Enlarge / You need a keen eye to spot that this is a Kia EV6 GT—the larger wheels and neon green brake calipers are the main clue. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)
LAS VEGAS—In January, we got our first chance to drive Kia's new EV6 electric vehicle. Built using Hyundai Motor Group's excellent new E-GMP platform, the EV6 instantly impressed us, offering a less polarizing design and more playful handling than the also impressive Hyundai Ioniq 5. Designed as a dedicated EV platform, E-GMP features an 800 V battery pack that allows for rapid fast charging, and the rear- and all-wheel drive can achieve excellent levels of efficiency.
In that first drive, and then again on local roads over the summer, my seat time in the EV6 confirmed Hyundai Motor Group's wisdom in hiring Albert Biermann away from BMW to build up the Korean automakers' research and development programs. But now Kia's turned the dial well past 11 with the new $61,400 EV6 GT, a limited-production variant that can outdrag some Ferraris and Lamborghinis, and ride the rumble strips at a racetrack with the best of them.
Between the axles of the EV6 GT you'll find the same 77.4 kWh (gross capacity) battery pack as in other EV6s—the company has discontinued the smaller-battery variant (the EV6 Light) due to very little demand. But in the EV6 GT, that battery will now feed much more power to the pair of electric motors that drive the front and rear wheels. There's a total of 576 hp (430 kW), in fact, plus a combined 545 lb-ft (738 Nm) of torque, split between a 215-hp (160 kW) front motor and a 362-hp (270 kW) rear motor with an electronic limited-slip differential.
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