The original Kia EV6 GT took the Korean automaker to new heights, promising supercar-like performance from a stonking 430kW dual-motor electric drivetrain in the brand’s pioneering dedicated electric SUV.
But while it had various chassis and hardware revisions to cope with that power, it always felt like it was a very fast electric vehicle (EV) that was good in a straight line and not a lot else, rather than being a properly sorted high-performance machine – and that’s an important distinction to make.
Now here’s the new facelifted version, coming with much of the hardware that has won the outstanding Hyundai Ioniq 5 N such critical plaudits.
Some of this might be controversial – such as the simulated gearshifts and synthesised engine noises – but we’re hoping for great things from the updated EV6 GT.
Our first taste of Kia’s latest high-performance EV took place on some of the very best driving roads that Scotland has to offer.
How much does the Kia EV6 cost?
Australian pricing for the upgraded EV6 GT has not yet been confirmed, but we’re hopeful it will come in somewhere around – or better still below – the current model’s $99,590 plus on-roads sticker.
Indeed, in certain markets, despite a hike in peak power and the extra equipment fitted to the new GT, Kia has actually priced it at a marginally lower level than its predecessor.
Whether that will be the case here or not, as long as it is a few thousand dollars cheaper than the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N ($110,303 before on-roads), it ought to be tempting for buyers looking for a thrilling zero-emissions sports car.
It also seems excellent value for the sheer amount of performance on offer, when you consider a basic EV6 Air comes in at $72,590 in pre-facelift guise.
To see how the Kia EV6 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool
What is the Kia EV6 like on the inside?
The Kia EV6 has always been blessed with a high-quality, well-appointed interior, and with the rest of the range having already received its facelift, the GT now joins ranks with the latest passenger compartment.
Based on the E-GMP platform, there’s a completely flat floor throughout the EV6’s cabin, which helps with practicality issues. Not just in the rear, where three adults could all sit side-by-side for shorter journeys without being too cramped, but in the front, which allows for the floating central console area.
This is based upon the armrest area between the seats, where you’ll find switchgear for the climate seats, the vehicle’s power-up button, its rotary drive selector and also some cupholders, a storage area and a wireless smartphone charging pad.
Up front are the twin 12.3-inch digital screens, for both the infotainment touchscreen and the instrument cluster, plus a customisable head-up display for the driver too.
Further, Kia has kept the clever strip of digital ‘buttons’ on the centre of the EV6 GT’s fascia, which can be switched from navigation and audio functions to climate-control shortcuts by toggling an icon on its left-hand side.
All of the digital real estate works very well and looks sharp, so the EV6 still feels thoroughly up-to-date and ergonomically correct inside.
That just leaves the GT-specific details, including an absolutely glorious pair of deeply sculpted bucket seats up front, which are mounted at just the right height – sitting the driver nice and low in the Kia’s body.
These are adorned with Neon Green stitching (a colour repeated on the GT’s brake calipers on the outside of the vehicle) and a centre stripe in the same colour, and the hue is repeated again for the centres of the air vents, the stitching and 12 o’clock marker on the steering wheel, and then the most important button in the car – the ‘GT Mode’ switch hanging off the wheel’s left-hand spoke, which when pressed puts the GT into its full 478kW attack-dog setting.
The general fit-and-finish of the EV6 GT’s interior cannot be questioned, nor is there much to fault with how intuitive it is to operate some of its systems – turning off lane-keep assist and the speed-limit warning, for instance, is simply a case of holding down two buttons on the steering wheel for a few seconds, rather than fiddling around with the central touchscreen.
In terms of practicality, rear-seat passenger space is notably generous, although there’s not much place to put your feet underneath the floor-hugging front seats, while the boot swallows a handy 480 litres with all seats in use, rising to 1260L with the second row folded away. There’s a further 20L of ‘front boot’ in the Kia, too.
Therefore, the only slight complaint you might level at the GT is that, for a 478kW machine which can accelerate from 0-100km/h in a claimed 3.5 seconds, the cabin isn’t particularly flashy, nor massively different from that in an entry-level EV6.
Neither of those things, though, are dealbreakers in our opinion.
To see how the Kia EV6 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool
What’s under the bonnet?
