With its sister car, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, having the advantage of being launched earlier, does that mean the Kia EV6 will be better, having more time for development?

We tested the top-spec Ioniq 5 Limited in December 2021 and then the Elite Ioniq 5 this year. We were very impressed with that car and the Ioniq 5 won New Zealand Car Of The Year for 2021

Kia New Zealand sent us a top-spec EV6 GT Line so we could compare it to the Ioniq 5 Limited. With a trip away to Hawera to work on our project car, we’d be putting 1,000km on the EV6 GT Line in yet another of our real-world EV tests.

What We Like and Dislike About The 2022 Kia EV6 GT Line

What we likeWhat we don’t like
Styling
Performance
Range
Interior room overall
Build quality
Displays’ resolution
Seat comfort
Handling overall
Lack of wind, tyre or road noise
No rear wiper
Aggressive lane keep assist
Lack of steering feel
Inconsistent traffic sign recognition

What’s In The 2022 Kia EV6 Range?

New Zealand sees three versions of the EV6, with the base version being available in rear-wheel drive only (RWD) and the top two models in all-wheel drive (AWD). The base spec is also available in two battery sizes, with the two base models just making it under the $80,000 cut-off for a clean car rebate.

  • EV6 Air RWD (in Standard or Long Range) – $75,990, $78,990
  • EV6 Earth (AWD, Long Range) – $99,990
  • EV6 GT Line (AWD, Long Range) $111,990

The base spec Air model has a 58kWh battery pack, with a single electric motor in the rear for 125kW of power and 350Nm of torque. It gets to 100km/h in 8.5 seconds, has a suggested range of 394Km, and Kia suggests energy consumption at 16.6kWh/100Km.

The Air Long Range is still rear-wheel drive, but has a 77.4kWh battery pack, enabling the car to get to 100km/h in 7.3 seconds, and it has a range of 528Km. The electric motor now gives 168kW of power, but torque remains the same at 350Nm. Energy consumption is stated at 16.5kWh/100Km.

The other two models have two electric motors for all-wheel drive, with the same 77.4kWh battery pack. Combined power is listed at 239kW and torque at an excellent 605Nm. Energy economy for the Earth model is suggested at 17.2kWh/100Km, while the GT Line is 18.0. Both the Earth and the GT Line should get to 100Km/h in 5.2 seconds. The suggested range for the Earth is 506Km and the GT Line is 484Km.

There is no transmission in any model, so all are direct drive.

If you are away from home and need to use a fast charger, Kia suggests taking any model from 10-80% will take 73 minutes. That’s on a 50kW charger, which many fast chargers are. If you have access to a 350kW hyper charger, that same charge will take 18 minutes.

2022 Kia EV6 Standard Equipment Highlights

SAFETY FEATURES

  • Hill-Start Assist Control
  • Electronic Stability Control
  • Vehicle Stability Management
  • Dual Front and Side Airbags
  • Dual Side Curtain Airbags
  • Front Centre-Side Airbag
  • Front Seatbelt Pretensioners / Load Limiters
  • Height Adjustable Front Seatbelts
  • 3 Point ELR Seatbelts (All Seats)
  • Rear Seat Occupant Alert
  • Safe Exit Assist
  • ISOFIX Child Seat Anchor Points – Rear Seat (2x)
  • Impact Sensing Auto Door Unlock
  • Speed Sensing Auto Door Lock
  • Remote Keyless Entry
  • Engine Immobiliser
  • Front & Rear Parking Sensors
  • Rear View Monitor with Dynamic Guidelines
  • Safety Rating Not yet rated
  • Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist- Car/Pedestrian/Cyclist/Junction Turning
  • Lane Keep Assist System – Line/Road Edge
  • Lane Follow Assist System
  • Driver Attention Alert
  • Multi-Collision Brake System
  • Blind Spot Collision Avoidance Assist – Rear
  • Rear Cross Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (RCCA)
  • Smart Cruise Control with Stop & Go
  • Intelligent Speed Limit Assist
  • Manual Speed Limit Assist
  • Electronic Park Brake with Auto Hold

