The EV6 impresses on many levels, but does Kia’s award-winning electric car lose any of its lustre over a longer term? And which version of the EV6 turns out to be the best?
- How much does the Kia EV6 cost?
- Is the Kia EV6 good value for money?
- Is the Kia EV6 a safe car? Might it catch fire?
- Is the Kia EV6 reliable?
- How powerful is the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD?
- What is the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD like to drive?
- How good is the driving range of the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD?
- How long does it take to charge the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD?
- What is the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD like inside?
- Should I buy a Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD?
The Kia EV6 is one of the best EVs money can buy right now. It’s well-built, chock-full of safety, convenience and even luxury features, and has a battery pack that – depending on the model variant – enables a 450km driving range no sweat, and beyond 500km if you’re into hypermiling. This long-term test spans the EV6 line-up, starting with the volume-selling GT-Line twin-motor AWD and following up with the entry-level Air single-motor RWD and the supercar-slaying top-of-the-range GT. The EV6 is carsales’ reigning Car of the Year, but this is a new kind of test for the EV. And if you’re unsure about which version of the EV6 makes the most sense, we’ve lived with them for a while to help make your decision easier.
How much does the Kia EV6 cost?
The 2023 Kia EV6 is currently the most expensive vehicle in the Korean car-maker’s portfolio, topping out at $99,590 plus on-road costs for the buck-wild Kia EV6 GT AWD.
In this long-term test, we’re evaluating different variants across the three core model grades – Air, GT-Line and GT – starting with the GT-Line AWD.
All EV6 models come with a 77.4kWh battery (usually the most expensive part of an EV), but a smaller 58kWh battery has been homologated for Australia and could at some point bring the entry-level price into the $60,000s.
As it stands today, the prices for the EV6 portfolio, excluding on-road costs, are as follows: Air RWD (from $72,590), GT-Line RWD (from $79,590), GT-Line AWD (from $87,590) and GT AWD (from $99,590).
Those prices are roughly $20,000 to $30,000 higher than similarly-proportioned petrol-powered mid-size SUVs, even with government rebates and subsidies, so going green with an EV purchase can be a tough decision or simply beyond the reach of many. Even more so if you add solar power and a wallbox charger to the equation.
Competitors for the Kia EV6, which was named carsales Car of the Year in 2022, include the closely-related Hyundai IONIQ (from $69,900), the Tesla Model Y (from $69,300) and the Polestar 2 (from $63,900).
Is the Kia EV6 good value for money?
The price points for the various 2023 Kia EV6 models are certainly quite high for medium-size cars bearing the Kia badge, but leaving aside the advanced electric powertrains for a moment, you do get reasonably good equipment levels for the outlay.
Across the range you’ll find standard fitment of solar glass, an anti-theft immobiliser and car alarm, capacitive-touch infotainment and dual-zone climate controls, a wireless phone charger, handy vehicle-to-load (V2L) power points inside and out, five USB ports, satellite navigation, a pair of 12.3-inch digital screens housed behind a single curved pane of glass, 20-inch alloy wheels and LED headlights and tail-lights.
And, of course, pop-out door handles. If your EV doesn’t have these, you should be asking why!
Some of the more premium features on the GT-Line EV6 like heated and cooled front seats with a ‘relaxation’ reclining function (so you can have a snooze while the battery charges) are welcome, as are tinted windows.
The 64-colour ambient LED cabin lighting we could take or leave, but the 14-speaker Meridian sound system is just awesome and twin-motor AWD GT-Line versions also get a large power-sliding sunroof.
Along with its futuristically-styled cabin, an augmented reality head-up display is very, very impressive, detailing navigation instructions, road speed and all the important stuff so you can keep your eyes on the road.
There are seven colours available across the three-model EV6 range, including Glacier, Steel Grey, Yacht Blue, Snow White Pearl, Aurora Black Pearl, Moonscape Matte and Runway Red.
The Moonscape finish seen on the twin-motor GT-Line we’re testing first as part of this long-term review is a whopping $3295 option, while all other paint jobs except Runway Red add $520 to the price.
While the asking price is quite high, there is plenty of value to be found in the EV6. This is one of the very best of its breed, built from the ground up as a dedicated electric vehicle and carrying a highly advanced powertrain.
The seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty for the vehicle is excellent, although the seven-year/150,000km battery warranty is a year less than most rivals.
Owners can access up to eight years’ roadside assistance if they service the EV6 through an authorised Kia dealership.
A trio of capped-price service packages are also on offer, pegged at $594, $1089 and $1504 for three-year, five-year and seven-year tenures respectively. GT models are a bit more expensive ($733, $1371, $2013), chiefly due to the bigger brakes.
Service intervals are triggered every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first.
