Kia EV6 GT review: Supercar speed for a performance car price
If there is going to be one automotive brand to watch in 2024, then it's Kia. The order books are open for the awesome EV9, the EV3 will start to arrive soon, and if you haven't Googled the EV4 Concept yet, you really should.
But the shocks and surprises have already begun, if you look at the current range. The EV6 came around in 2021 and it's one of the best EVs out there. However, I've been longing to have a go in the spicy model, the EV6 GT - and that's what I've been doing recently.
Stand back and look at it, and there's little to suggest it's anything other than a well-specced standard EV6. There's some bits of sporty trim added on, some huge wheels, but that's about it. Look a bit closer and you'll see the size of its brake discs. And then you'll spot the giant neon-coloured calipers that wrap around them. You begin to get the idea that it means business.
And it really does. The headline figure with the EV6 GT is a frankly rather silly 577bhp, which helps it dust off a rather blurry 0-62mph sprint in just 3.5 seconds.
It could be argued that the interior does little to emphasise the promise of this astonishing output, but the clues are there. The colour of the brake calipers (I can't decide whether it's green or yellow) is carried over to stitching on the suede and leather, and a button on the steering wheel, but that's about it. To be fair, the EV6 interior is absolutely marvellous thanks to its purpose-built EV architecture anyway, so it's no issue.
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That button on the wheel, by the way, whatever colour it is, puts it into a customisable GT mode, which opens up the full ferocity of its twin motors. You get 215bhp from the front motor and 362bhp from the back motor, so it puts its power down very cleanly indeed.
Is it fun though? If your idea of fun is tearing away from traffic lights and leaving pretty much every car around you for dead then, yes, absolutely. But if you like a bit of helmsmanship in the corners, its powerful party piece becomes less relevant.
Sure, you can punch your way out of a bend on a seemingly limitless wave of torque, but you're quickly reminded this is a car that weighs over two-and-a-half tonnes. And it is, after all, a crossovery, SUV type-of-thing.
But for munching huge miles at speed and in comfort, it's an absolutely wonderful tool. Even though the range is, quite predictably, reduced in the GT version. Especially if you're a bit naughty with that GT button.
The theoretical combined range is 263 miles, which is quite a way down on the range offered by the standard rear-wheel-drive EV6 of 328 miles.
It carries over the same 77.3kWh battery, which is no bad thing, because it's capable of charging at up to 350kW, and it still has the clever Vehicle-to-Load system that lets you charge things off the car.
It's also worth mentioning that it costs a shade over £60,000 - but it's worth bearing in mind that's getting on for half the price of a slightly slower Porsche Taycan GTS. And it is by no means half the car.
One does have to consider, though, that the AWD version of the Kia EV6 - which is by no means a slouch with 321bhp - costs just over £45,000. And that has a better range.
That said, Kia has been very generous with the standard kit offered on the GT, and you'll never tire of terrifying your friends and family with that addictive acceleration.
It might not be as sporty as you'd perhaps like it to be, and that's purely because of the physics involved, but it's a GT car in every sense of the word, right down to the glorious serenity offered by fully-electric motoring.
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It is, however, the most powerful Kia ever made. In fact, it's one of the most powerful EVs on the market right now and - I'll stick my neck out a bit - arguably one of the best.
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