This 2021 Kia EV6 serves as a training vehicle and already has 121,000 km on the clock. Is this okay?
Collect all cells
Kia, together with parent brand Hyundai, is making an impression by storming the EV market. Unfortunately, used copies are still scarce. Although…this one might be coming. It is a car that serves as a training vehicle with 121,000 kilometers on the clock as of November 2021. Does this intensive use in a relatively short time come at the expense of the capacity of the battery?
‘My children grew up in an EV’
Those EVs are very nice, but they cost a lot of money. Koen Sweers (53) from Tiel works as an independent driving instructor at Driving School De Betuwe and bought this red EV6 Plus in 2021. “It was just under fifty grand at the time,” says Koen. He drove a Renault Zoe (his third) and has been driving an electric car with an automatic transmission since 2013. “My children grew up in it. I specialize in giving driving lessons to people who are forced to drive an automatic. They often need a little more guidance and patience. My previous training car, the Zoe, had even been adapted for driving lessons for people with physical disabilities, but that became far too expensive for this Kia.”
There is no shortage of childhood illnesses
Koen was a Zoe driver from the very beginning. He is also a pioneer for the EV6 and that has its price. “I was able to experience the teething problems of both new electric cars. That’s not nice if you have to earn your living with a moving car. With the very first Zoe, which had a 20 kWh battery, there were little things happening all the time. Problems with charging, the charging station that broke down because the car required too much ampere, all these irritating phenomena. The dealer was always there for me, but it made you very tired. The second and third Zoe kept getting better.”
As the children grew up, the need for a larger car arose. “I paid 100 euros when the Kia EV6 was announced, based on the photo. Once I saw it in real life, I couldn’t help but stare. What a thing! It also needs a large parking space, but the overview from the driving position is good. This makes it easy to estimate how wide it is while you are driving.”
The Kia EV6 is also not without problems
There were also teething problems for the Korean. “Just like with the Zoe, you never really stop with that car, but it’s fun. For example, the heating did not work in the winter. I had to scratch my head and I had never experienced that before with an electric car. And what I also encountered was the software updates; the dealer had to carry them all out. As an entrepreneur you don’t want that.”
Moreover, it took a long time before those updates were available. The normal 12V battery also broke in the almost new Kia. “He simply couldn’t handle it. At Kia they install another one, which cannot handle it either, so I had another battery installed without Kia’s consent.”
Usable range
Even more teething problems: loose steering wheel edges and the faltering memory function of the seat adjustment. “That drove me crazy too. You always had to adjust everything manually,” Koen reflects. He thinks the curved front wheel arches of the Kia are beautiful, the rear less successful. “But I never see them anyway.”
Now some more good news: Kia is the best at fast charging and that is a big advantage. “I chose the Kia because of three things: the towing capacity, the price and the fact that you could drive at least 350 kilometers per charge in winter,” he says. That’s a very useful range for him. Fortunately, the Kia convincingly lives up to that promise. “I even reach 410 kilometers on my all-season tires, with the cruise control at 106 km/h.”
Neat result
The battery of the burgundy Kia EV6 scores a beautiful 96 percent after 120,000 kilometers. “I’m happy with that,” says Koen, “because my wife wants me to continue with this car for a while longer. I traded in that third Zoë faster than I intended.”
So it won’t be available for a while, Koens EV6 as a used car…
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl