The 2022 Kia EV6 is a surprising machine in every way. It’s a sharp design from what was once a budget brand. The EV6 is the fastest Kia. It’s also just plain fast, by any standard. It offers a high-tech cabin that’s quite spacious considering the car’s small footprint. And, even though it’s Kia’s first electric vehicle (EV), it offers a longer range than many manufacturer’s best attempts.
Kia has officially revealed the EV6 for the American market. Though, if you’ve been paying attention to the growing ranks of EVs available to Americans, you’re probably already aware of nearly everything important about the EV6. The U.S. reveal didn’t tell us much we didn’t already know from March’s global reveal.
It also didn’t tell us the price. Kia has remained silent on that point, though we expect to see the EV6 start around $45,000. It will qualify for the full $7,500 federal tax incentive available on most electric cars.
The first EV6 models, Kia says, will go on sale in “early 2022,” with the high-performance GT model arriving late in the year.
“Digital Tiger” Looks
The EV6 is a sharp-looking machine. It neatly threads a line between hatchback and crossover with a low stance and rakish roofline. Kia calls the look “digital tiger.” There’s a lot going on in subtle lines that make the shape interesting. Two creases down the bulging hood give the sense of corded muscle. A forward-curving C-pillar echoes a curving line in the side sills.
Spacious, Vegan Cabin
One detail Kia hadn’t revealed until now is that the cabin is 100% vegan. It uses recycled plastics and vegetarian leather on upper trim levels. The interior is spacious, with a flat floor (EVs have no transmission tunnel running between the seats) and slim seat frames made of “giga steel.”
A pair of curved screens – 12 inches for the central infotainment screen – use blue-light filtering to reduce eye strain. A 14-speaker Meridian audio system adjusts volume to compensate for speed and road noise.
An augmented-reality heads-up display, Kia says, projects 3-dimensional speed, turn-by-turn directions, and similar information onto the windshield in the driver’s view.
Standard safety tech includes forward-collision avoidance, blind-spot avoidance, rear cross-traffic alert, and a driver attention monitor that “senses inattentive driving patterns and sends an audible/visual warning to alert the driver.”
Many Performance Configurations
Two available batteries and several motor configurations mean the EV6 can be had with anywhere from 167 to 576 horsepower, in rear- or all-wheel-drive. Kia breaks them down:
- Rear-wheel-drive (RWD): 58.0 kWh battery with a 160kW rear motor yields 167 horsepower
- RWD: 77.4 kWh battery with a 160kW rear motor yields 218 horsepower
- All-wheel-drive (AWD): 77.4 kWh battery with a 70kW front motor and a 160kW rear motor yields 313 horsepower
- AWD: 77.4 kWh battery with a 160kW front motor and a 270kW rear motor yields 576 horsepower
That last combination comes in the high-performance GT trim. Kia claims a blistering 0 to 60 mph time of 3.5 seconds for that model.
The company did not give range estimates for each battery and motor combination, saying only that the EV6 has a “targeted range” of 300 miles. Official EPA range estimates are not yet available. That highest range estimate likely applies to the one-motor, 77.4 kWh battery version.
The car uses an 800-volt architecture that Kia says “enables ultra-fast DC charging capability from 10-80% charge (up to 210 miles range) in under 18 minutes.”
Kia also has said the EV6 will have bi-directional charging. That means drivers can use the EV6 to power other electric devices.
The EV6 will compete with an ever-growing number of electric cars priced below the luxury car range. Its likely competition includes the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Tesla Model 3 – though we’ll be able to draw more precise comparisons when Kia reveals the price.
