you to get the seat lower in the car, which is better for when youre wearing a helmet same with the headrests theyre angled back at an angle that allows you to drive with a helmet on, although, if youre going to build a car to drive With a helmet on, you delete the sunroof, and this car comes with a sunroof, so a bit from column a bit from column B Music, while the rest of the Kia ev6 range has been and cap tested and scored the full five stars.

The sports bucket front seats in the GT version mean it cant, piggyback onto those results. So at this stage it hasnt been tested beyond that. You do get just about every modern driver Aid imaginable and passive safety that includes seven airbags, including a center side airbag to prevent head clashes in the case of a side impact Music like other Kias, the ev6 GT gets a seven year. Unlimited warranty on the Basic Hardware, the high voltage components, meantime gets 7 years and 150 000 kilometers of cover servicing is every 12 months or 15 000 kilometers and theres a choice of a three five or seven year servicing plan. You can purchase up front beyond that. Running costs will come down to how and where you recharge the car and keeping it in those expensive. Michelin Tires or reckon one of the biggest problems this car is going to have. If not, its biggest problem is that people are going to go to barbecues and sit down and attempt to convince themselves that a hundred grand is too much to pay for a Kia. Well, let me tell you, you can spend a lot more than a hundred thousand and not go as fast or have the Dynamics that this car has got and dont forget, as with any EV to a certain extent, youre front loading. Your ongoing running costs in the purchase price of the car now maybe this was an opportunity for Kia to launch a Prestige Performance Brand, similar to what Hyundai did with Genesis all those years ago that hasnt happened.

But what has happened is this. Car proves that electric vehicles are now not just about going fast in a straight line, theyre also about going very fast, around corners, welcome to performance, cars, 2.