Today’s luxury middle class no longer consists of fat Passats or luxury Peugeots, but of hefty electric cars that are a bit higher on the legs. The Kia EV6 is the youngest promising challenger, but the competition is fierce. Does the Korean have a chance?
Kia has had great success with the e-Niro, but the EV6 is the brand’s first electric car without a (plug-in) hybrid derivative. The EV6 in this test is the rear-wheel drive version. Drive on one axle means less power with EVs, which in the case of the Kia amounts to 228 hp. There is then the choice between 58 and 77.4 kWh batteries; we went for the large version. On paper, this has a range of 510 kilometers, but in practice it is different, if only because the outside temperature has a big effect on the range. We come without doing our best with the Kia over the 400 km.
Remarkable
The EV6 has a 3-phase charger as standard, in combination with a heat pump. Moreover, the EV6 is the only one in this segment (together with its brother Hyundai Ioniq 5) to have an 800-volt system, which means that the car with fast charging can handle levels above 200 kW for a long time. That’s on!
The Kia EV6 stands out with its special design, in which the sloping roofline and strikingly shaped rear lights are very eye-catching. Certainly the back is on the edge as far as we’re concerned. Now it still looks futuristic, but how timeless is all this? The nose is definitely thick and it carries the new Kia logo with pride. Inside you are inundated with info in the driver’s seat; it could also be an SF series spaceship. The floating center tunnel offers extra space for controls and you’ll soon find your way. The seating position is not perfect: the seat should drop a bit more, also because the roof is too low for tall people. The touchscreen is just a little too far away, so you have to get out of your chair. Fortunately, the system itself is pleasant and extensive and many functions are easily accessible via buttons. Underneath an extensive climate control and on the center tunnel the buttons for seat heating and cooling. In front of you is an extensive TFT screen with a lot of information, supplemented by a very extensive HUD (head-up display) on which directions for navigation are also projected by means of AR technology.
Dynamic
On the road, the Kia turns out to be a distinctly dynamic car. We can’t really call it sporty given the lack of feedback in the steering wheel, but the handling is fabulous and offers confidence. Logically, we miss the significant boost of the 4WD variant, but what does it matter, in the Netherlands you rarely lack power. The dampers are not adjustable, but adapt to your road behavior through frequency-dependent damping, so that the car is tight in overdrive, but not overly hard on bad road surfaces or at high speed. The Kia could be quieter: wind noise and rolling noise were more noticeable than in some other EVs in this segment. There is plenty of legroom in the back seat, but unfortunately the sofa is a bit too low for a perfect seat. This is partly due to the somewhat low ceiling. We also have heated seats here and lots of USB connections. The trunk is well sized with 490 liters.
You have the Kia EV6 from just €52,000, for that money you get good multimedia, nice thick wheels, heated seats and more; the GT-Line of the EV6 stands out mainly because of the many-for-few features.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl