Live thread: One week with a 2023 Kia EV6 GT

PS: Yeah, I should wear socks when taking these photos. 

Or, another thought: Is this a modern muscle car?

All the thrust, all the presence, not quite all the refinement. 

JG Pasterjak said:

As a whole package, I think I prefer the Ioniq5. The Kia drives great, and looks the business, but it makes a few concessions toward sportiness that don't help it as a utility tool when compared to the Ioniq5. I know it sounds weird to criticize something for being sporty, but if I'm going to have a sports car I want it to be a sports car. A tall wagon with summer tires doesn't impress me if they made the interior smaller to give it a more intimate feel.

I was listening to the Smith 'n Sniff podcast the other week and they seemed to agree with one another that the EV6 GT basically made the EV6 worse to help sell to people who have to have the biggest and the most and the largest numbers in the brochure. It's not like the base EV6 is slow...

Yeah, after a longer drive last night I'm torn. On the one hand this thing looks great, goes fast, and is a pretty nice shape and size for a daily driver. It handles well, too, in large part due to the sticky performance tires. 

But does my compact SUV really need to ride this rough? Does my $62,000 car need manual seats? And do their bolsters need to make it so hard to get in and out of?

Fine, fine, so it's a sports car: What's with the huge size, extra doors and giant trunk? 

Mid-complaining, I realized I already own a sort of big small car that's pretty fast but has four doors and a big trunk and is generally one giant compromise: My Mk7 Golf GTI. And I absolutely love that car. So here's my take: Is the Kia EV6 GT just a hot hatch for the electric age?

Of course, with Telsa's Model Y Performance being eligible for a $7500 tax credit and this EV, to my knowledge, not, I think all of this discussion might be a moot point. With the tax credit, that makes the Tesla nearly $17,000 cheaper. 

If the EV6 GT is a modern hot hatch–which, really, is a modern, small-bore muscle car as it’s also based on common bones–then let’s get an EV6 GT that doesn’t have 21-inch (!!) wheels. I like your quest for a GTI-sized EV. Give us something GTI sized with some GTI-like DNA. 

I drove a bit last night and am torn as well on where this one goes. 

Also, the light is out at the EA station at the Walmart. This photo looks way lighter out than it actually was. Last time we were there charging a car at night, my wife gave it a solid “hell no” as far as going there alone. 

This is a really nice looking vehicle...but +63k?!?  No. Just No.  

I don't know enough about the competitive landscape to be overly critical, but the performance must be 2x a comparable car like the VW ID4...which has a $40k sticker price.  

I love and loathe these threads:

Love because it's amazing what manufacturers come up with.

Loathe them because, despite now making what I consider an obscene amount of money, the cheap me is still alive and well. 40K is my threshold for anything. Also I am not paying for a car for 7 years...............

I agree, it’s a lot of bread. I don’t think it’s fair to compare new vs. used prices, so let’s do new vs. new.

For only a few bucks more, you can buy a new Cayman. 

Just for kicks, I just built my base-price 718 Cayman: white over black, six-speed stick, deleted logo on rear. I’d be happy with that. 

I mean, a new Cayman is 1.5 seconds slower from 0-60, and can't carry a week's worth of groceries in it....

True but which would I get more enjoyment out of owning?

In reply to David S. Wallens :

For me personally if its my only car I would choose the Kia over the Cayman for a daily driver. After driving it for an afternoon I agree the ride isn't great and the manual seats are not what I expected in a car that expensive. But it was fast and can hold 4 people or all my video gear/ a road trips worth of stuff. 

Would the Cayman ultimately be more fun and hold its value better? Probably but for me that just not enough space for me to use as my only car. 

An EV that is GTI sized with GTI performance is the sweet spot I think and the EV6 GT is close and it got me back on the Hyundai site pricing out an Ioniq 5. 

Oh, and a mostly unrelated photo of an easter egg from my errands yesterday that proves the GRM universe is all one cohesive space:

ChrisTropea said:

An EV that is GTI sized with GTI performance is the sweet spot I think and the EV6 GT is close and it got me back on the Hyundai site pricing out an Ioniq 5. 

Its 16" longer, 4" wider, and 3" higher than a GTI.  

Its actually much closer to a Toyota Venza :P

Anyone wanting to get the EV6 GT should wait for the 2024 model. It gets a whopping 12 miles extra upgrade for new EPA range of 218. Plus it now comes standard charge port lighting. Oh yeah, they raised the starting price by $200 for the 2024 EV6 GT models as well. 

The charge port lighting would make me happy as I was standing there in a dark corner of a Walmart parking lot last night using my camera’s flashlight to see where to stick the thing. 

David S. Wallens said:

The charge port lighting would make me happy as I was standing there in a dark corner of a Walmart parking lot last night using my camera’s flashlight to see where to stick the thing. 

Same, but in my driveway. I figured it was just a setting that wasn't turned on, but actually not having a light so you can see the hole seems like kind of an oversight.

Overall I have nothing but good things to say about the driving experience, though. Dynamically it's exceptional, and although public non-Tesla infrastructure still sucks, I think for 90% of the use cases we now live in a post-range-anxiety world. It easily charged overnight on my cheap level 2 240V/32A eBay charger and took about six bucks of electricity for te three days we had it, including a trip to Orlando.

My main gripe was that the focus of the car wasn't utilitarian enough, and I felt like that was some wasted potential in the platform. But that's criticizing it for not meeting my expectation, not being bad in any way. If I was shopping I'd lean toward the IONIQ5, which sits on the same platform but leans harder into being a useful space pod instead of a personal driver's car. 

David S. Wallens said:

Here’s a question: Is this a modern interpretation of a halo car?

I think a "halo car" needs to be either a performance car, a luxury car, or a status symbol car (or some combination of the three). I don't really see this as checking any of those boxes. Although it comes close to sharing a price point with some halo cars. 

Maybe this Kia GT hopes to capture all the market space left by the Acura ZDX. 

In reply to CrashDummy :

Zero to 60 in 3.something is pretty zippy for a Kia. 

CrashDummy said:

David S. Wallens said:

Here’s a question: Is this a modern interpretation of a halo car?

I think a "halo car" needs to be either a performance car, a luxury car, or a status symbol car (or some combination of the three). I don't really see this as checking any of those boxes. Although it comes close to sharing a price point with some halo cars. 

Around me an EV like a Tesla Y Peformance or Mach E GT  is definitely a status symbol of sorts. This looks like it slots right into that market.

David S. Wallens said:

Just for kicks, I just built my base-price 718 Cayman: white over black, six-speed stick, deleted logo on rear. I’d be happy with that. 

I'd have to figure out how to swing the Cayman S, White over red, manual, fancy stereo, and I'd be good. 

Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket.

White over red has a cool, retro vibe. 

I once built one online–or maybe it was a 911–black over blue. Both colors, at the time, were no-cost options. It looked striking in the rendering.