Is the Kia EV6 a safe car? Might it catch fire?
On that last question, hopefully not! EV fires are usually caused the same way as regular car fires, in the event of collision or a malfunction, and while there are a handful of videos on YouTube of overseas Kia EV6 models bursting into flames, that was almost always the result of a significant collision.
Every 2023 Kia EV6 model has a battery management system built in, designed to reduce the risk of fire even in the event of a significant bingle. And we didn’t feel the need to wear nomex fireproof suits while driving.
In overall safety terms, the Kia EV6 rates well with independent safety authority ANCAP, with all models bar the range-topping GT earning a maximum five-star rating.
The GT would require separate testing due to its sports bucket seats and their lack of dynamic whiplash protection for the head (because the seats have contours for race helmets). Kia hasn’t submitted this version of the EV6 to ANCAP, so for now it goes unrated.
All EV6 variants come with a handsome safety suite, including eight airbags covering front and rear occupants, semi-autonomous steering, braking and acceleration, adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go functionality, and a very good active lane keep assist system that makes long highway drives an absolute doddle.
Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with junction assist is designed to hit the stoppers quicker than most humans can, while blind spot detection is backed up with blind spot cameras on both left and right sides of the car.
There’s also power child locks, a 360-degree surround-view camera, front and rear parking sensors and a tyre pressure monitoring system, but no spare tyre – just a puncture repair kit.
Is the Kia EV6 reliable?
We’ll attend to this question throughout the course of our long-term review, but for now let’s start with the fact that the 2023 Kia EV6 has already been subject to a safety recall.
You can find out more in our separate news story, but due to a software issue with the shift control unit (SCU), the parking pawl was found to be susceptible to failure. This could result in the EV6 moving or rolling away whilst the vehicle is engaged in the park position.
Happily, as is often the case with glitches found with EVs, the problem can be fixed via a software update.
How powerful is the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD?
If you believe the official technical specifications provided by the manufacturers, the 2023 Ford Mustang GT will rip from 0-100km/h in 4.3 seconds, while the 2023 Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD reaches the same national highway limit in 5.2sec.
But if you go by the seat-of-your-pants feel, the EV6 feels pretty brawny and it’s that initial 0-60km/h that really pins you into your seat with surprising ferocity.
The twin-motor GT-Line unleashes a 239kW and 605Nm sucker punch, but unlike the 339kW and 556Nm the Mustang’s 5.0-litre V8 generates, the EV6 e-motors are ultra-quiet and refined.
Hit the drive mode button on the steering wheel and you can cycle through three modes – Eco, Normal and Sport – with the latter providing serious acceleration and making a mockery of pretty much any car you can think of during the traffic light tango. Yes, probably even a Mustang.
What is the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD like to drive?
Living with the 2023 Kia EV6 GT-Line has proven to be a pleasant experience, thanks in large part to the traits inherent to all EVs – it’s whisper-quiet in operation and has excellent driveability via the instant torque or thrust available from the electric motors.
Pootling around the suburbs, completing life’s various activities – grocery shopping, picking up the kids from childcare – is a doddle. You get in, hit the go button, slot it into drive and the car ably contends with everything that Melbourne’s inner-west can throw at it.
The steering is light and direct while the suspension (which was calibrated by Kia’s Australian chassis engineers on local roads) balances bump absorption with dynamic response.
Across two extended drives, one along the Great Ocean Road, the other through Gippsland that we’ll detail below, the EV6 GT-Line exposed impressive dynamic character traits, generating plenty of mid-corner grip and tracking through bends with plenty of confidence as well.
Its low centre of gravity makes it feel more nimble than any 2105kg vehicle should, but if pushed hard there is some body roll and the repeated abuse of the brakes is felt via mild brake pedal fade.
While we’re riding the gripe train, a few times we struggled to figure out if the car was on, off or engaging accessory mode. We assumed it was on, all the screens were lit up, the car was in park and a foot was on the brake pedal when thumbing the starter button, but for whatever reason the EV6 wouldn’t engage drive or reverse.
How good is the driving range of the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD?
Scooting around town in the 2023 Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD – or any EV for that matter – is manifestly easy, but longer distances feel more daunting.
Entry-level EV6 Air models have a claimed 528km range (WLTP), while the mid-spec single-motor GT-Line is good for a claimed 504km range – the difference in range coming down to wheel size (19-inch versus 20”).
The twin-motor GT-Line is heavier (up 105kg on the single-motor version) and therefore has a lower cruising range of 484km.
To test the latter, we embarked on a mission to complete a circa-400km round trip from Melbourne to central Gippsland in eastern Victoria without recharging – due to the fact the whipper-snappers had to be collected at child care in the late afternoon.
There were some recharging provisions on the way that would have ordinarily made things less fretful, but time was of the essence.
Winding our way out of Melbourne was relatively straightforward and energy consumption was suitably low accelerating between zero and 60km/h, where most EVs do their most frugal work – and combustion-engine cars are at their worst.
But the tables turned when the EV6 hit the freeway and energy consumption started to rise towards 20kWh/100km.
Switching off the air-conditioning and dropping the cruise control from 110km/h to just under 100km/h helped improve the range, as calculated by the car.
The round trip to Gippsland should have been easily achievable on the full charge we had, but the human factors (time involved, child care commitments) meant I was transfixed on achieving the lowest possible energy consumption rate.
Suffice to say I drew the line at slipstreaming (or should that be tailgating?) large trucks to reduce wind resistance, which really hurts battery range as speeds rise.
By the time we got to Gippsland, finished the video and shoot and returned home, the trip had just ticked over 405km and the car’s computer brain had calculated there was 26km of range left.
Given that EVs do their best work away from highways and the majority of this drive was indeed on freeways, it was a good outcome.
Average battery consumption over three weeks with the EV6 GT-Line AWD was 18.9kWh/100km, but by this stage urban driving had accounted for more hours behind the wheel.
Still, Kia’s official consumption claim is 18kWh/100km, so we weren’t far off that mark.
How long does it take to charge the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD?
Charging the battery in the 2023 Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD proved a lot more challenging than discharging it.
Given we have no solar and no wallbox at home, the only way to charge the EV6 GT-Line was to use an extension lead to plug into a household socket which, at 2.2kW, takes a l-o-n-g time.
Kia claims it should take 33 hours to go from 10 to 100 per cent, but when we had 12 per cent battery left the car’s digital dash said it would take 38 hours.
With a 7kW wallbox charger it takes around seven hours to go from 10 to 100 per cent battery charge, and while we didn’t get to test this claim, we did use a 50kW public fast-charger, which took just under 90 minutes to go from 12 per cent to 90 per cent.
The claim is 10 to 80 per cent in 73 minutes.
Using a 350kW ultra-fast charger, the battery can be topped up from 10 to 80 per cent in 18 minutes, according to Kia, although all four 350kW chargers at our nearest Chargefox depot were out of order during the test – and had been for weeks, as described to us by another EV owner frequented the charge station.
What is the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD like inside?
Based on a clean-sheet EV platform architecture (E-GMP), the 2023 Kia EV6 has none of the legacy elements that some EVs have, such as a bulky transmission tunnel. This opens more space in the cabin and creates an airy feel for the most part.
For example, there’s a huge amount of incidental storage space underneath the centre dash stack, enough room for a pair of size 11 Blundstone boots; it’s obscenely good at swallowing random belongings and junk.
With two child seats hooked up in the back, the lack of a transmission tunnel means access is better and clambering in there and putting out emotional toddler fires is (mercifully) easier than usual.
It’s also got air vents and a V2L power point, which got a lot more use than we had anticipated in the back seat, charging laptops.
The seats are comfortable with plenty of power adjustment, however, like many Hyundai and Kia cars, the driver’s seat feels a little perched, a bit high. Although my wife liked it, but she’s not 182cm tall.
I prefer to sit with an erect back while driving but doing so meant my head was rubbing on the sunroof cover, engendering a strong sense of claustrophobia. Solution? Tilt the seat back. Not a deal breaker but worth noting for taller drivers.
Another small gripe is that the rear windows do not have auto up/down functionality, which a lot of cars that cost half as much come with, and the front trunk in the twin-motor GT-Line is a paltry 20 litres – about enough room to squeeze a box of Jaffas in. The Porsche 911 has a bigger frunk.
The 480-litre boot is wide and deep but a bit shallow, and packing for a weekend getaway to the beach required some shrewd Tetris-like organising.
Should I buy a Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD?
After almost a month living with the 2023 Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD, it’s fair to say the Korean electric car lives up to its 2022 Car of the Year accolade.
It drives beautifully, is big enough for the whole family (assuming you’re not too tall) and has an impressive cruising distance.
Indeed, range anxiety wasn’t as pervasive as expected. The biggest challenge was the time it took to charge the vehicle and, indeed, finding fast-chargers that weren’t broken.
Charging at home on 240V is an option but if you want a full tank of juice before a long drive you’ll need to have it plugged in for almost a couple of days.
This is not a condemnation of the EV6 per se, just another reminder of how fragile and immature Australia’s EV charging infrastructure is at present.
2023 Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD at a glance:
Price: $87,590 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Two permanent magnet synchronous motors
Output: 239kW/605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 77.4kWh lithium-ion
Range: 484km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 18.4kWh/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)
Keyword: Kia EV6 2023 Long-Term Review