Kia has adopted the even-more-powerful dual motors of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, which raises the EV6 GT’s already-beefy outputs from the previous 430kW/740Nm peaks to an even more colossal 478kW/770Nm.
| Specifications | Kia EV6 GT |
|---|---|
| Drivetrain | Dual-motor electric |
| Battery | 84kWh li-ion – net |
| Power | 478kW |
| Torque | 770Nm |
| Driven wheels | All-wheel drive incl. e-LSD |
| 0-100km/h – claimed | 3.5 seconds |
| Energy consumption – as tested | 28.2kWh/100km |
| Claimed range – WLTP | 450km |
| Max AC charge rate | 11kW |
| Max DC charge rate | 258kW |
Due to a slightly enlarged battery pack – increased by eight per cent from 77.4kWh to 84kWh (80kWh of this is usable) – the weight of the Kia has crept up to 2200kg, which means the two chief on-paper metrics are no different, and no less staggering, than they were before: Kia says 0-100km/h takes 3.5 seconds and the EV6 GT will top out at 260km/h.
The theoretical maximum quoted range of the GT has also improved as a result of the technical changes, with Kia quoting 450km of one-shot range.
Of course, if you start enjoying the pleasures of the 478kW motors, that will soon decrease as a result of the consumption ramping up from the official 20.7kWh/100km, to more like 28.2kWh/100km – which is what we saw on test.
Kia has improved the maximum DC fast-charging rate of the EV6 GT, also by eight per cent, to a new peak of 258kW. It therefore preserves its predecessor’s 18-minute 10-80 per cent DC charging time despite the increased battery capacity, thanks to the advanced 800-volt electrical architecture.
A 10-100 per cent charge on an 11kW AC connection will take slightly more than seven and a half hours.
To see how the Kia EV6 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool
How does the Kia EV6 drive?
It takes all of 50 to 100 metres behind the wheel of the new EV6 GT to realise the Hyundai N-inspired changes have made this a wholly different proposition to the model it replaces.
There’s an inherent quality feel to the damping, in everything it does, that shines through in the way the GT oozes over speed humps at walking pace, to the effortless manner in which it smothers off crumbling urban road surfaces at up to 50km/h, to the general dignified comportment it has at 100km/h and more.
Don’t get us wrong, the 21-inch wheels at all corners are sometimes discernible as unsprung mass, thudding through bigger imperfections in the asphalt, and there’s always an underlying firmness to the Kia’s secondary ride that speaks volumes of its singular intent to engage its driver at the limit.
But the EV6 GT is never uncomfortable nor overtly noisy, so as a day-to-day EV it still does the basics to a high enough standard to excel.
Yet the handling is also notably sharpened, the car’s weighty, informative and linear steering a real pleasure to use. It commands a front-end which is remarkably eager to get itself turned into bends, in turn teaming with the actions of the rear-mounted electronically controlled limited-slip differential to bless the 2.2-tonne GT with an agility and liveliness at odds with its mass.
No doubt about it, the revised EV6 GT is a substantial improvement over the car it replaces, and one of the best-driving EVs you can buy right now.
It isn’t, however, operating quite at the exalted levels of the Ioniq 5 N. Whether that bothers you or not will depend on how demanding a driver you are.
Maybe the fact this ultra-rapid Kia is called ‘GT’ in the first place, and it has a more elegant, smoother and less in-your-face shape than the Hyundai, means it all marries up better into an ideological whole – a slightly more discreet way of going ridiculously fast in your EV.
Ultimately, though, it just feels like Kia didn’t quite commit (or was allowed to commit) to all the fancy chassis trickery and potentially divisive systems that mimic aspects of internal-combustion motoring that make the 5 N such a thoroughly delightful steer.
The key issues come with the Virtual Gear Shift (VGS) set-up in the EV6 GT, and the Active Sound Design (ASD) noises.
On the former, the Kia only has six ‘ratios’ in its pseudo-gearbox, whereas the 5 N has eight. Interrupting torque delivery from its mighty electric motors to simulate a dual-clutch transmission swapping from cog to cog, it’s a good system in the EV6 GT, but it needs more revs.
By this, we mean that the instrument cluster shows a tacho when you’re in full GT Mode and using the VGS – and the car ‘revs’ to a maximum of 6500rpm.
