Kia EV6 design & styling

The EV6 remains an eye-catching car three years after its introduction. This update is a fairly minor one that preserves this status, but while it may look like little more than a fresh set of lights and bumpers, there’s actually quite a lot more to it than that.

As evidence, consider this: Kia’s new fourth-generation nickel-manganese-cobalt battery pack – 8% more energy-dense than the one it replaces, yet a kilogram lighter, with a usable capacity up to 84kWh – extends range by a significant margin from a maximum of 328 miles to 361 miles, depending on trim level. And yet our test car is 80kg heavier than its pre-facelift equivalent, as part of a mechanical update that has altered the EV6’s body-in-white chassis, suspension specification and standard equipment level.

The EV6 is covered with unusual shapes and surfaces. The sloping rear and wraparound tail-lights might be its most peculiar features. Distinctiveness is good, of course, but the blindspot created by the rear quarter panels isn’t.

Richard Lane

Deputy road test editor

​It rides on the EV-specific Electric-Global Modular Platform, or E-GMP, and, as with the Volkswagen Group’s MEB, the battery pack is carried within the floor of the car and powers one big motor in the rear and an optional motor in the front. All versions share the same suspension layout: MacPherson struts at the front and a five-link axle at the rear.

In familiar style, Kia has found a way to reinforce the car’s chassis, by adding thickness to the B-pillars, which no doubt accounts for some of that added weight. It’s an unusual move for a car in mid-cycle, and Kia hasn’t explained it, so we can only assume it had good reason for it.