Kia EV6 GT is this year’s best road and track electric vehicle under $100,000

You could say the Kia EV6 is nothing special. In the entry-level Wind category, it’s an inexpensive single-motor, rear-drive electric car that makes just 225 horsepower and pushes more than 4,200 pounds. She’s competent. It’s reasonable. But aside from its sleek design, the EV6 mostly meets expectations, and not much more. Like the Pontiac Tempest of the 21st century.

However, add a second motor, big brakes, oversized wheels and tires, and then wrap it up in a big way, and the result is the EV6 GT, the world’s first electric muscle car — a regular electric car congested. If the EV6 is a Storm, then the EV6 GT is a GTO. Only copyright laws prevent it from being an EV6 Super Cobra Jet or EV6 Super Bee. He gets angry and satisfied. This is special. Perhaps most important in today’s battery-powered era, the EV6 GT is anything but boring. Thus, it is more affordable than Road pathElectric vehicle performance this year.

Although it has electric propulsion, the EV6 GT effectively replaces the conventionally powered Stinger as Kia’s flagship performance vehicle. The EV6’s 114.2-inch wheelbase is just 0.2 inches shorter than the Stinger’s, and in some interior measurements, they’re within an inch of each other. What makes the EV6 GT stand out is that it’s much more powerful and faster.

Don’t be fooled by the EV6’s crossover appearance. With a relatively low sloping roof and long rear floor, it looks more like a Stinger than a Telluride.

The most powerful version of the now-discontinued Stinger was the GT2, equipped with a twin-turbocharged 3.3-liter V6 and all-wheel drive. It was rated at 368 horsepower, launched to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds, and covered the quarter mile in 13.1 seconds at 107 mph. The EV6 GT’s dual electric motors combine to produce 576 horsepower, hitting 60 mph in 3.1 seconds and passing the quarter in 11.4 seconds at 120 mph. It wouldn’t be very close, except that at 4,817 pounds, the EV6 GT weighs more than 600 pounds more than the Stinger.

The original muscle car formula was kind of stupid: put the biggest engine in the smallest car. Kia’s approach to transforming a standard EV6 into a GT is more complicated. There’s an electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential, an overall revised and improved suspension (struts up front, multi-link system out back), 21-inch wheels inside 255/40R-21 Goodyear Eagle F1 asymmetric tires, and huge brakes: 15.0 – inches in the front and 14.2 seconds in the rear. Kia’s careful attention to performance extends to the steering rack, which has been quickened from a 14.25:1 ratio in other EV6s to 12.56:1 in the GT model.

Warm late-day sun, a perfect road, and the nastiest EV on the market. It was a good time.

“The car doesn’t lock you in when yaw occurs,” noted staff writer Brian Silvestro. “Instead, it sends power to the rear for satisfying roll through corners.” There’s not enough communication between the tires and the driver, but Kia’s tire selection was conservative. Imagine how much performance you can unlock with the Michelin Pilot Sports Package. It would certainly improve the EV6 GT’s modest 0.88-gram skid plate orbit.

“Did you go too deep into the corner and cross the white line?” said editor-at-large AJ Baime. “Yes. Because this car is surprisingly fun.”

“Fun” is not a function of brute force, but of confidence and enthusiasm. Like most electric cars, the EV6 GT has an interior dominated by two massive displays, each measuring 12.3 inches in this case. But there are buttons for many of the vehicle’s separate functions, the steering wheel is flat-bottomed and wrapped in leather with contrast stitching, and the manually adjustable front seats aren’t Recaros but they’re good enough to be. Additional enthusiasm is inspired by the GT-branded acid green steering wheel button, which engages this driving mode. The head-up display can be overwhelming, and sharing the dashboard’s ventilation and entertainment systems isn’t a good idea, but this environment keeps the driver engaged and focused.

Play with the driving modes, and the EV6 GT will deliver experiences ranging from harsh driving to aggressive auto-driving. Also on board are selectable regenerative braking modes to keep the driver tinkering to find that perfect diabolical setting. There’s also Drift Mode when there’s enough room for teenage antics and the legal consequences are assumed to be trivial. This was not the case on the Angeles Crest Highway. Drifting with 545 pound-feet of constant torque is a blast.

Kia claims a range of 206 miles for the EV6 GT from the 77.4 kWh battery pack, which isn’t great. But to compensate, there’s an 800-volt charging system that reduces charging times, assuming there’s a DC fast charger that can fire a hose in electrons. When the EV6 GT is driven the way it should be, it’s not possible to go 206 miles on a charge.

There’s a slight hint of Aston Martin DBX in the EV6 GT’s duck wing.

With a starting price of $62,925, the EV6 GT is an expensive Kia. But by electric car standards, it’s a bargain. “It’s $5,000 less than the Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition and more fun to drive,” Baime enthused.

It’s disappointing that Kia gobbledygook uses the alphanumeric for the name of this inspiring machine. He deserves better. Road path It’s been renamed: High-Performance Electric Vehicle of the Year.

Senior editor

John Byerly Hoffman has been writing about cars since 1990 and he’s pretty damn good at it. next to Car and driverHis work has appeared in The New York Times And more than 100 car publications and websites. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and still lives near that campus with his wife and two children. He owns a pair of Toyota Tundras and two Siberian huskies. He owned a Nova and Camaro.