EXTERIOR FEATURES

  • LED Headlights
  • LED Daytime Running Lights
  • Auto Light Control
  • Rear Spoiler with LED Stop Light
  • Rear LED Fog Lamp
  • Side Mirrors Electrically adjustable, heated and folding with LED side indicators and high glossy cover
  • LED Rear Combination Lamps
  • Auto Flush Outside Door Handle – Body Colour
  • Solar & Acoustic Windshield with Solar Front Door Glass
  • Privacy Glass (Rear Windows & Tailgate)

INTERIOR FEATURES

  • Interior Seat Trim Cloth & Composite Leather Vegan Leather Suede
  • Driver & Front Passenger’s Seat Height Adjuster
  • Driver’s Power Adjustable Memory Seat
  • Driver’s Seat Power Lumbar Support
  • Height Adjustable Headrests with Driver & Passenger Up/Down & Sliding
  • Remote Folding 2nd Row Seats
  • 2-Spoke Composite Leather Steering Wheel
  • Steering Wheel Paddle Shifters
  • LED Front Trunk (Frunk) Lamp

COMFORT & CONVENIENCE FEATURES

  • Integrated 12.3” TFT Colour LCD Infotainment System & 12.3” TFT LCD Dash Cluster
  • Satellite Navigation
  • 6 Speaker Audio
  • Apple CarPlay
  • Android Auto
  • AUX/USB Media Input
  • Bluetooth Connectivity with Voice Recognition
  • Interior Vehicle-To-Load (V2L) Outlet – Lower Centre of Rear Seat (120V ~ 230V)
  • Wireless Phone Charger
  • Steering Wheel Mounted Controls
  • Air Conditioning Dual Zone Climate Control
  • Auto Window Defogger
  • Rear Seat Heating Duct
  • Electrochromic Rear View Mirror
  • Driver & Front Passenger Auto Up/Down & Safety Windows
  • Remote Central Locking
  • Rain Sensing Front Wipers
  • Smart Key with Interior Engine Start/Stop Button
  • Immobilizer
  • Sliding Sunvisors with LED Illuminated Vanity Mirrors
  • Power Height Adjustable Tailgate

Our Review Vehicle’s Optional Equipment

  • Carpet mats: $191

Including the optional equipment, our review car’s retail price is $112,181

There are seven colour options for your EV6:

  • Glacier (not available on GT Line)
  • Deep Forest Green (not available on GT Line)
  • Runway Red
  • Moonscape Matte ($1,450 additional cost)
  • Yacht Blue
  • Aurora Black Pearl
  • Snow White Pearl (GT Line only)

For a full list of specs and options available for the Kia EV6 GT Line head on over to the Kia New Zealand website.

How Does The 2022 Kia EV6 GT Line Compare To Its Competition?

All prices below exclude the refund or additional cost of the New Zealand Clean Car Programme.

Make/ ModelBattery
Capacity
kW-hr
Power/
Torque
kW/Nm
0-100km/h
seconds
Range
(WLTP)
Boot
Space,
litres
Price
(excl CCP)
Jaguar i-PACE90294/6964.8470656$159,900
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Limited77.4225/6055.1430537$117,990
Kia EV6 GT Line77.4239/6055.2484490$111,990
Mercedes-Benz EQB35066.5215/5206.2445500$109,900
Tesla Model Y Performance75336/6393.7514854$108,900
Lexus UX300e54150/3007.5360310$79,990

First Impressions Of The 2022 Kia EV6 GT Line

The EV6 is a stunning motorcar, especially when finished in Runway Red of our test car. When I picked the EV6 up, the dealership also had one finished in Deep Forest Green, and it looked even better (although the GT Line is not available in Deep Forest Green). After seeing the muted colour options of its sister car, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, it was excellent to see Kia offering some bold colours in their range.

At the front, there’s Kia’s current design philosophy with the ‘Tiger Nose’ grille although has been upgraded in the EV6, so it’s now called the “Digital Tiger Face”. Regardless of funky names, it’s a great design and I can’t wait to see where else Kia takes this.

