Heard the one about the Kia that accelerates faster than a Porsche? If the sounds like the setup for a joke, it’s at Porsche’s expense. The most powerful version of Kia’s new EV6 flagship develops a jaw-dropping 577bhp, can reach 62mph in 3.5 seconds, and tops out at 162mph. The best a Porsche Taycan 4S can manage is 4 seconds and 155mph.
Kia is best known for its value-packed SUVs, superminis and family hatchbacks, but the Korean company is determined to stand out in the electric car market, and the new EV6’s striking styling and neck-straining performance certainly does that.
But so does the price. The range-topping, Porsche-slaying, bi-motor 577bhp GT will set you back £52,895, and while that’s still significantly less than you’d have to spend on a Porsche (the Taycan 4S costs £83,580), it’s way beyond what we’re used to seeing Kia charging for its cars.
But if a £53k Kia is too rich for your tastes and you can live with slightly less performance, there are more affordable versions of the EV6 available. A basic single-motor, rear-wheel drive EV6 will set you back £40,895 when sales begin in October.
Its 226bhp is enough for 0-62mph in 6.2 seconds, while a 77.4kWh battery should provide up to 316 miles of electric driving range. Alternatively, there’s a mid-level four-wheel drive EV6 with 321bhp that gets to 62mph a second quicker, but makes do with a smaller 58kWh battery pack and shorter range of around 250 miles.
The EV6 shares its E-GMP electric vehicle platform with sister company Hyundai’s Ioniq 5, and is equipped with 800v charging capability. Find a suitably quick public charger and you can replenish the battery from 0-80 per cent in 18 minutes, or add 62 miles of range in four minutes.
As you expect given the price and the Kia badge, the EV6 comes loaded with technology, the most interesting of which is an augmented reality head up display. The system projects various bits of driving data, including turn-by-turn navigation instructions onto the driver’s view of the road ahead, a technology we saw first on Mercedes Benz’s S-class flagship. And as far as Kia is concerned this is its S-class.
Keyword: Kia’s 577bhp EV6 is faster than a Porsche Taycan 4S