2023 Kia EV6 GT: Supercar performance at a budget price

How do you top 2023 North American Utility of the Year honors? If you are Kia, you follow the widely acclaimed EV6 with the EV6 GT-Line.

The 2023 Kia EV6 GT, the brand's new performance flagship, and an electric vehicle, no doubt, adds a handful of updates such as more powerful front and rear electric motors, extra chassis bracing and revised styling. The high-performance EV delivers 576 hp and 545 pound-feet of torque — an increase of 256 ponies over the next most powerful EV6.

Kia says it engineered the EV6 GT to compete with supercars such as Ferrari's Roma and the Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder.

The EV6 GT uses the same 77.4-kilowatt-hour battery as the rest of the EV6 lineup but gets a boost from a more powerful 160-kilowatt motor in the front and a 270-kW motor in the rear. The all-wheel-drive EV6 GT, the top performer, with 320 hp, has a 74-kW front motor and 165-kW rear motor.

While the GT's driving range is compromised — 206 miles, down from about 232 to 310 miles, depending on battery size — its 800-volt architecture enables ultrafast charging, a rare feature among mainstream EVs. And 80 percent of the battery charge can be replenished in less than 18 minutes.

We've rounded up some early reviews from the automotive press.

"Handling is a dream. Country roads are way fun, and cornering is exotic car-esque.

One major downside to the EV6 came during a rainstorm. I pulled out on a left turn at a red light in the same manner as always, and on the slick surface the EV6 came unglued in a hurry, and I nearly spun out.

Hold down the drive mode button to switch into snow mode, even in the rain. It keeps the wheels from spinning by dialing back the torque. After that, I had no more wet-surface issues. Don't buy this (or any car, really) without a wet-weather test, if you can help it.

The interior of the 2023 Kia EV6 is spartan but snazzy, with mostly simple controls. The heater-infotainment switch can take some getting used to.

I put more than 300 miles on the EV6 and found it to be a comfortable companion. The GT-Line suede seat provides good support and softness; vegan leather is standard.

One complaint would be the gauges; the most important information sits in the upper corners and could be blocked by the steering wheel.

I thought the rear-seat space appeared fairly generous. The seat sits fairly high, the legroom is long, and there's no console to interfere for passenger No. 3. But Sturgis Kid 4.0 grimaced when asked about the legroom after a 150-mile round trip for Sturgis Grandma 1.0′s 88th birthday, saying, "There's no place for your feet under the seat."

Cargo space is 24.4 cubic feet behind the rear seat, 50.2 with the seat folded. This is on the small side, smaller than a Kia Soul."

— Scott Sturgis, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"3.4 seconds is the EV6 GT's official 0 to 60 mph time from independent testing. Kia says they have clocked quicker times. Car and Driver said it hit 60 mph in 3.2 seconds. In a straight line, that makes the EV6 GT faster than a Ferrari Roma or Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder RWD. Perhaps more relevantly, it's a tick faster from 0-60 mph than the Porsche Taycan GTS — and the Kia starts at less than half the price.
I tested the EV6 GT on a few drag strip runs at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with other colleagues. I can't vouch for the 0-60 mph time; we blew well past 60, hitting about 118 mph on the drag strip (even with my sloth-like reaction times). But I can confirm the EV6 GT is astonishingly quick off the line.
The EV6 GT does need to be in a special Maximum Power Output mode to do the drag strip run. I presume Kia warmed up the cars beforehand, and performance will dip a bit when the battery falls below 70 percent. But beyond that, the acceleration run is something the EV6 GT can do repeatedly — and without dumping a huge amount of range. Kia said it ran 250 employees and dealers through the drag strip using six cars without recharging them.
It's impressive. But we also need to recalibrate our brains for electric vehicles. Almost every EV will be surprisingly rapid in a straight line. And we have multiple electric pickups that can hit 50 mph in three seconds flat."

