Kia’s EV6 was already my personal favorite EV on the market, with good looks, solid performance, and a plentiful list of features. If that wasn’t satisfactory, Kia has another option. On Friday, Kia unveiled the EV6 GT, a 576 HP all-wheel-drive performance version of its small electric crossover.
The EV6 GT looks fantastic. It’s called a crossover, just like its lower-trim brethren, but I still insist it’s the modern interpretation of a wagon, and who among us isn’t excited for a 576-hp wagon? I do admit, I wish it were just a little wilder (give me some searing pastel paint and a big wing, Hyundai N style, please!); nonetheless, underneath that relatively tame exterior lies a behemoth of a powertrain that can push the wagon from 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and up to a top speed of 161 mph. It does that with the help of a 160-kW front motor and a 270-kW rear motor that combined achieve the aforementioned 576 hp and 546 pound-feet of torque. This puts Kia’s four-door into similar leagues—on paper, at least—as lower trims of Porsche’s Taycan. Indeed, Kia says that in third-party testing, the EV6 GT “out-accelerated a Ferrari Roma and Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder RWD,” which is a high target to aim for.
Similar to the lower-trim models of the EV6, the EV6 GT sits on an 800-volt architecture that allows for rapid charging from 10% to 80% of battery capacity in less than 20 minutes. That architecture is integrated with the same 77.4-kWh battery the GT-Line and Wind trims use on the base EV6, although given the higher output of the GT, that pack offers 12% less range than the shortest-range base model, at just 206 miles.
Enough hard data, though: it also comes with various high-performance oriented chassis bits, including massive 15-inch front brakes, electronically controlled suspension damping, and torque-vectoring to direct power to the Goodyear Eagle F1 rubber with the most grip. The base EV6 was already one of my favorite-handling EVs, because it disguises its lithium-laden heft so well and feels composed well past where I’d expect a typical crossover to—the EV6 GT promises to dial those tendencies to the maximum.
All of this allowed Kia to add “Drift Mode”, which routes power overwhelmingly to the rear wheels and allows every EV6 GT owner to indulge their inner Ken Block. Kia didn’t say how much it would cost, but the EV6 GT will go on sale at the end of the year and we’ll find out more as its release approaches. In the meantime, I look forward to the inevitable four-passengers-deep shredding videos this thing will deliver.