What you’re looking at is the drama and theatrics of the most powerful Kia ever – the absolutely bonkers 576 horsepower 2023 EV6 GT. When it’s not letting its power go up in smoke like a squirrel on meth, it can accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and has a top speed of 161 mph.
For all of you out there that thought our transition to a zero-emissions driving future meant a life of drudgery, automotive celibacy and a retreat to the malaise era – you’re just simply wrong. This is what the future looks like on electricity.
Built on the eGMP platform of Kia, Hyundai and Genesis – the 2023 Kia EV6GT features a massive 77.4-kWh Nickel-Cobalt-Manganese battery pack under its floor powering a 214 horsepower motor at the front and a 326 horsepower motor at the rear.
The result is a blistering 576 horsepower and 546 lb.-ft. of torque. Making it all stick together is a stiffened chassis, quicker steering, variable dampers, and an electronic limited-slip diff. Click off the “Drift Mode” and the rear motor is prioritized to unleash the all the demons of our big-block V8 past all over the tarmac in a way that won’t require going to confession.
Stopping all of its weight, and it is heavy are massive 15-inch front rotors and 14.2-inch at the rear clamped by neon monoblock calipers. Standard rubber is 255/40R Goodyear Eagle F1 tires wrapped around 21-inch alloy wheels. They stop the 4795 pound EV6GT from 62 mph in 141 feet.
Visual upgrades on the exterior are subtle in an Audiesque sort of way, limited to a unique front and rear fascia and cute neon accents to get your attention from across the parking lot.
The cabin gets a bit more spicy however with vegan suede-trimmed, highly bolstered sport seats with green piping and GT logos. There are logs of neon accents and special trim treatments to let you know where you are along with ambient lighting all around.
All this performance potential and the same battery as other Kia EV6 models might have some of you adding it all up and asking about range. There is a downside to all this power yes, range on the EV6GT drops to 206 miles from the highest 310 mile range of other trims.
The upshot here is that it can charge really fast as the EV6 GT gets a world-first patented multi-charging system allowing for 400v and 800v DC charging with speeds up to 350kW. This means that if you can actually find a 350kW DC fast charger you can charge it back up after your wild drift party to 80% in as few as 18 minutes.
Good luck finding that 350kW charger through, let us know how that goes. As of today the majority of public DC fast charging stations are more in the 50kW range.
Regardless of how you plan to charge up your tire smoking fun machine, you should probably get in line at your local Kia dealer and order one soon. They go on sale late this year with pricing to be announced a little closer to that time. Whatever it costs, know that it comes with 1,000 free kWh of charging from Electrify America stations nationwide to help soften the jolt of it’s MSRP.
