2025 Kia EV6 Review: As Good To Drive As It Looks?

It feels borderline patronising to continue praising the likes of Kia and Hyundai for churning out striking-looking cars. They’ve both been doing it for quite a while now, after all. And yet, looking at the Kia EV6, it’s still hard not to be amazed. This is a Kia? The same company that was selling the Magentis just 15 years ago?

In fact, we’d just about got used to seeing the still-striking EV6 around when Kia hit us with a facelift last year, seemingly five minutes after it first went on sale. It keeps things sharp with a big, dramatic light signature snaking its way across the nose, and really helps the EV6 stand out among a growing pool of rivals, one expanded by its genre-straddling crossover-fastback-saloon body.

Sadly, said facelift also brought about the end – for now, anyway – of the 577bhp, 162mph EV6 GT. Now, you’ve a choice of two rear-wheel drive single-motor versions, or the one we’ve been trying, an all-wheel drive dual-motor car with 320bhp.

It’ll still hit 62mph in a handy 5.3 seconds, and top out at 116mph. Its 84kWh battery, meanwhile, gives a quoted range of 339 miles, with efficiency rated at 3.7m/kWh – basically par for the course for a big, powerful-ish twin-motor EV like this. I spent plenty of time piling up and down the motorway in warm-ish weather, and the car tended to return an estimated range of about 275 miles, which translates to more like 3.2m/kWh.

Step inside, and you’re greeted with the usual wall of screen – dual 12.3-inch units – but also a bank of haptic buttons and a couple of proper rotary dials. Presumably to limit the number of physical controls and make the interior look as uncluttered as possible, Kia’s included the ability to switch these buttons and knobs between handling audio and HVAC.

This is a neat idea in theory, but in practice it’s fiddly, and not as well thought out as, say, Skoda’s programmable Smart Dials. The buttons themselves are frustratingly small, too. Deactivating the two most irritating ADAS functions, though – the lane-keep assist and speed limit bongs – is made mercifully easy via shortcuts on the steering wheel controls.

The rest of the interior is a lot better. It looks as crisp and modern as the outside, and there are myriad device charging opportunities and bags of space for stuff. There’s lots of room for people front and rear too, although the low roofline and upswept windows can make things a little claustrophobic for rear passengers.

Everything feels posh and solidly built enough for the £52,085 asking price of the car we tested. There are some slightly cheaper-feeling trim pieces here and there, but you really have to go looking for them.

The driving position could use work – the steering wheel is a funny shape that can get a bit uncomfortable if you favour the quarter-to-three position, and it doesn’t have enough reach adjustment. The seats are nice and comfy, but could do with one of those little thigh support extender things. You know what I mean.

Once on the move, the first thing that strikes you, other than the usual sense of calm and quiet you usually get in a big EV, is how disarmingly firmly the EV6 rides at low speeds. It thuds and thunks over imperfections you’d barely even notice in other cars.

Maybe this is to do with the EV6’s 2150kg kerbweight, or maybe it’s the 19-inch wheels on the range-topping GT-Line S we drove. Jumping into it right after a week in the similarly weighty, even bigger-wheeled VW ID7 GTX, though, the Kia’s choppier ride was immediately apparent.

It settles down at higher speeds, making the EV6 an excellent motorway cruiser – quiet, calm and comfortable. It’s not the most efficient thing at these speeds, but thanks to its 800V electrical system, the speed with which it charges on a 150kW charger means you won’t be spending long aimlessly wandering around South Mimms services.

How about when you want to have some fun? This is perhaps the EV6’s biggest weakness. Obviously it’s quick, as any EV with this much grunt is going to be, but there’s not much else going for it dynamically.

The steering is very light and largely devoid of feel, and while Sport mode does improve the former a little, it still feels artificial (and also cranks up the ride’s firmness even more, so it’s probably best avoided).

There’s too much squidge in the brake pedal to give you much confidence when approaching a corner, and a bit too much of a delay when you press the accelerator to squirt out of the other side. It really can’t hide its sheer weight much either, the body roll and understeer you get when pressing on all make it a bit of an incoherent thing to drive fast.

To be fair, Kia’s not trying to claim the normal EV6 is a proper performance car, even in this range-topping dual-motor guise. We had some similar reservations with the old EV6 GT when we drove that last year, though – the dynamic shortfalls were a bit harder to forgive then, and if the GT does return, we’d hope it borrows a bit more from the sensational Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.

Viewed more as the fast-ish electric exec express that it realistically is, there’s a lot more to recommend the EV6 – it’s quick, reasonably comfy and well made, which is really everything a car like this should be.

Then again, things like that fiddly interior layout and inexplicably firm low-speed ride dock it points against rivals – not least the Hyundai Ioniq 5, a car it shares a significant amount with.

The EV6 is a good car, and in areas like charging speed, it’s still streets ahead of some rivals. For ultimate driver satisfaction from an EV, though, both at speed and around town, you might be better served looking elsewhere.