Blasting through the gears in incredibly short order, due to the outrageous acceleration the GT can summon up from pretty much any road speed you care to choose, adds up to a driving experience that feels like it is copying a big-hearted turbo-diesel, rather than a high-revving petrol rngine tuned to provide plenty of driving fun.
And the ASD is nowhere near as successful as the same system in the 5 N, which imitates the four-cylinder 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine from the revered i30 N hot hatch.
In the Kia, there’s just a thick, cloying, buzzy noise that doesn’t sound much like any engine at all. You can switch it through four modes – loud, medium, quiet and off – but even in the first of these, it’s subdued and not massively enticing.
Kia could’ve made this car sound like the wonderful old Stinger V6, but didn’t. And that’s a shame. In isolation, then, you’d drive the Kia EV6 GT and rightly think it was brilliant.
But it can never quite replicate that magic trick the Hyundai pulls off, where – at its very best – it can make you forget it’s an EV and instead hoodwink you into believing you’re driving a big petrol hot hatch.
In the Kia, that otherworldly dynamic moment never quite comes. It’s very, very close to greatness… but misses it by a matter of mere inches.
To see how the Kia EV6 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool
What do you get?
As you’d expect with a Kia, especially in a top-end variant like this, you get pretty much everything but the kitchen sink thrown in.
While we’re still awaiting confirmation of the price of the revised EV6, and therefore the specifications for our market, we’d expect the car to have the lengthy kit list outlined below, plus much more besides.
2025 Kia EV6 GT equipment highlights:
- 21-inch alloy wheels
- LED exterior lighting
- Curved Display
- 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster
- 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment
- Augmented reality head-up display
- Apple CarPlay – wireless
- Android Auto – wireless
- Dual-zone climate control
- 8-way powered GT front bucket seats
- Heated, ventilated front seats
- Heated rear seats
- Heated steering wheel
- Hands-free powered tailgate
- Tilt-and-slide wide sunroof
- Advanced smart cruise control
- Alloy sports pedal
- 64-colour ambient lighting
- Wireless smartphone charging pad
- 14-speaker Meridian premium sound
To see how the Kia EV6 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool
Is the Kia EV6 safe?
The Kia EV6 range was subjected to ANCAP safety testing in 2022 when it picked up five stars, but that rating explicitly excludes the GT flagship.
Nevertheless, with its healthy standard roster of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), it’s likely to be every bit as safe as the rest of the EV6 lineup.
Standard safety equipment includes:
- Multi-collision braking
- Autonomous emergency braking
- Car, pedestrian, cyclist detection
- Junction turning assist
- Lane following assist
- Lane-keep assist
- Blind-spot assist
- Rear cross-traffic assist
- Safe exit warning
- Safe exit assist
- Parking collision avoidance assist – reverse
- Driver attention alert
- Lead vehicle departure alert
- Intelligent speed limit assist
- Front and rear parking sensors
- Rear-view camera with dynamic parking guidelines
- Surround view monitor with 3D mode
- Blind spot view monitor
- High beam assist
To see how the Kia EV6 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool
How much does the Kia EV6 cost to run?
Not only is the Kia EV6 GT an electric vehicle, making it cheap to run – provided you have access to home charging – it comes with the Korean firm’s excellent customer service back-up.
| Servicing and Warranty | Kia EV6 GT |
|---|---|
| Warranty | 7 years, unlimited distance |
| Roadside assistance | Up to 8 years |
| Capped-price servicing | 7 years or 105,000km |
A seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, up to eight years of roadside assistance cover, and capped-price servicing for seven years or 105,000km mean there can’t be many 3.5-second 0-100km/h cars that are more affordable to run than this.
To see how the Kia EV6 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool
CarExpert’s Take on the Kia EV6 GT
Make no mistake, the updated Kia EV6 GT is a fantastic performance EV and one of the very finest vehicles of its type.
Smart looks on the outside, the usual high-quality cabin within, and a much-improved chassis plus even more power and range all add up to a compelling zero-emissions package.
There’s the tiny, nagging feeling, however, that if Kia had just gone all out on the VGS, ASD and chassis tuning, we could’ve been talking about an all-time great here.
As it is, we’ll settle for the fact Kia has regardless created something quite superb, and therefore we’re incredibly happy that the 478kW GT exists.
Interested in buying a Kia EV6? Let CarExpert find you the best deal here
Click the images for the full gallery