The rear design can be galvanising, with some disliking it, while others (me included) loving it. The full-width light bar looks amazing at night, and the whole rear design is different, yet not offensive. There is no mistaking the EV6 when driving behind one.

While driving the car, looking in the rear-view mirrors you will see those wide haunches sticking out from the body…a very nice view. Kia suggests the car has “an athletic stance” and I completely agree. Also spotted in those mirrors is the edge of the roof spoiler, and like the haunches on the car, it gives you a nice, purposeful view from the driver’s seat.

The entire design has murmurs of the Jaguar i-Pace, and that’s not a bad thing. The Kia EV6 GT Line looks great from any angle.

What’s The Interior Like In The 2022 Kia EV6 GT Line?

Instantly there’s a feeling of deja vu in comparison with the Hyundai Ioniq 5. I know they are sister cars, but there are so many similarities in the interior you could almost be in either car. The infotainment system is almost identical, as is the dashboard display.

There is also the same feeling of spaciousness although the Ioniq 5 wins here with its sliding centre console. A small thing, but it does make the most of the benefits of a flat floor. Since the console doesn’t slide in the EV6, that means there’s a 6” gap between the console and the front of the lower dash, and that’s now useless space.

At the base of the centre console is a large storage area, pretty handy for storing all sorts of useless junk we seem to carry around in our cars. On the front of this bin is a 12-volt power socket, and a single USB-A port. There aren’t any USB ports on the upper part of the console, so if you want to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, you’re going to need to plug in a USB cable and then likely drape it up to the top of the centre console using the clips on the side of the console. It would have been ideal to include a USB port or two inside the centre console cubby, but it’s not the end of the world. It was surprising to see that the EV6 does not have wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, as this would take away the need to ever plug in your phone (since there’s Qi wireless charging).

That centre console cubby is very deep, one of the benefits of a platform designed as an EV from the ground up. On top of the console is a flat Qi wireless charging pad, along with its own fan to keep your phone cool while it’s charging. The rotary transmission dial is here too, along with one of the most simple but excellent interior features of the EV6: the start button. It’s right there up on top, and facing the driver. It’s in the perfect position for use, and makes a mockery of all the cars out there (and it’s most of them) that have the keyless start button tucked away under the dash. Again, a simple thing but it makes daily driving the EV6 that much easier.

That console has a lot of piano black plastic on it, as does the dash and the doors. Putting a piano-black finish on a door encompassing the electric window controls is going to equal masses of fingerprints, and that’s exactly what happens. Again, not a deal breaker but you would think by now manufacturers would have clicked on to this. On the plus side of things, the door bins are felt lined so your drink bottle isn’t going to rattle about. These bins and other parts of the interior have red ambient lighting at night, and it looks tasteful and executive. 

At the lower part of the dash are two more ports, USB-A and USB-C, so there are ports for everyone. The AC controls at the lower part of the dash are soft buttons, so hitting the NAV/AC button on the left will switch those controls over to Satnav and audio. It’s a brilliantly simple system (again, the same as in the Ioniq 5) and the clarity of the soft buttons is astounding. They look real and it’s a bit of a party trick to show your passengers that they can change function.

After the light and airy interior of the Ioniq 5, our EV6’s interior was a dark place to spend time. While there are some splashes of white leather on the seats and white trim on the doors, everything else is black. My rear-seat passengers commented on the feeling of claustrophobia in the back seat. While there is a huge amount of legroom in the EV6, headroom is slightly more limited. It’s not bad, but those over 6-foot may struggle. The front seat bases are quite low too, so while you have a lot of legroom, if you are one of those people who like to tuck their feet under the front seat, it’s not going to happen.

At the base of the rear seat is a 230-volt power socket; while Kia offers a Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) adaptor to plug in your household devices if needed, which means using the charge port at the right rear of the car. Your other option here is to open the sliding cover up on the power socket at the base of the rear seat and plug in your laptop, or other electric low-power appliance. The only drawback with using this power socket is that you need to use the physical key from the key fob to unlock the port, then slide open the cover. Not exactly user-friendly but I expect it’s a safety feature to stop kids opening the cover up and jamming something in there.

