3 months with EV6! 2023 Kia EV6 electric car review: GT-Line AWD | Should you buy a Hyundai Ioniq 5?

Seen what its like to charge to answer all your questions about whether the care ev6 is really a car that you could live with lets get into it. First up lets talk about which version of the ev6 weve been living with and how much it costs now. The ev6 that Ive been testing for this review is the GC line, all wheel drive, which is now the mid spec version of the car because up the top theres now a GT which is even faster and even more powerful than this one, which is Quite a Feat, because I can tell you this ones powerful enough, as is now it does cost something close to ninety thousand dollars, so its not your value, EV. In fact, its set to replace the Stinger as Kias Halo model, despite its big upfront, cost, though I would hardly say the ev6 – is bad value as well get into in a sec, its a real head turner and its just a lot of car in terms of Size, standard equipment and performance, its not the kind of car youre going to be comparing with the mgzsevs or even your Tesla Model, 3s or Pulstar twos of the world. This is an EV which is in a tier above and almost looks like its ready to take sales from the more premium players or the performance version of the Tesla Model y, for example, the ev6 GT line gets pretty much all the kit highlights for me.

Of course include that v2l external power supply, but also the Big Wheels power tailgate, those big media screens in the interior, heated in cooled seats, its got the lot. If you want to read the full set of standard equipment check out our full written ev6 GT Line review at carsguide.com things, I wasnt as keen on include the seat trim, which is a kind of suede material which strikes me as hard to clean for longer term Owners and an abundance of hard plastic Trims on the interior. You get used to the fact that theyre there over the longer term. But when you compare the interior of this car to something like even its ionic 5 relation, they do become a bit more obvious. The ev6 has been around for a little while now in Australia, and despite the fact that the one Im driving isnt the only one Ive seen regularly around my area, it still manages to majorly turn heads in traffic, its space age in terms of look and feel, And it really shakes the expectation of what an SUV can look like to me. The ev6 doesnt really look like an SUV at all its so low and wide, and the roof line is so long. Its almost like a shooting break or a grand tourer than a traditional SUV and thats a very good thing, even after all these months with the car I still enjoy looking at it and finding new ways to appreciate it.

One strange thing about the interior of this car is even though the car is huge. It feels kind of small in here and I think, thats down to the fact that its got a really low roof line and a really high SUV like seating position and then theres. All these dark trims to contend with which make it feel kind of closed. In and I think, thats deliberate, it has more of a performance, car kind kind of feel than something like the ionic 5, but its just worth, noting that its not really making or feeling like its making the most of its huge footprint theres still a lot of Wow factor in here when it comes to design, though I love these huge screens in this curving panel. I love this weird two spoke steering wheel. I love the way. The dash has this sort of low set three dimensional design with a nice soft touch, kind of pattern to it. Theres some really neat things too. This floating center console it doesnt move back and forth, like the one the ionic 5 does, but its still full of storage and keeps all of your buttons and toggles within close reach. Then theres this cool panel here, which can alternate between either controlling the climate functions or your multimedia functions, so you get double use out of these dials thats kind of cool. Now the only really notable downsides that come with this design is the fact that theres, just an overuse of piano black everywhere, like in the door and in the center console and across these little trim pieces in the dash its just impossible to keep clean.

And it might get kind of annoying if you are actually living with this car. The other thing that Im not sure about entirely is the suede trim on the seats which is kind of hard to clean and its one of those things where, if you own it and youve got kids or youve got a dog or something it just stuff gets Caught in it and its hard to clean out and the one major downside with this car compared to the ionic 5 is, it does use quite a lot more hard plastic than the ionic 5 or maybe another car thats at this price point as well. Theres no kind of like soft Trims on the side of this or here or anything. It is just like a hard kind of key of plastic thats a little bit of a shame, lets hop in the back seat and talk a little bit more about practicality. Now the real highlight for me, in my time with this car, has been the back seat, because its just so open and huge and unlike the front seat, even though youve got all this dark trim. This just feels like a massive lounge chair to sit on because youve got this nice flat floor and all this space to work with its great. In fact, I use this car as a mobile office quite frequently, because Ive got a charging port down there. I can charge my laptop Ive got USBC Outlets.

I can charge my phone, I can leave the car running. I can have the air conditioning on even when Im charging the car so thats, really something that EVS have that combustion cars dont and I love it back here. Evs like this are quite versatile in that you dont really have to worry about running an engine or anything, and you can still use these powered features. The battery is so huge. Youll barely make a dent in it, even if youre running things off of it. For like a whole day, the external Port is quite powerful. It can output up to 2.4 kilowatts or so so. Dont worry about blowing a fuse by running a kettle off of it. The possibilities with this thing are sort of endless. You could power a campground power, a market stall or, as I discovered when I was testing the Kia, Nero relation, which has the same feature. You can even charge up another EV with it very cool. One thing I have gotten a lot of use out of is the boot. It has 480 liters of space which for context isnt, perhaps as big as it could be, but for my purposes it seems to be plenty, but then I dont have kids or anything. So I dont need to use a pram or have a dog back there and yes, of course, like other EVS, the ev6 does get a Frank, but you know what I find after having a couple of EVS.

You dont really use this. Yes, it will hold my type 2 charging cable, which I might use at a public charging outlet, but actually because its such a kerfuffle to open the Bonnet and get it out and the charging ports on the other side of the car. I actually find it just easier to leave this on the back seat. The ev6 will travel a claimed 480, something kilometers on a single charge and thats a lot. In fact, I dont even know what range anxiety is in this car. I hop in it. I dont really think about how much range it has. I dont think about where I need to charge it. I dont think about how long I need to charge it, for I dont think about the inconvenience of charging at all, because I just drive it around. In my day to day – and I pick up charge here and there its almost like driving a petrol car, I didnt really expect how much of a background thought range and charging would become in this car. I cant even charge it at home, although I do have both a slow AC charger and a fast DC charger nearby to me. Technically, the ab6 is one of the fastest charging EVS on the Australian Market, able to charge up in under half an hour when using a 350 kilowatt charger. Until you first hand, though, youll barely ever find one of these around Australia by charging from 10 took about an hour and a half to get close to a hundred percent on a local 50 kilowatt unit.

