2024 Kia EV6 GT – Road Test

Kia have been constantly at the forefront of the EV revolution for several years now (along with its sister company Hyundai). The EV6 was initially announced in March 2021 as a 2022 model and shared the architecture with the Hyundai IONIQ5, but with completely different spec/options. I’ve lusted after this car since I set eyes on it… but would it, could it live up to my expectations? Let’s find out…

What Is It?

All-electric 4-door Mid-size CUV (Crossover)
Only available as fully electric EV
Available in three different variants – Wind, Land (with two GT-Line available packages) and GT
We’re driving the GT and we’re ONLY focusing on this version
AWD with Long Range battery

Range is up to 350 kms (218 miles) on a single charge
21” Alloy Wheels are standard

How Does It Look?

First the colour: Runway Red is probably the one we’d choose, although the Steel Grey Matte (+$3,000, $695 in the U.S.) is really nice!
We really love it – it doesn’t look like anything else out there – doesn’t matter which angle, this car is beautiful
GT gets the luminous green brake calipers – that’s the easiest way to distinguish it from the other models
It’s also is differentiated in the rear with 2 vertical red reflectors in the lower bumper instead of the single horizontal one
Those 21” GT Alloy Wheels are sweet!
Wheelbase at 2,900 mm is as long as the very large Kia Telluride SUV

What’s It Like Inside?

The first thing you see is the striking GT-only seats with the green piping
Slipping behind the wheel there’s a bright green button on the steering wheel (more on that later)
The heated /manually adjustable steering wheel is very much like the Hyundai IONIQ5 steering wheel… but just a little bit different
The driver gets a very customizable 3″ digital instrument cluster that blends into a 12.3” navigation/infotainment screen
The interior is very well thought out and has a floating centre console – it doesn’t move/slide, but there’s plenty of space to store a purse or bag under it
The driver and front passenger seats get… manual seat adjustments – say WHAT??!!! Did not expect that! Memory powered and ventilated seats are also deleted in the GT
To make up for it you do get GT Dedicated Drive Modes and Active Sound Designs… and a green button, so there’s that
The heated Leather (Suede) front seats are very firm and grippy, but also very comfortable even without any lumbar adjustment. Overweight people will not appreciate the snug fit however
Visibility is very good all around, but the A pillars are a little bit thicker than we would prefer
The HVAC are tactile touch-control and don’t light up until you start the car – we’re not usually big fans of these types of systems…give us dials and buttons any day, but it does look nice – you get dials for the HVAC, but no volume control for the audio system… However, there actually is a volume button…. touch the orange fan button and the HVAC buttons/switches turn to Nav/Audio system etc… very cool! The heat dial then becomes your volume control – genius!
We loved the Advanced Head-Up Display (Augmented Reality) – you get the warning for vehicles in your blind spot flashing there, as well as the “hey, the car ahead has moved – pay attention” notification – love it
The key FOB is a little different from your traditional one, with buttons on the side of the FOB
Remote Start/Stop is included, as is the Kia party trick of moving the vehicle in/out of parking spots using the FOB while you stand outside
The moonroof is huge and opens fully with just one click on the button
Storage is good – typical for this size/type of vehicle. The glovebox is large and very useful
The centre consoles’ storage/armrest is deep, and well sized – in the old days you could have stored your entire CD collection in there

The rear cargo floor is completely flat – flipping the seats is as easy as pulling a lever, located in the cargo area. There is no storage below the cargo floor. If the rear seat could slide forward there would be a huge store area behind it – missed opportunity there considering the HUGE legroom you get
Heat Pump System – a boon for those of us in a cold climate to pre-heat the cabin while still connected to the electric outlet
Cargo Volume: Rear Seat Up – 24.3 cu-ft (690 L) / Rear Seat Down – 48 cu-ft (1,360 L)
Rear cargo and rear legroom are actually more in the GT than the rest of the EV6 lineup
Frunk (Front Trunk): basically useless as it gets pretty dirty under the hood even with the cover. If I owned this car I’d store the charge cable here, so it’s perfect for that

Infotainment etc.

The 12.3” navigation/infotainment etc. sits in the middle of the vehicle, but it looks like it’s also part of the driver’s instrument cluster. They are both contained within the same wide screen and there is no differentiating between the screen and the surround. You can choose between white, black or a combo of both depending on what time of day you set it to switch
I found sometimes I had to touch the virtual button a couple of times to get it to actually respond, but it’s something you get used to. Swiping was fine
Navigation comes standard across the range – bonus in 2023/2024 when everyone is switching to a subscription-based system
The Meridian Premium audio system is fantastic and also comes with ASD (Active Sound Design)
You can change the ‘exhaust’ sound to several different variations of a spaceship and they are pretty cool, not tacky like you’d think
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto comes standard
Rear passengers can plug USB C items into the plugs located in the centre console
The Two-way on-board charger (V2L) plug is located on the lower rear seat

EV and Safety Features are described in detail after What’s The Verdict? At the end of this review

So How Quick Is It & How Does It Handle?