The boot on the EV6 is reasonable at 490 litres with the seats up. It has a false floor, so you can lift up the floor base and slide in some other narrow items under it if needed. There is no spare tyre, instead, there’s a tyre repair kit. In other bags in the boot is a standard 230-volt charger to plug your car in at home, and a cable for use at fast chargers that don’t have a charging cable attached (i.e. not tethered).

Switching to the front of the car, opening up the clamshell bonnet reveals a small frunk; it’s 20 litres in size, so you could fit the charging cable in there if you wanted to or maybe some wet towels after a day at the beach.

What’s The 2022 Kia EV6 GT Line Like To Drive?

When I picked up the EV6, I was on my way to Hawera to work on our project car. That’s about a 300km drive, and although I do that drive monthly, I have yet to complete it in an EV on a single charge. The EV6 was given to me with 98% charge and 384Km of range, so I was at least hopeful I’d make it without stopping.

On the road to Hawera, I used Eco mode for over half the trip. I didn’t do this on purpose, but with adaptive cruise control on, the EV6 does perfectly well in Eco mode. A bonus here is that the EV6 will remember your drive mode when you return to the car, something I have not seen for a long time. This means if you leave the car in Eco mode, it will stay there forever until you physically change it. 

The drive mode button is on the lower part of the steering wheel, and along with Eco mode, there is Normal and Sport. If you hold down the drive mode button, the car will slip into Snow mode. While it’s great to have so much instant torque at hand, that’s not helpful when in the snow, so Snow mode should help here.

Readers may recall that I love brake auto-hold, such a safe way to travel in a city. I was heartened to see that this too stays on when you get out of the car and then return.

Surprisingly, the EV6 GT Line – the top-spec model – has manual steering wheel adjustment, I truly expected it to be electric at this price. Again, it’s the same as the Ioniq 5 in this respect. The steering wheel itself feels excellent and is just the right size and the standard Kia controls on it are perfect. It’s a short amount of time before you no longer need to look down at the controls to operate audio, phone or adaptive cruise control.

For the first time, I made it to Hawera in an EV on one charge – and I had 113Km (30%) of range left over. It was a 277Km drive in total, so the estimated total (real world) range for me on that trip was 390Km and my energy consumption for that entire open-road trip was 19.0kWh/100Km.

This 113Km leftover meant I could spend the weekend driving around Hawera, then charge up only before I was ready to leave town. That meant sticking the car on a fast charger on Sunday morning. Opening the motorised charge flap (admittedly, quite cool) it took 74 minutes to charge from 26% to 95% at a cost of $32.68 (for 56kWh of charge).

Is that cheap? If I compare it to the last petrol SUV I took to Hawera, the Mazda CX-5 Takami, that car returned 8.5L/100Km in real-world driving. So for a 277Km drive, it would use approximately 24 litres of 95 fuel at say $2.65/litre, totalling $64. So driving the EV6 on the same route cost roughly half that of an equivalent petrol SUV.

The return home gave me the opportunity to test out Sport mode. It’s perfect for overtaking slower traffic, and I blitzed past trucks and trailers quickly and safely, spending as little time as possible on the wrong side of the road. While Sport mode only increases performance (it doesn’t alter the handling, for example), it’s a great way to demo the performance of the car to your friends, as with all that 605Nm of torque, it’s a real smash-your-back-into-the-seat experience. It’s not an Audi e-tron GT RS, but still very impressive. Its 0-100Km/h time is 5.2 seconds, not super quick, but midrange performance is excellent.

