Last March, we got our first decent look at the Kia EV6. And we finally got to sit in it, drive it, and touch every button in the cabin at a day-long press event in Northern California last week. It’s the first Kia vehicle to be built under the company’s new Plan S electrification strategy. And it’ll be followed by nearly a dozen other new EV models by 2026, according to Kia. “All dedicated Kia EVs will begin with the ‘EV’ prefix. Followed by a number that indicates the car’s size and position in the lineup, not its chronological place in the launch cadence,” the company says.
Kia EV6: Light, Wind, and GT-Line.
That’s only for vehicles based on the E-GMP battery-propulsion platform developed by the Hyundai Group (which owns Kia). When the EV6 arrives in all 50 states later this spring, it’ll be up against the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Volkswagen ID.4, the Tesla Model Y, the Ioniq 5, and Nissan’s Ariya. Not to mention Kia’s own Niro EV and its Hyundai-bred brother, the Kona EV — and, when they arrive, the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra.
There is a fourth version, the First Edition, but the 1,500 units in the initial batch sold out in around 11 hours, so your prospects of getting one are slim.
Furthermore, the Wind (beginning at $47,000) and GT (starting at $51,200 and topping out at $55,900) also come with bigger 77.4 kWh batteries with the option of having both front and back motors, allowing for AWD. The RWD models have a 310-mile range, a 7.2-second 0-60, and a peak speed of 117 MPH; the AWD models have a 274-mile range and a 5.1-second 0-60. The AWD gets 134 eMPG in cities and 101 eMPG on highways, but its efficiency drops to 116 eMPG and 94 eMPG, respectively, on the highway.
