{"id":13941,"date":"2022-01-02T18:10:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-02T23:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evglobe.com\/?p=13941"},"modified":"2022-01-21T18:52:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T23:52:13","slug":"kia-ev6-test-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evglobe.com\/2022\/01\/02\/kia-ev6-test-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"TEST DRIVE: KIA EV6 – One Of The Best Electric Crossovers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Certain electric cars are bound to make a splash and attract a lot of attention. Without the usual constraints of internal combustion engines, taking the power of electric motors to outrageous levels is easy to achieve. Any car with 1,000 HP will attract a lot of curious looks. Any car with mind-boggling acceleration figures will get hundreds of positive headlines on websites around the world. And yet, a lot of people won\u2019t actually care since the price tags are not attainable to many.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why cars like the Kia EV6 also get a lot of praise and spark a lot of enthusiasm.\u00a0Kia and Hyundai have been on a steady growth pattern in the last 20 years or so. They have been offering a lot of very good cars for decent prices. With the new, electric era just around the corner, the automotive market is curious to see how they will handle it. The answer to their potential success lies in the new E-GMP platform they developed.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n E-GMP stands for Electric Global Modular Platform and it was developed from the ground up to house electric models, and to be modular. That means it will underpin all the Battery Electric Vehicles to come from Seoul from now on. The first effort from Kia comes in the shape of the EV6, a car that, in theory, has all the tech you could possibly need, at a decent price.<\/p>\n That last bit is important because customers have been getting used to great deals from their Kia dealers. They also come with some of the longest warranties in the industry and that shows that Kia stands behind its products. At the same time, the EV6 is not necessarily cheap, at least according to Kia standards. The pricing is starting at $56,000 and while in the grand scheme of things it doesn\u2019t seem like that much, makes the EV6 the most expensive car you can get from the South Korean manufacturer right now. And that\u2019s the starting price! So, is it worth the money?<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The EV6 definitely has the looks for that price tag. It\u2019s the first Kia to step away from what has become a trademark feature on the South Korean models lately: the Tiger Nose. Understandably so since the front end of the EV6 had to be streamlined and blocked out to make the car as aerodynamic as possible.<\/p>\n The front fascia is dominated by the headlights and their V-shaped LED daytime running lights, along with the noticeable creases on the hood. The nose is very slanted and the hood is rather big, making the whole fron- end of the car seem like it\u2019s somehow an arrowhead pointing down. Round the back, you can\u2019t help but notice the lightbar spreading from side to side and a somewhat familiar design, if you\u2019ve ever seen an Aston Martin DBX.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n In the metal, the EV6 feels a lot bigger than it does in the pictures. The proportions of the car make it seem smaller than it actually is. It\u2019s nearly 1.9-meters wide and 4.7 meters long, making it an easy crossover, not a sporty hatchback as you might\u2019ve thought at first.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the length that takes you by surprise the most. Thanks to the modular, electric platform it is built on, the EV6 has its wheels positioned towards the extremities of the car\u2019s body, offering an ample wheelbase of 2.9-meters. That\u2019s along the lines of what a 5 Series will get you, but with a lot more room inside.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Step inside and you\u2019ll notice that there\u2019s ample room for just about anything, with one exception: headroom. For some reason, the Kia designers decided to somehow flatten the greenhouse of the EV6. Even though it\u2019s just 1.550 millimeters tall, its ground clearance of 160 millimeters somehow squishes the proportions of the car. From the outside you may miss it. Sure, the keen-eyed will notice the small windows, but you really take it in once you step inside.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Up front and in the back, the headroom is rather limited, if you\u2019re over 6-ft tall. That\u2019s surprising, to say the least. Luckily, there\u2019s ample knee room and those in the back can recline their seats, to get a bit more headroom. If you\u2019re on the driver\u2019s seat though and you\u2019re tall, you might be looking at the sun visor most of the time while driving.<\/p>\n The floor is flat though and favors using it to the max. Up front, the center armrest has a floating design and plenty of storage spaces for everything you could imagine. There are also no less than four charging outlets (including the 12V socket) and you could probably shove a small backpack in the storage space under the armrest.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n As for the materials used, the perceived quality in this car will vary depending on the way you spec it. Our tester was a GT-Line model with all the bells and whistles. Those included perforated leather and a soft-touch plastic on the dash and center armrest. The door panels also feature soft-touch plastics on the top half and a cheaper alternative towards the bottom. The dashboard is where things become even more interesting. That\u2019s because it is dominated by two 12.3-inch screens that come as standard on all EV6 models. They are, as you might be suspecting, used as an instrument cluster and infotainment system. Both have great graphics, high resolutions and work flawlessly. You get Android Auto and Apple Carplay as standard.<\/p>\n Inside the right-side screen you\u2019ll find a menu for the electric gremlins under the sheet metal, letting you know that there\u2019s a massive battery hidden in the floor along with one or two electric motors powering the car.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Depending on what you choose, the EV6 can be had in a number of guises. There are two rear-wheel drive versions and two all-wheel drive alternatives, the latter coming with a dual-motor setup, one for each axle. You can also choose from two different battery sizes: 58 kWh and 77 kWh. Our tester was the RWD Long Range version. That means it had one electric motor, on the rear axle, good for 228 HP and 350 Nm of torque, quenching its thirst for electrons from a 77-kWh battery.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n According to the EPA, this version of the EV6 should have a range of 310 miles on a single charge (500 kilometers), which is incredibly impressive. If you do the math, it will add up to 4 miles\/kWh. However, real life scenarios will differ and really put this claim to the test. During my time with the car, the results were wildly different but there were also some elements working against the EV6.<\/p>\n As we all know, electric cars really don\u2019t fare well in cold weather. Studies have shown that the range in the cold can drop by 10 to 40%, or even more. Unfortunately for me, while I had the car for testing purposes, the exterior temperature didn\u2019t go over 5 degrees Celsius. Most of the time, they were actually negative, around -2 degrees. Furthermore, the car was wearing winter tires and 20\u201d wheels, which are known to be less efficient that the 19\u201d ones on which WLTP and EPA tests are carried out.<\/p>\n That said, the overall energy consumption recorded by the car was around 21 kWh\/100 km covered. Around town, the range was about 370 kilometers while on the highway, at an average speed of 130 km\/h, that range dropped to around 300 kilometers. I should mention that I did not cut any creature comforts either, keeping the AC at 21 degrees Celsius and using only Comfort mode at all times. Eco or ECO+ modes might\u2019ve helped but I wasn\u2019t chasing the best possible result but more along the lines of a worst-case scenario. It\u2019s better to arrive at a charger with more range than you expected than the other way around.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Speaking of which, the EV6 does have a massive plus on its side when it comes to charging: the 800V architecture. That means that it can take up more power from the charger than most of its rivals, the maximum being 350 kW. If you can find a charger that powerful, you should replenish your battery (up to 80%) in some 18 minutes. Shockingly fast!<\/p>\n The problem is, such powerful chargers are scarce and you rarely come across one. Most of the DC CCS chargers are 50 kW or 75 kW units and that means the charging process will take a lot longer. During my time with the car, I used a 75 kW charger twice, getting the battery from 40% to 80% on both occasions in about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\nGreat Looks With Higher Price Tags<\/h3>\n
Plenty Of Tech And Good Quality Materials<\/h3>\n
310 Miles on EPA Rating<\/h3>\n
Driving Experience<\/h3>\n