My local free AC charger. On the other hand, the 11 kilowatt rate meant an additional 70 kilometers or so per hour. I found this system was good to leave the car on during weekly grocery shops or visits to the gym Music. I only really look at the range when it drops into the double digits and the car starts to tell me: Ive only got 10 battery left or something to that effect. It really is like driving a combustion car in terms of how often you fill it up its only once a week or once a fortnight in my general commuting now I have traveled over my three months with the car about two and a half thousand Ks, and During that time, the cars consumed 17 and a half ish kilowatt hours, which is less than the claim of 18., now thats interesting, because it will actually exceed the range claim. But this car will go one step further and I found that not only is it able to exceed its range claim, but will actually be super accurate, even if you take it on the freeway and not many EVS can do that now, just as we set off Here one thing I will point out about the ev6 straight away is that it is enormous. This is a big car, yes from the outside, it doesnt. Look that big and yes technically Dimensions Wise Its only as big as a mid size, SUV but its the wheelbase.

That makes it hard to turn and move in low speed like parking scenarios. The wheelbase is the same, in fact as a Hyundai Palisade thats, a big SUV and its all well and good. If youve got your own driveway and garage to park this car in, but for me parking in a unit sized apartment block, I have to do about an eight point turn to get the car in and it just gets a bit jarring after three months, Music. But one thing that that massive wheelbase, the width of this car and the size of its tires add up to is something thats, hugely capable, comfortable and confident on the road. Yes, we have a lot of power, but this car can really put it to the ground and it grabs on in Corners as well making for a car thats properly quick to drive, and this is one area where the ev6 sets itself apart. Majorly from the ionic 5. Ive driven both cars quite a lot now and the ev6 is definitely the performer of the two, its much more serious on the road. Its suspension is firmer and its really got a purposeful kind of nature to it, whereas the ionic 5 is comfortable, a bit springy a bit playful, but its not as determined as the ev6 feels Music. Now the ev6 has been engineered really well. So, even though it is quite stiff almost to the point of being brittle, it manages to be comfortable enough.

Now it is serious in the corners and it keeps everything under control, but it does have a little bit of jiggle factor, maybe because of that weight and How firm the chassis in this car is it just sort of Jiggles side to side when you hit some Bumps or maybe its a speed bump or some corrugations on the road, its not the most comfortable car and again, not as comfortable as the ionic 5, but the trade off is it does have that capability in those Corners. So, if youre looking for something thats more like a sports car, the ev6 is going to be for you Music. Now, a few other things to know about the ev6 drive experience. You do get some quite varied Drive modes that will alter the steering quite a bit because the steerings quite heavily assisted, so in a sort of default driving mode. It feels a little bit. I dont know wishy washy, but still enough control in those corners and as you go up it, it sort of firms up a bit and makes the car feel as serious as it can be. Now as an EV. Things are different again, so you do have four regen braking modes. You can pretty much turn the regen off to drive it like a normal car might drive or you can set it all the way to a single pedal driving mode. I really quite like the single pedal driving mode in all of these Kia and Hyundai EVS, because it makes the car feel really efficient.

It really squeezes every last second out of the deceleration and puts that energy back in the battery thats. Probably part of the reason this car has performed so well in its energy consumption Music. Now over a longer term review, you do pick up a couple of little annoyances and I have a few that Ive picked up in this car. So one is the little Turn Style shifter. You use that to change gears, but youve got to be kind of careful with it, because if you dont depress the brake pedal enough, it wont actually change gear. So, if youre sort of in a tight parking situation, youve got to be careful that it hasnt left you in neutral or drive before you step on the accelerator, expecting it to reverse thats a little bit annoying. The other thing that I found annoying is when you put it in park, it doesnt automatically put the handbrake on. There might be a way to do this in the system, but I havent been able to figure it out and thats just a little annoyance, because the Nero that I had previously automatically put the handbrake on. Why doesnt this the ev6 wears a maximum five star and cap safety rating dating to the 2022 standards? One thing I will call out when it comes to Safety in the ev6, though, is you live with the car for three months and you start to learn which systems are quite annoying and Ive got to say the lane keep software in this particular car is really Overzealous, it pushes you back and forth in the lane, and sometimes it doesnt quite get it right and it tugs the steering wheel against you and even sometimes youre, holding the steering wheel and youre going straight and it tells you youre not holding the steering wheel.

So you have to give it a little bit of resistance just a little bit much and I wish it wasnt so bad because when you do put the cruise control on and you let it kind of help you with the steering its actually really quite nice. Its a shame it cant really strike a middle ground. Of course, the ev6 has the same seven year and unlimited kilometer warranty as the rest of the Kia range. The battery is covered for the same time, although is limited to 150 000 kilometers when it comes to servicing Kia, offers prepaid packs for three five or seven years, which work out at a reasonable cost per year. Music Ive Loved living with the ev6 and Im really going to miss this car, yes, its too big and probably too expensive for me personally, but that doesnt mean it its not an incredible car to own its massive, its powerful, its comfortable. And importantly, it has all of those key EV feature boxes tit, and that really does add something to the formula its more than just a car. It becomes something a little bit extra. I love that about. It remember to check out my full three chapter, long term review over at carsguide.