If you want to adjust the brake regeneration (regen) on the car while driving, this is done using the steering wheel paddles. You get 5 regen modes; Off (coasting), levels 1-3 and then i-Pedal. This is all similar to the Ioniq 5, with coasting mode allowing the car to drift on for a long way before slowing, on flat ground at least. Generally, I left the car in regen level 3 as it suited my driving style the best. Pulling on the left paddle once more will stick the EV6 into i-Pedal mode, meaning you are effectively driving with just the right pedal. You can still use the brake if needed but generally, you only need to use your right foot. Backing off the accelerator will see the car progressively slow down, so it is a conscious effort to keep your foot on that pedal to keep the car moving. It works well though and is especially effective around town. Unlike brake auto-hold and the drive mode, the car doesn’t remember you were using i-Pedal when you last drove it, so you’ll need to select it each time you want to use it.

Rain on the return trip to Wellington saw that same issue we had with the Hyundai Ioniq 5: the EV6 doesn’t have a rear window wiper. I’m not sure about the reasoning behind this, but it’s a real pain. Some mornings when I went to back out of my driveway in the EV6, the rear window would be covered with misty rain, making it difficult to see out of. Yes, there’s rear cross-traffic alerting and an excellent reversing camera, but in general driving, not being able to see out the back window is a bit of a safety issue.

The ride on the EV6 is generally very good, as the weight of the car (at 2,254Kg) pounds out most bumps. Short, sharp bumps like speed bumps are not taken as well as the Ioniq 5, but overall it’s above average for ride quality.

Being the top-spec GT Line, you get a great heads-up display (HUD). It’s one of the better HUDs out there, with all your normal details like the current speed limit, Satnav turns, someone in your blind spot, your current speed and audio shown right there on the windscreen. The EV6 GT Line also comes with Augmented Reality, like we last saw in the Mercedes-Benz S Class. Actually, the EV6 goes one better and as standard, delivers augmented reality right there on the HUD. This means if you have (for example) SatNav directing you as you approach a turn, blue arrows will appear on the HUD telling you which way to turn. The arrows move up as you get closer to the turn. This augmented reality is also used for safety warnings, such as if you cross the centre line; the HUD will flash blue arrows reminding you to move to the left. It’s an excellent system and I can’t wait for it to filter down to more models.

Still on that HUD, a nice feature I haven’t seen before is warning signs shown for things like school zones, speed cameras or road works. For school zones, the car generally got it wrong, suggesting more often than not there was a school approaching when there wasn’t. This got annoying in the end, as not only is this shown in the HUD but you get a verbal warning over the car’s audio as well. It’s not hard to turn it off, but a shame as this could be a great safety feature.

It’s also a shame that putting on polarising sunglasses effectively wipes out the HUD, and it becomes invisible to the driver. But this isn’t specific to Kia, all HUDs suffer from this issue.

Like the school zones, Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR) is a little inconsistent. You are shown in the driver’s display and on the HUD what the current speed limit is, but the EV6 struggled with this, and it often got the speed limit wrong. That’s a bit of a pain, as the car has adaptive cruise control, and even better when the speed limit changes you can tap up or down on the cruise control button to set your new speed to the current speed limit. But of course, this is all dependent on traffic sign recognition working. It was a 50/50 affair with TSR in the EV6, but hopefully, we’ll see this improve over time and updates.

Adaptive cruise itself is very good. It’s a stop/go system, so tapping the adaptive cruise button or the accelerator after stopping will see the car bring itself back up to the set speed. It’s smooth too, and cars moving into your lane will not see the system freak out and push the brakes on hard, as happens in some cars with adaptive cruise.

While EVs are obviously quieter than a car with a petrol engine, some EVs have serious road, tyre and/or wind noise. Not so the EV6. It scores highly with me for a minimum of each of these factors, and after a couple of EV test cars with bad tyre noise, the EV6 proved it can be an almost silent ride, even on coarse chip seal. Most recently the MG ZS EV suffered from loud tyre noise on coarse chip seal, as did the Nissan Leaf.

If you do want some engine sounds, you have digital options to choose from, called Active Sounds. Pick from Normal, Minimised, Enhanced, Stylish, Dynamic, Cyber, or Custom. Yes, something for everyone. Although Dynamic was my first choice to try out, the reality was it sounded like a diff whine. I tried the other options too but none of them did it for me, so I left them off. I felt like Custom would allow me to upload my own active engine sound (for some reason I was desperate to upload Homer Simpson as an engine sound), but it doesn’t; for Custom, you can alter the sound settings for the other, built-in sounds.

