Kia EV6 GT 2023 review – 577bhp SUV takes on the Tesla Model Y

You’re looking at the most exciting Kia ever. Not a particularly challenging claim until relatively recently, but it picks up the baton from the retiring Stinger GT – an utter charmer of a V6 sports saloon – and sprints into the distance with it. It boasts another 200-odd horsepower, a £62,645 price tag and the sort of punchy styling that looks not just a generation newer than the utterly conventional four-door before it, but an aeon. 

Yes, it’s an electric SUV and yes, it occupies the sort of size and weight us enthusiasts are predisposed to get snarly about. But hopefully there’s enough excitement going on beneath its skin to keep you hooked. 

> Hyundai Ioniq 5 review – an EV at the cutting edge

Twin motors combine for all-wheel drive and a 577bhp peak, enough for a 3.5sec sprint to 62mph that feels even quicker in reality, the GT’s acceleration bombarding your senses as nearly 2.2 tons are flung down the road like a ball from a cannon. We’ve got our bums in the seats of several hi-po electric cars now, but the sensation of near-silent instant torque never gets any less jaw-dropping. Nor uncomfortable.

What’s more interesting is the way this differs from regular EV6s, whose price tags start with a four. Kia hasn’t merely thrown more powerful motors and a fancy matt paint job at its plug-in crossover and cranked up the price. An electronically controlled limited-slip differential is fitted to the rear axle, there’s new suspension, a quicker steering rack, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres and a drift mode. Whatever you think of such gimmicks, the latter is a clear line in the sand this is no ordinary Kia. 

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The company’s larger 77.4kWh battery is your only option to eke out as much range as possible; a quoted 263 miles means around 200 in everyday use – or a touch less if you want a safety margin to account for the UK’s still-fledgling charging infrastructure. Luckily the Kia can accept up to 350kW of charge, so finding the juiciest (albeit priciest) chargers will see the battery hit 80 per cent in under 20 minutes. Which is how long a coffee and comfort break takes at motorway services takes anyway.

As a long-distance cruiser it’s effortless, too, hustling you along quietly atop a simply absurd well of torque that’s instantly accessed with the tiniest flex of your foot. The frustration is that you end up skimming the surface of its power and torque figures rather than diving right into them, forever conscious of its modest range figure and how best to keep it from plummeting. Get your head around how to utilise the charging network, however – if you’re swapping into this from another EV, you may already be a pro – and it’s an accomplished and relaxing thing to swallow miles in.

Yet it also knows how to have fun. I’m not going to pretend it truly shakes off its mass – it simply can’t – but it entertains like the best sports SUVs, given the chance. And all without complete coldness, traditionally a trait we fear with the advance of plug-in performance. Execute a launch control start and you’ll feel a squirm from the back axle as the 362bhp rear motor excites its tyres. That’s the same output as an entire Stinger GT, yet here there’s an additional 215bhp front motor to boost performance and traction. 

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Travel at a smooth but brisk pace and this is a satisfying car, with power spread nicely across its chassis for a neutral balance in corners. You could drive like that for the entirety of your ownership and feel pretty content. But there’s a lime green GT button on the steering wheel, always in the corner of your eye begging for attention. It opens up the full 577bhp (power is limited in lesser modes, not that you’ll notice in everyday driving) and begins to loosen the stability control, a process that can be extended further by diving into some sub menus on the lush and intuitive touchscreen.

It doesn’t transform the EV6 GT into a wild animal, but in something of this scale, I’m not sure you’d want it to. What it gives you are brief hints of oversteer here and there, a sense the car’s come to life and has something of a soul. It’s not an outright driver’s car you’ll point at the Yorkshire Dales for the sheer hell of it, but occasional prods of that GT button to liven up roundabouts on a mundane commute are surely Kia’s aim here. Viewed as such the GT isn’t just a pleasing car in its own right, but a promising beacon that electric vehicles can – and will – exhibit character and sparkle beneath their layers of tech.

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Price and rivals

It’s not only the most exciting Kia ever, but comfortably the most expensive, carrying a near-£20,000 premium over the outgoing Stinger GT. But compare their tech, performance and the sheer leap forward in design – inside and out – and a 40 per cent price hike isn’t terrible value at all. 

As for rivals, the cheapest Porsche Taycan costs £75,500 and possesses ‘just’ 402bhp; you’ll be needing a £106,000 Taycan GTS for comparative performance to the Kia. There are a couple of options over at Audi – the £84,950, 523bhp e-tron GT and £98,295, 496bhp SQ8 e-tron should you really need an SUV – but in truth the EV6 GT’s toughest foe is likely to come from within when the N Division’s take on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 makes production using a very similar bunch of components.

Kia EV6 GT specs