Straight From The Future

Kia’s first electric car in India is a bold statement! It’s not a mass-market EV, but instead, it’s a showcase of Kia’s capabilities. Based on Hyundai Group’s born electric (E-GMP) platform, the Kia EV6 shares a bunch of its underpinnings with the Hyundai Ioniq 5. In fact, the duo get the same powertrain in the RWD variants. But that is where the perceivable similarities end. Kia has managed to make the EV6 drastically different from its sibling, both in appearance, and the way it drives. In India, the EV6 is also offered with an AWD drivetrain which is more powerful, and the battery pack on offer in the EV6 is also slightly larger than the Ioniq 5. However, being a fully imported unit, it costs significantly more than its Hyundai cousin. How does it justify this premium? Let’s take a look. 

Kia EV6 Pros and Cons 

Kia EV6 Exterior Design

Pick any angle and the EV6 will look gorgeous. The crossover silhouette looks small in pictures, but in reality, the length and width of the Kia EV6 is comparable to mid-size SUVs! In fact, it has near identical length and width figures to the Mahindra XUV700, and has an even longer wheelbase. Based on an EV-specific platform, the EV6 doesn’t have to deal with limits set by an ICE platform, and the designers at Kia have made the most of this. The clamshell bonnet is short, and the comparably long cabin gives it an aggressive stance. 

The purposeful design is sporty yet beautiful, and has a bunch of neat details. The headlights for example, are lined with intricate LED DRLs, which look like mascara around the eyes. There’s no butterfly grille that we see on every other Kia model, but Kia hasn’t eliminated the grille altogether either. Instead, there is a slim faux grille that separates the headlights, and gives the EV6 a natural look. Lower in the bumper are some more LED elements which sit in place of fog lights. There’s a small air-dam too, which is used to gather air for the HVAC systems, and to cool the battery pack. 

The sides of the car look the most radical, thanks to the interesting silhouette, which would not be achievable on an ICE platform. Big 19-inch wheels sit at the extremities, and the whole roofline gives the EV6 a crouched stance, as if it's ready to pounce on its prey. The rear has a very distinctive look too, where the coupé-like roofline  blends into the rear windshield and sharply ends near the connected tail light element. The inverted U-shaped tail-light bar also has an identity of its own, and is mirrored on the lower side by a chrome finished U-shaped element that morphs into turn indicators on either ends.

Kia EV6 Interiors 

Where the exterior is radical, the EV6’s interior is more natural and welcoming. There aren’t many distinctively ‘EV6’ elements here, but the design comes together beautifully to deliver a sporty appeal. The dash is very driver-focused and asymmetrical too. The twin 12.3 inch displays sit in a curved piano-black housing, and the whole appearance is very sleek and oriented towards the driver. The cabin is practical too, and has storage spaces in places you won’t expect; there’s a large bin under the floating centre console to store a handbag for example. Space isn’t an issue inside at all, thanks to the long wheelbase. Boot capacity is also a generous 520 litres, but it has a tall loading lip.

Kia EV6 Comfort

Kia has set up the EV6 to be stiffer and sportier than the Ioniq 5, and that does take a toll on overall comfort. You will feel bumps and sharper potholes in the car, but it is not very bothersome. It does a fair job of dealing with rough roads, but it’s the flatter roads where the EV6 is truly at home. The low centre of gravity and the stiffer suspension keeps the car planted at high speeds, and that gives a sense of assurance when you drive it on highways.

On the seating front, the Kia EV6 excels at front passenger comfort. The seats get a ton of adjustments, and there is also a zero-gravity mode, which will allow you to fully recline the seats and snooze. The front seats are also well cushioned and bolstered, and get heating and ventilation as well. Rear seats, however, don’t paint the same picture. The flat floor board and wide cabin allows room for three passengers, but the high floor and low roofline means that passengers at the back will be seated in a knees up position. While there is generous legroom and knee room, there isn’t much space under the front seats to extend your feet.

Kia EV6 Performance and handling

With sharp and sporty looks, the Kia EV6 sets expectations of being a driver focused car. And it doesn’t disappoint! It is offered with two different drivetrains in India — a single motor RWD and a twin-motor AWD. While the RWD has plenty of performance on offer to put a smile on your face, it is the AWD that will make you giggle and chuckle every time you plant your foot to the floor. It gets three drive modes — Eco, Normal, and Sport — which serve their purpose well. But interestingly, there are two modes for the brakes too, which alter the braking to either be sharp or natural. 

