Simply the best
Kia EV6 is top of the electric car charts
THE KIA EV6 is, for my money, the best electric car launched this year; indeed, having driven it this week in Spain, on a mix of motorway and country roads, I’d go so far as to say it’s the best allround car I’ve driven in 2021, no matter what the powertrain.
For starters, it really is beautiful. I had seen photos of it, obviously, but it’s a genuine stunner in the actual metal, especially in the Forest Green paint job. Green has become a very popular colour of late among car manufacturers after years of invisibility, and it can be very understated and dramatic all at the same time.
KIA’s signature tiger grille has been reimagined here, and is flanked by daytime running lights that look like cat’s eyes. Bulging haunches elevate the bonnet to almost Porsche styling, while a low air intake adds a bit of aggression to the car’s face.
The side profile features a rising inset that extends the length of the car, while the roof tapers gently to a sloping C pillar at the rear. Short overhangs front and back also emphasise the almost 4.7m length, while dynamic red LEDs stretch through the tailgate for that coast-to-coast effect. Honestly, it is a stunner.
My co-driver and I took it up to Benahavis in the mountains behind Marbella, and drove past a cluster of cafés and, I’m not joking, chat stopped. Heads swivelled. Jaws were agape. I haven’t seen that sort of reaction ever before for anything other than German prestige models.
Inside, everything is top notch. There’s a lovely wraparound screen that can be tailored to your own needs. The flat-bottomed steering wheel has the knobs for the cruise control, voice command, phone, and so on. The elevated centre console has a phone charge pad, cupholders and the radial automatic gear selector.
Everything is perfectly, intuitively to hand, but that’s not all. The heads-up display you see through the windscreen is fantastic — crystal clear, and with an especially brilliant feature of an enlarged arrow telling you exactly when to turn off if you’re using the satnav. The seats are heated and ventilated, and come in a really attractive cloth made from recycled plastic water bottles and have vegan leather edging. When the EV6 is parked or charging, the seats lift and recline, allowing driver and passenger to stretch out, read a book or take a nap. Everything feels roomy and light, and it’s a really pleasant place to find yourself.
Boot space is 520 litres, and 1,300 litres with the rear seats folded flat. There’s plenty of room for rear seat passengers too, and USB-C ports cleverly built into the sides of the front seats, as well as a standard plug socket to power up the likes of a laptop computer or a cool box.
None of this would matter if it drove like a dog, but it’s exactly the opposite. The acceleration is instant and thrilling – 100kph in just 5.2 seconds (3.5 seconds in the topline GT version). Put it in Sport mode and the surge of power is palpable, much more so than in many petrol cars, when little or nothing happens at all.
Throw it into a corner and the stability is terrific, thanks to those short overhangs and the battery placement that give the EV6 a very low centre of gravity.
As for range, well, it’s very impressive. The WLTP rating is 528 kilometres, and usually I would shave a third off that in motorway driving at 120kph. Here, I would say 10% would be more accurate, while range on normal roads in rural and urban areas pretty much is as claimed, because braking energy is being returned to the batteries. I kept checking the range predictor to catch it out, but I couldn’t.
As for charging, the RV6 works with a 250kW high-speed charger that would get you from 10-80% of battery capacity in just 18 minutes, or add 100km of range in just four and a half minutes. I wouldn’t expect that infrastructure to be widespread here anytime soon, mind you, so I’d guess 40 minutes to 80% is more realistic.
Of course, none of this comes cheap, and the entry-level model costs €55,000, though that drops to €47,500 when the VRT rebate and SEAI grant are taken into account. For business drivers, there are advantages regarding benefit in kind.
All in all, KIA has got literally everything right. Building on what it has learned from the eNiro and eSoul, the EV6 is the apogee of its achievement. It is flawless.