— Tyler Duffy, Gear Patrol

"With the dampers in their normal mode, the ride is acceptable, but it becomes quite stiff in the firmer settings. The payoff is that this car eats up corners, guided by steering that never gets too heavy, even in Sport+ mode. Wearing Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 SUV sneakers, the GT clung to the skidpad with 0.92 g of stick, versus 0.86 g from the GT-Line on all-season rubber.

The eLSD can overdrive the outside rear wheel in corners, and you can feel this car's tail-happiness in the Sport and GT drive modes, which loosen the stability control's oversight. In either one, you'll be fishtailing out of the Dairy Queen just like them Duke boys. For even more TikTok-worthy antics, there's a Drift mode. (To activate it, start in Sport or GT mode with your foot on the brake pedal, hold the stability-control button until the system is fully disabled, and pull back on both paddles for three seconds.) The setting optimizes the front-to-rear torque split and the eLSD, making it possible to drift — or, as we discovered on wet pavement, to spin. This thing is the Firebird Trans Am of crossover EVs."

— Joe Lorio, Car and Driver

"That GT button activates a driving mode that is exclusive to the flagship EV6 trim. While the Eco, Normal, and Sport modes restrain the electric motors' output slightly, GT mode unleashes their full, 576-hp force, uncorking the most powerful and quickest-accelerating Kia ever built. The EV6 GT sprints to 60 miles per hour in 3.4 seconds – four-tenths quicker than the standard Ford Mustang Mach-E GT and one-tenth faster than the Tesla Model Y Performance – and it carries on to a top speed of 161 mph. The Kia shoves off the line with authority courtesy of four-wheel grip and instantaneous torque.

2023 Kia EV6 GT Exterior Drift Mode

But that doesn't mean the EV6 GT is a loose cannon. Even as the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster displays higher and higher speeds, Kia's sportiest EV feels planted and stable, with none of the front-end wander that plagues lesser EV6s. That said, with a curb weight of 4,795 pounds, the GT is no bantam fighter, and it sometimes struggles to conceal that mass in tight corners, especially if there are any bumps along the way. The dampers could be stiffer to quell body motions, and quick transitions don't always inspire confidence (not least because the steering is numb-numb-numb). The Mach-E GT feels more stable in such conditions.

On really technical sections of road, it's best to dial the pace back from aggressive to brisk, braking a bit earlier for corner entry and then accelerating out with neutral stability. And with the multi-mode energy recuperation set to the maximum 'i-Pedal' mode, the upsized brakes feel more than up to the task of hauling the EV6 down from speed."

— Brett T. Evans, Inside EVs

"Peer behind the spokes and you'll spot the EV6's boldest exterior features, the neon-green big brake upgrade. Up front, four-piston calipers grab 15-inch rotors while single-pots with 14.2-inch discs live at the rear. More than just a good look, the enlarged stoppers shave 6.6-feet off of the EV6 GT's stopping distance, braking from 62 mph in 141 feet.

More importantly, the brakes boost consistency and fade resistance for the 5,732-pound EV6 GT (176 pounds heavier than a GT-Line model) during more aggressive street and track driving at higher potential speeds.

The EV6 shines on the road in its unique GT mode. Thumbing this neon green button sets the powertrain, suspension, steering and stability programs to their most aggressive, transforming the already responsive E-GMP chassis into a backroad plaything. Noticeably more road noise and bumps make their way into the cabin by way of the firmer suspension, narrower sidewalls and more supportive sport seats, but the GT never feels harsh or uncomfortable.

Later, I make my way to the handling course outside of LVMS where I'm able to push the limits of the sticky contact patches. Seat of the pants and fingertip feedback is good, and the regen-assisted braking feels natural. I'm even able to run a lap in the one-pedal braking mode and still keep a good pace. The EV6 doesn't exactly hide its weight, but GT mode's increased power output and more generous stability control limits allow the EV6 GT to rotate more freely as I muscle it around corners, wagging its tail a bit as I roll onto the linear throttle. It even allows a bit of a drift for drivers brave enough to keep their foot in it."

— Antuan Goodwin, CNET