There is a vast difference between a fast car and one that makes you want to drive fast. The first Kia EV6 GT, launched in 2021, was one but not the other. With 577bhp it was rapid in a straight line, but when I pointed it at a road that was anything but, one that wriggled this way and that like a river, I wasn’t halfway along before realising there was no reward for driving the car with real enthusiasm, save arriving a little sooner.
It’s been the problem with performance EVs to date, particularly large and heavy ones like the EV6 GT. What kept the Kia from being engaging was its numb steering, flat-footed feel and characterless powertrain. A few years ago, and in the interests of thorough consumer testing I did an autosolo in an EV6 GT, and on Donington Park’s enormous tarmac lake you could hoof it around in drift mode like a four-wheel drive rally car, looping the thing into huge, arcing slides. But that didn’t translate into any on-road involvement at all.
What of this new version, facelifted and significantly upgraded midway through the car’s life? Power has risen to 641bhp, the battery is bigger and faster to charge and the suspension has been retuned (spring rates have actually been reduced, but for me the low-speed ride remains too knobbly). Given that and more, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say this is a car transformed.
