[This article was first published on straitstimes.com]
SINGAPORE – With the first-generation Niro, Kia proved early that electric powertrains can be approachable, affordable and endowed with impressive range.
Brimming with confidence and momentum, the company now presents the EV6, a ground-up electric car that is far more striking.
The EV6’s shape is thematically distinct from the Ioniq 5, an electric vehicle (EV) from sister brand Hyundai, despite the cars sharing the corporate “E-GMP” platform.
While the irresistibly cool Hyundai brings 1980s digital punk retro-futurism into the 21st century, Kia’s rakish style evokes space-faring science fiction. In keeping with the best design, there is a natural harmony to the way its contours flow into one another.
Despite proportions mimicking a regular family hatchback, the EV6 is deceptively large. At 4,695mm, it is longer than a BMW 4-series. As the EV6 is built on a dedicated EV platform, much of this length can be given to the wheelbase and passenger compartment, yielding generous amounts of legroom.
The Kia’s cabin is as imaginative as it is sensibly laid out, even if the materials are not uniformly of true luxury-car grade. On the centre console, a metallic-effect blade floats over a gloss black panel with tasteful ambient lighting bleeding from its rim, for a feel that would not be out of place on a Star Trek starship.
Infotainment and gauge cluster interfaces are simple and clear, instead of flashy and confusing. Controls combine touchscreens, physical buttons and knobs to create a very intuitive cockpit.
Particularly clever is the drive mode toggle and selector paddles for levels of regenerative braking. This placement encourages their use, enhancing the car’s easy multi-dimensionality.
Owing to the battery in the floor, the driver’s seat is at a sport utility vehicle-like level of elevation. Paradoxically, the driving position is car-like and quite recumbent, with good visibility all round. A driver-focused cockpit layout also hints at Kia’s positioning of this car closer to the sportier end of the design spectrum.
The Kia’s cockpit is decidedly futuristic-looking.
A sensation of solidity and integrity pervades, evident from the genteel beeps of the infotainment system to the complete absence of squeaks and rattles through the structure. This is an impressive feat, considering that the silence of electric powertrains tends to unmask such imperfections.
There is a nagging fear in car lovers that electric cars, although fast, competent and refined, may be lacking in outright driver satisfaction. Not so here, as the EV6 shines on the road.
The car exhibits a genuine hunger for curves and, in sport mode, it actively encourages a spirited driving style.
The EV6 can be yanked obligingly into sharp turns without its mass protesting lazily as you might expect of a tall, heavy car. It goes immediately where it is pointed in a manner reminiscent of a Volkswagen Golf R, and that is high praise indeed.
Orange Grove Road is sliced clean through, with the big hatchback making a virtue of its low centre of gravity by demonstrating exemplary body control. Despite lacking in true feel, the steering is perfectly weighted for easy manipulation and is delightfully accurate.
Pedal weights are similarly intuitive, with the accelerator being an excellent ally in metering out precisely the amount of power desired. Regenerative and friction braking are integrated seamlessly. The result is a very neat handling car that at brisk, but legal, speeds can seemingly be placed almost exactly on any spot the driver aims for.
If you can find a 350kW charger, the EV6 can juice up from 10 to 80 per cent full in 18 minutes.
Kia claims a range of 506km for the long-range dual motor variant tested here.
With a mixture of urban crawling and highway cruising, I use up 24 per cent of the battery in 100km, yielding a calculated consumption of 18.6kWh.
With an 800-volt electrical architecture, the EV6 can accept a fast-charging rate of 350kW to achieve a 10 to 80 per cent charge in 18 minutes. However, such chargers do not exist in Singapore. At 50kW charging speeds, the same feat takes 73 minutes.
The EV6 deserves consideration as a class leader. It is handsome, bold, intelligently designed and outstanding to drive.
[Source article: straitstimes.com/life/motoring/car-review-ground-up-electric-car-ev6-goes-where-no-kia-has-gone-before]