Over my long trip to and from Hawera, seat comfort was high. While the car only has two-way electric lumbar adjustment, overall comfort is there. The seats could do with some extra side bolstering, as in cornering there’s a little too much give in them. Seat materials are excellent too; give me Alcantara over leather any day. Much more practical, warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Of course, the GT Line has cooled and heated seats, and I made the most of both of these during my time with the car. The GT Line also has the Relaxation Seats option; again, similar to the Ioniq 5 Limited where you can press a button on either front seat, and it will recline as well as lifting the front of the seat up. This is mainly suggested for those longer times when charging the car. Unlike the Ioniq 5, the EV6 doesn’t have the electric foot rest that raises when using the Relaxation option.

I mention the side bolstering on the seats, as the EV6 can hustle it along most corners. It sits well and sits flat, that low-down weight of the battery pack helping it stick to the road. The all-wheel drive helps on the corners too, and the EV6 favours long, sweeping bends. That’s really its forte as far as handling goes, as if you take it to some really twisty bends, the extra weight of that electric motor over the front wheels makes it understeer severely, with lots of tyre squeal. The steering doesn’t help here; while the weighting is good, there’s not a lot of feel to help you know what the front end of the car is doing. The lack of steering feel is nowhere as bad as the Nissan Leaf I had the week before, but it’s a weak point of the EV6. The AWD model is over 200kg heavier than the rear-wheel-drive EV6, so it would be interesting to drive the RWD to compare.

As you can imagine, I easily made it back home on a single charge.

On the day-to-day drive, aside from things already mentioned there are some very good points to using the EV6 as a commuter. It has Kia’s blind spot monitoring system, namely cameras on each of the mirrors; turn an indicator on, and the corresponding mirror camera will display your blind spot on either the left side or right side of the dashboard. It’s a fantastic system and adds a lot to safer driving. The EV6 also has sliding sun visors, meaning you can move the visor along to the exact right position to block out the sun. Again, great for commuting.

Self-steering is also very good, with little cause for concern of the car heading off in the wrong direction. While you still need to hold the steering wheel, the self-steering capability of the EV6 lessens the brain drain while driving.

On the negative side of the Daily Drive, there are huge A, B and C pillars, although all the safety systems help keep you safe regardless of these. The EV6 – like the Ioniq 5 – has aggressive Lane Keep Assist (LKA), so at times the car will steer itself back into its lane, but not in a gentle way. That was probably the worst aspect of driving the EV6 I came across. Honestly, it’s a pretty hard car to fault.

A common question we get is around charging EVs with a large battery at home, when you don’t have a ‘wall box’ type of fast charger. To give you an idea of how long it takes on a standard power point, one afternoon at 3pm I plugged the car in at home, when it had 50Km of range left. I didn’t actually need the car until 10am the next day, and when unplugging it the next morning, it showed 187Km of range.  You could hope that on a normal overnight charge, you’d get around 100Km of range into the battery. That doesn’t sound like much, but the average New Zealand driver does 27Km a day, so it’s not going to take too many days for the battery to get to 100% full.

2022 Kia EV6 GT Line: Alistair’s Point Of View

The Kia EV6 is the sister car of the Hyundai Ioniq 5. You mightn’t believe it if you parked both next to each other, but underneath, it’s virtually the same car. Same Hyundai-Kia E-GMP platform, same electric motors, and so on. 

Yet, the different skins create quite a different experience. Of the two, the Ioniq 5 is more unorthodox, existing almost as Hyundai’s proof of concept for electric vehicles. Conversely, the EV6 is proof that there is comfort in familiarity.

The EV6’s design is striking, yet it’s more conventional than the Ioniq 5’s angular-aesthetic. Similar can be said for the interior. The textures are darker and more stylised, compared with the clean and cool semblance of the Ioniq. The high centre console in the EV6 also creates a conventional cabin space compared to the Ioniq’s open-plan cabin.  It’s kind of counterintuitive considering the space that’s lost, yet weirdly, I prefer it.   