The stiffer suspension, while being slightly uncomfortable, makes the EV6 a great handler. The AWD variant also offers oodles of grip, both when you throw it in a corner, and when you do a quick straight-line launch. 100 km/h from standstill comes in just 5.2 seconds, and for a car that weighs close to 2 tonnes, it is very brisk. With most electric cars there is an initial spike of acceleration which tapers off as speed builds up, but the EV6 keeps pulling hard all the way until it reaches close to its top speed of 192 km/h. It gets multi-mode regen braking too, which can be toggled using paddle shifters, and like other Hyundai group EVs, a long pull at the left paddle will stop the car using regenerative braking only, saving some energy as well as brake pads.

Kia EV6 Battery, Charging, and Range

The Kia EV6 is available in India in the ‘GT Line’ trim, which features a 77.4 kWh battery. The battery pack gets 800V architecture, which enables it to have high charging speeds. While ultra-fast chargers currently don’t exist in India, once they do, it would take just 18 minutes to charge the Kia EV6 from 10% to 80% on a 350 kW DC charger. A standard 50kW DC public fast charger meanwhile will be able to top up the battery from 10% to 80% in about 73 minutes. 

Since the RWD and AWD variants are significantly different in terms of power on offer, they also deplete the battery at different speeds. The lower powered RWD variant of the Kia EV6 gets an ARAI certified range figure of a whopping 708 km! While it may be extremely difficult to achieve this figure, you can expect the EV6 to return a real world range of around 475 kms on a single charge. The AWD variant on the other hand should return a real world range of around 400-425 km on a full charge.

Kia EV6 Key specifications 

Kia EV6 Safety Features

The EV6 is Kia’s safest car to go on sale in India, receiving a 5-star  Euro NCAP crash test rating in 2022. It packs a suite of ADAS features, such as forward collision and avoidance assist, lane keep assist, blind-spot collision avoidance assist, rear cross traffic avoidance assist, safe exit assist, lane follow assist, blind spot detection, driver attention warning, and adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality. Adding to these are other safety features such as eight airbags, ABS, electronic stability control (ESC), vehicle stability management (VSM), hill assist, multi collision braking, ISOFIX child seat mounts, and a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS). However, Kia hasn’t included a spare tyre, and it makes do with a puncture repair kit.

Kia EV6 Technology and Infotainment

When it comes to tech, it’s safe to say that the EV6 is loaded to the gills. It gets a 12.3 inch curved infotainment system with built-in navigation and a host of connected car features. But strangely, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity is wired, not wireless. Within the same curved housing is another 12.3 inch display for the instrument cluster. The instrument cluster offers a bunch of customisation options too, and displays all the information you’d need. Both displays have crisp resolution, and the infotainment display’s touch sensitivity is also commendable. You can also use the infotainment screen to customise a host of things in the car, such as the climate control. The system is paired with an immersive 14-speaker Meridian sound system. Additionally, there is also a heads-up display that projects certain information like speed and lane safety indications right on the windshield, giving it an augmented reality-like look. The Kia EV6 also gets bi-directional charging — or vehicle to load (V2L) — which enables it to act as a power source for any electrical appliances under 3.6 kW. This will allow you to use your EV6 to power an electric stove or external speakers on your camping trips, or even charge another EV if the need arises.

Is the Kia EV6 for you?

The Kia EV6 is a very special car. It doesn’t just blend in with traffic as a Volvo XC40 Recharge would. Instead, its bold looks attract attention, and gives its passengers a feeling of exclusivity. Being imported here in limited numbers, Kia isn’t aiming at gathering everyday EV users as potential customers. Instead, its aim is to leave a lasting impression amongst the Indian audience that Kia is a brand that can produce some highly premium and exclusive vehicles; when someone thinks ‘Kia’, they should think ‘EV6’, not Seltos or Sonet.

Despite looking like one, it is not as restricted as a sports coupé would be. It blends practicality with purposeful looks of a performance car, and It succeeds at it extremely well. Being built on an EV-specific platform also gives the car a significant dose of uniqueness and practicality, and the tech onboard makes the EV6 future proof. Yes, it is a significant amount costlier than the Ioniq 5, and if you were to choose the RWD drivetrain, the slightly higher range figure than the Hyundai counterpart would not be reason enough to shell out ₹10–15 lakhs more. But in its top-of-the-line all-wheel drive spec, the EV6 sets a benchmark for what EVs should be.