Last week I attended a pre-launch of the EV6 at the local Kia dealership. This car looks very appealing in their promotional material and initial press comments have been positive so it was an interesting way to spend an evening. The demo was of a static fully functioning pre-production vehicle with test drives in September at the earliest.
On arrival the car was typically covered by a black 'reveal' cloth and our initial reaction was how much larger than a Model 3 it is, not just longer but taller and wider, in fact substantially bigger all round.
The demo model currently touring the UK is the GT-Line version and from the pre-reveal presentation it's obvious that Kia have benchmarked the Model 3 as its main rival. As could be expected, this was a very hyped-up 'car-salesman with button mic on cheek' type experience... huge range & WLTP quoted as being easily achievable & realistic, 800v 350kWh ultra fast charging - 10 minutes and you are away, 12 months free use & subscription to the 'fabulous' Ionity network (oh joy), effortless towing of a caravan up to 1600kg, an adaptor to provide 240v supply for boiling a kettle, charging another EV or even your home in the event of a power cut! Although questions were encouraged, it seemed that the other eighteen attendees were either ICE or hybrid drivers & they lapped it up so I wasn't going to embarrass the presenter (or myself) in open forum. One attendee had already ordered the exact model on display, another thought the idea of picknicking with kettle, small fridge and grill was fantastic... just a shame he probably wouldn't be able to drive very far afterwards.
On discussing with the corporate Arthur Daley once we were free to mingle, it was clear that there is very little hard information available... the EV6 will be priced "from the £40ks to the £60ks", no idea about AC to DC conversion losses, when charging another car or via the gimmicky 240v adaptor, real world range vs WLTP or indeed the fact that a caravan will reduce range substantially. He did go out of his way not to criticise Tesla though, even before he realised that I was an owner.
There are as many many positives as there are negatives - to my eye it is far more attractive than a Model 3 (but not the ugly alloys on this version) - the silk silver finish looked great in a dry, well lit interior setting but will not be practical & I suspect is just a one-off sales ploy:
A nice enough car and I will test drive one when available but the twin motor versions appear to have significantly lower range than a Tesla equivalent so it's unlikely I would be tempted given the state of the existing UK charging infrastructure. However I do know from a couple of other satisfied Kia/Hyundai owners that these cars do seem to have reasonably accurate and efficient battery management so I would expect the EV6 to be a success and from first impressions it probably deserves to be ....a bit like a Model 3.5 or more likely a Model 3-
On arrival the car was typically covered by a black 'reveal' cloth and our initial reaction was how much larger than a Model 3 it is, not just longer but taller and wider, in fact substantially bigger all round.
The demo model currently touring the UK is the GT-Line version and from the pre-reveal presentation it's obvious that Kia have benchmarked the Model 3 as its main rival. As could be expected, this was a very hyped-up 'car-salesman with button mic on cheek' type experience... huge range & WLTP quoted as being easily achievable & realistic, 800v 350kWh ultra fast charging - 10 minutes and you are away, 12 months free use & subscription to the 'fabulous' Ionity network (oh joy), effortless towing of a caravan up to 1600kg, an adaptor to provide 240v supply for boiling a kettle, charging another EV or even your home in the event of a power cut! Although questions were encouraged, it seemed that the other eighteen attendees were either ICE or hybrid drivers & they lapped it up so I wasn't going to embarrass the presenter (or myself) in open forum. One attendee had already ordered the exact model on display, another thought the idea of picknicking with kettle, small fridge and grill was fantastic... just a shame he probably wouldn't be able to drive very far afterwards.
On discussing with the corporate Arthur Daley once we were free to mingle, it was clear that there is very little hard information available... the EV6 will be priced "from the £40ks to the £60ks", no idea about AC to DC conversion losses, when charging another car or via the gimmicky 240v adaptor, real world range vs WLTP or indeed the fact that a caravan will reduce range substantially. He did go out of his way not to criticise Tesla though, even before he realised that I was an owner.
There are as many many positives as there are negatives - to my eye it is far more attractive than a Model 3 (but not the ugly alloys on this version) - the silk silver finish looked great in a dry, well lit interior setting but will not be practical & I suspect is just a one-off sales ploy:
- Higher seating position so it's easier to enter/exit than a Model 3
- Futuristic looking interior (but some cheap looking interior materials)
- Two well thought out 12.3" screens and augmented reality HUD
- A more 'enclosed' & cluttered interior feel than the Model in spite of being externally larger
- Stylish 'floating' centre console
- Excellent adaptive matrix lighting
- Similar pop out door handles to the Model 3 (but thicker)
- The boot had no means of opening without the key or an internal button (& maybe the app)
- Auto Hold function presumably copied from the Tesla system
- 'Engine Start/Stop Button with Smart Entry System' presumably mirrors Tesla Easy Entry
- Steering Wheel Paddle Shifters for drive/reverse/park select
- 4 front USB, 3 (?) front 12v, 1 boot USB
- Rear seat ski hatch
- Apple Carplay/Android Auto
- 360º auto view and auto park assist
......and this example had panel gaps that suggested it could have been manufactured in Fremont (close up images below but unfair as this was pre-production).
A nice enough car and I will test drive one when available but the twin motor versions appear to have significantly lower range than a Tesla equivalent so it's unlikely I would be tempted given the state of the existing UK charging infrastructure. However I do know from a couple of other satisfied Kia/Hyundai owners that these cars do seem to have reasonably accurate and efficient battery management so I would expect the EV6 to be a success and from first impressions it probably deserves to be ....a bit like a Model 3.5 or more likely a Model 3-
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