The family lineage of the EV6 is more evident from behind the wheel. Although, Kia has stiffened up the suspension in the EV6. It’s a fraction better in the twisty stuff, but it loses out on the Ioniq 5’s sublime ride quality. The rest of it is tough to differentiate, but that’s not a bad thing when your sibling is a high achiever.

In essence, the EV6 is an Ioniq 5 with different priorities. Like the Ioniq 5, the EV6 is a very good all-around vehicle, if a bit boring to drive. The design approach is more conventional, and perhaps less out of the comfort zone for some buyers. In some ways, I think of the EV6 as the future of normal cars. Maybe not at the price of our test vehicle, but in terms of what we’ll be seeing more of in the future.

2022 Kia EV6 GT Line – Specifications

Vehicle Type5-door Medium EV AWD SUV
Starting Price$111,990
Price as Tested$112,181
EngineTwo, electric
Power, Torque
kW/Nm
239/605
Transmission
Spare WheelTyre Mobility Kit only
Kerb Weight, Kg2,254
Length x Width x Height
mm
4695x1890x1550
Boot Space / Cargo Capacity,
Litres
(seats up/seats down)
490/1,300
Frunk: 20L
Energy Economy,
kWh/100km
Advertised Spec – Combined – 18.0
Real-World Test – Combined – 18.5
Low Usage: 6-10 / Medium Usage 11-19 / High Usage 19+
Towing Capacity
Kg, unbraked/braked
750/1,600
Turning circle
metres
11.6
Small: 6-10m / Medium 10-12m / Large 12m+
Warranty5 Year Warranty
7-Year Battery Warranty
5 Years Roadside Assist
Safety informationANCAP Rating – 5 stars – Link
Rightcar.govt.nz – 5 Stars – MYK1A

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REVIEW OVERVIEW
Driver Tech
9
Economy
7
Handling
8
Infotainment
9
Interior
8
Performance
9
Ride
8
Safety
9
Styling
9
Value
8
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Fred Alvrez
How on earth to start this? I've been car/bike/truck crazy since I was a teen. Like John, I had the obligatory Countach poster on the wall. I guess I'm more officially into classic and muscle cars than anything else - I currently have a '65 Sunbeam Tiger that left the factory the same day as I left the hospital as a newborn with my mother. How could I not buy that car? In 2016 my wife and I drove across the USA in a brand-new Dodge Challenger, and then shipped it home. We did this again in 2019 in a 1990 Chev Corvette - you can read about that trip on DriveLife, and again in 2023 buying a C5 Corvette and shipping it home. I'm a driving instructor and an Observer for the Institute of Advanced Motorists - trying to do my bit to make our roads safer.
2022-kia-ev6-gt-line-electric-car-review<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 2022 Kia EV6 GT Line is a superb EV, and an excellent car overall. It’s extremely competent, drives well in nearly all circumstances, is comfortable, spacious and very well-equipped.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Yes, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 Limited has more and better features like solar roof option, the sliding glovebox and a hugely lighter interior, but it is another $5K or so above the EV6 GT Line. I love the interior airiness of the Ioniq 5 over the EV6 and this could almost sway me towards the Ioniq 5.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>But that’s not to say it isn’t a fantastic car. I doubt any buyer will be unhappy with their EV6, it ticks so many boxes. For me, the positive features and aspects of the car far outweigh the almost minor negatives.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->

4 COMMENTS

    • HI there. Not sure what you mean. We aren’t upset about the back window, and have mentioned the lack of a rear wiper as not being ideal.

  1. Great review! The EV6 GT Line looks super impressive with its design and performance. I love how you highlighted the tech features and driving experience. Can’t wait to see how it competes in the electric market!

  2. Great review! The Kia EV6 GT Line looks fantastic and the performance specs are really impressive. I love the design and the interior seems so modern. Can’t wait to see how it compares to other EVs on the market!

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