While we review new EVs as individual cars, some are also transforming the companies that create them.
The Kia EV6 is already a fine example of this trend, with its combination of technology, design and pricing leapfrogging many rivals that would until recently have been regarded as sitting higher in the brand-prestige hierarchy.
Here’s some bad news for those rivals: the new EV6 GT moves the game on considerably further. The range-topper’s performance has been boosted by an extent that takes it out of the mainstream and into very distinguished company. Its 77.4kWh battery (the same as in the standard EV6) is relatively small compared with those of posher EVs and its 263-mile range is unexceptional. But 800V electrical architecture gives it ultra-rapid charging capability, so find a sufficiently potent DC charger and the battery can be replenished from 10-80% in just 18 minutes.
The Hyundai Motor Group’s very advanced E-GMP platform also means the GT weighs a segment svelte 2165kg and its performance is undeniably at the sharp end, with 576bhp and a 3.5sec 0-62mph time. That makes it more powerful and quicker than the Porsche Taycan 4S, despite being £25,000 cheaper.
While the hardware has been upgraded, the design changes are limited. The GT is distinguished by 21in alloys and tweaked bumpers. It shares its spoiler with the GT Line S. Inside are new suede-trimmed semi-bucket seats and a new GT mode selector on the steering wheel, opposite the one for the usual Eco, Normal and Sport modes.
The GT doesn’t look like an electric muscle car, then, yet that’s pretty much what it is. Hardware upgrades include two new permanent-magnet synchronous motors, the one at the rear now making 362bhp, thanks to a new dual-stage inverter that uses silicon-carbide semiconductors. This drives via an electronically controlled limited-slip differential that can bias torque across the axle. The smaller motor at the front adds up to 215bhp and can be decoupled under gentle use to raise efficiency. As tends to be the way with faster EVs, full thrust comes only in the most aggressive mode (here labelled GT). The limit is 460bhp in Normal and Sport or 288bhp in Eco.
While the GT feels as fast as those numbers suggest it should, Kia has opted not to give it the ultra-sharp accelerator response common to quicker EVs, with gentler initial reactions even in GT mode and Eco adding what feels like an inch of slack into the accelerator pedal. Pushing harder in any mode summons forceful thrust, though, and hard launches have the rears battling to find traction – this on dry asphalt and despite the standard fitment of Michelin Pilot 4S tyres instead of the usual low-resistance rubber.