Steering is extremely good and predictable – perfect at any speed
Switching the Drive mode is as easy as it gets. It has its own dedicated button on the steering wheel, just click to change and the colour of the digital instrument cluster changes too – we wish all manufacturers would do this instead of scrolling through menus
There are 3 main Modes: Eco, Normal and Sport. If you hold the button down for a few seconds it’ll enter winter drive mode – nice touch because there’s nothing worse than having to toggle through a couple of winter modes to get back to Sport etc.
In Eco mode the EV6 is quite sedate – great for 99% of drivers
In Normal mode it ups the enjoyable level with plenty of oomph when you give it some welly in typical EV fashion – way faster than most cars
In Sport mode – you can feel the car get stiffer and hunker down, the steering gets tighter too. Stomping on the gas pedal gets you an instant response and you better be holding the wheel tightly when you do it
The GT button (the green one)… a better name would be Warp-Speed or OMG button. Click the button and the instrument cluster changes to bright green, the steering changes – gets much stiffer (even better than Sport Mode) and you can feel the whole car change. Grip the wheel nice and tight, punch the throttle and hang on!!! Flattened eyeballs in 3, 2, 1…
For the Tick Tock crowd there’s a Drift mode. To activate it, start in Sport or GT mode with your foot on the brake pedal, hold the stability-control button until the system is fully disabled, and pull back on both paddles for three seconds… or you can just switch off the stability control and hope you don’t stuff it into another car. The person before me had it switched off and the first time I put it in Sport and mashed the pedal I wasn’t expecting it to go all Mustang on me and try to kill me!!
Towing w/brake: 1,040kg (2,300 lbs)

Horsepower: 576
Torque lb-ft: 545 (740 Nm)
Top Speed: 260 km/h
0-100 km/h (sec): 3.5
0-60 mph (sec): 3.2
Range (up to): 350 kms (218 miles)

What Does It Cost? For up-to-date pricing visit: KiaCanada
To Buy…
EV6 GT only comes one way: $76,495
*Premium paint charge: +$250
To Operate…

Rated at (eL/100 km): City – 2.8 / Highway – 3.2 / Combined – 3.0 [US MPG: 84/74/78]
26 Kwh/100 km (the lower this number, the more “fuel efficient” the vehicle is)
Annual cost to operate (Transport Canada): $792 (20,000 kms / $0.15 / kWh)
The GT DOES NOT qualify for the Federal Rebate of $5,000 (all other EV6’s do)
EV Incentives in Quebec are (up to $8,000) and B.C gets $3,000, on top of the $5,000 Federal Grants
For vehicles that do qualify click HERE

Warranty:

Comprehensive: 5 years/100,000 km
EV system components: 8 years/160,000 km
Roadside Assistance: 5 years /Unlimited km

The Competition
Ford Mustang Mach-E GT, Hyundai IONIQ 5, Tesla Model Y

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good: Love the look – perfect size too
The Bad: Manual seats are a bit of a disappointment, they should be power operated at this price-point
The Ugly: Zero

What’s The Verdict?
What can we say – THIS is the new car to beat. THIS is the car I would buy tomorrow if I was in the market and could afford it. It looks great, it drives superb and that GT button is a game-changer and well worth the price of admission alone. I’ve lusted after this car since I set eyes on it and it didn’t disappoint – if anything, it was MUCH better than I could ever have imagined. This car is as close to perfection as you can get…wait – it IS perfect!

Flipside: You can save about $11k by dropping down to the fully-loaded Land AWD + GT-Line Pkg 2, but you’d sacrifice the eyeball-flattening 576 hp / 545 lb ft, larger brakes (15”F/14.2 R Vented Disc, versus 12.8”), 21” Alloy wheels, the GT button and those sexy seats among other things, but on the other hand you’d get 406 km range, 320hp / 446 lb ft and AWD, nice 20” Alloy wheels, memory power and ventilated Seats…Something to think about

Test vehicle was a 2023 MY with updates for 2024 added (extra range)

EV6 GT EV Features:

Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
Battery Capacity: 77.4 kWh
3 levels of Re-gen Braking. Pull the left paddle shift back and it cycles through how aggressive you want it to be. In the most aggressive mode, it is basically a one-pedal drive – just wish you could set that as the default as it always reverted to the next level down whenever you got out. When you switch from Drive to Reverse it also disengages the one-pedal drive and that’s a good thing
LIPB (Lithium Ion Polymer Battery)
Up to 350 kms (218 miles) on a single charge
Capable of both 400 and 800-volt Ultra-Fast charging – up to 240 kilowatts
Two-way onboard charger (V2L) – allows owners to use the vehicle to charge all sorts of electronic devices, including other EVs (backwards compatible with 400V infrastructure using EV6 standard multi-charge system)
Programmable when you want to charge – set times for cheaper tariff rates at home for example
Preconditioning (Heat Pump): To help the battery reach its optimal performance state, prior to departure – and to optimized range, you can precondition the vehicle interior temperature while it’s still plugged in by setting departure times

Kia SmartSense safety features include:

Blind View Monitor (BVM) – loved that it actually chimed if you put your signal light on and someone was in your blind-spot and it may even apply the brakes before you change lanes!!
Surround View Monitor (SVM)
Highway Driving Assist (HDA)
Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist (FCA)
Lane Following Assist (LFA)
Lane Keeping Assist (LKA)
Rear Occupant Alert (ROA) – great if you’ve got kids, annoying as hell if you don’t
Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist (BCA)
Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (RCCA) – it can even hit the brakes if necessary
Parking Distance Warning (Forward and Reverse)

Charging, Recharge Times & Costs
Click for expanded information regarding > EV Charging, Recharge Times & Free Charging – https://wp.me/pNEbw-2D4

Be sure to give us a like on Facebook or follow us on X or YouTube!
…or sign up for our blog via email so you don’t miss future articles
Facebook: @RoadTest.org
X (Twitter): @Road_Test
YouTube: @roadtests