Kia continues to set the bar high for functional but classy EVs across a range of prices.
And now the South Korean car maker has released an entry-spec EV – the EV6 Air – onto the Australian market.
We spent a couple of weeks with this EV to see how it’d perform as a daily driver.
How much does the Kia EV6 Air cost?
The Kia EV6 Air rear-wheel drive has a recommended retail price of $72,590 (excluding optional extras, accessory prices, and on-road costs). Our test vehicle had an EV Charging Cable Kit (Single Phase 7kW, $583 excluding GST) onboard.
What features do you get in the Kia EV6 Air?
For starters, it has a 168kW/350Nm electric motor, a 77.4kWh lithium-ion battery, and a single-speed (reduction gear) transmission. Official driving range on a full charge is listed as 528 kilometres.
Standard features include a 12.3-inch touchscreen multimedia unit with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 12.3-inch digital driver cluster, six-speaker audio system, dual-zone climate control, LED DRLs, headlights and tail-lights, and 19-inch alloy wheels.
It has five USB ports (three up front – a USB-A and two USB-C – and two USB-C in the back), a wireless phone charger and two 12-volt ports.
The exterior colour on our test vehicle is Glacier. Other choices are Yacht Blue, Runway Red, Steel Grey, Snow White Pearl, and Aurora Black Pearl.
The Kia EV6 has the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from testing in 2022.
Safety gear includes seven airbags (including a front centre airbag), autonomous emergency braking (with car, pedestrian, cyclist, and junction detection), lane-keep assist, lane following assist, traffic sign recognition, blind spot and rear cross-traffic alert (detection) and avoidance (braking for obstacles), rear parking sensors, rear-view camera, adaptive cruise control and more.
It has two ISOFIX child-seat mounting points (on each of the rear outboard seats) and three top-tethers.
The interior is a pleasant mix of cloth trim and artificial leather, but even though it’s a premium-look and -feel cabin, the driver and front passenger seats are only manually adjustable (except for two-way driver lumbar adjustment), belying the Air’s base-spec status.
All seats are comfortable without being too plush or firm.
There’s upfront storage spaces aplenty – glovebox, centre console, two cupholders, and bottle holders in each of the doors – and myriad receptacles to dump any stuff that’s otherwise in your pockets.
Rear-seat passengers get two cupholders in a fold-down armrest, and a bottle holder in each door.
Cargo space in the rear is listed as 490 litres (VDA), 1270 litres with the second row seats out of the way, and the EV6 Air has 52 litres of storage space under the bonnet – in the frunk. What it does not have, however, is a spare tyre; it has a “tyre mobility kit” (aka a tyre-puncture repair kit).
It has official towing capacities of 750kg unbraked and 1600kg braked.
The EV6 has a seven-year/unlimited km warranty and a seven-year/150,000km warranty applies to the battery.
Pre-paid servicing options are three years ($721), five years ($1382), and seven years ($2045).
Servicing is scheduled for every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs soonest.
What is the Kia EV6 Air like to drive?
The Kia EV6 Air is 4680mm long (with a wheelbase of 2900mm), 1880mm wide, and 1550mm high. This five-seater has a tare weight of 2000kg, and a gross vehicle mass of 2435kg.
Steering has a confidence-inspiring precision about it and the EV6 Air has an even-handed ride and handling, even though the suspension set-up is a touch too firm, but on point for a city-friendly vehicle.
The EV6 has a turning circle of 11.6m, so it’s rather nimble in the suburbs and city.
It rides on Kumho/Nexen (235/55 R19) on 19-inch machined alloy wheels, which do a fine job at suburban driving duties.
If you’re into sprint times, get ready because this rear-wheel drive EV6 can do 0-100km/h in 7.3 seconds.
As for energy consumption, starting with a full charge, we used about 25 percent on the drive from Sydney’s Marrickville to just south of Wollongong, a distance of 81km.
After a few days of consistent mixed driving – suburban streets and the highway – we charged at one of the NRMA DC units in Wollongong’s Stewart Street East car park* and managed to get from 11 percent to 64 percent in 34 minutes on a maximum 70kW charger. (* Note: There are two DC Fast Charging units at this location, with CHAdeMO and CCS2 connectors, so four plugs in total. The EV6 Air has a CCS2 port. The machine closest to the street can deliver a maximum 150kW charge; the next machine in can yield a maximum 70kW charge. An important factor to remember about EVs is that charging times are not uniform: you can swiftly charge a car up to 60 or 70 percent, but chargers become gradually slower from that point onwards until they are only effectively trickle-feeding your EV from 90 to 100 percent.)
Official energy consumption on a combined cycle is listed as 16.5kW/100km (WLTP*); my actual usage was 15.7kwh/100km over 418.6km. (* The Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) measures the driving range of a car travelling at an average speed of 46.5km in summer temperatures from a charge level of 100 percent to 0 percent.)
Official driving range for the EV6 Air on a full charge is listed as 528 kilometres. On a full charge, I drove the 418.6km noted above and the EV6 Air was on 11 percent when I recharged it.
Is the Kia EV6 Air any good?
Yes, the Kia EV6 Air is a classy and functional easy-driving car at a more appealing price-point than many other like-for-like EVs on the market.
This is an entry-level EV with a premium look and feel and it’s more evidence that Kia is capable of consistently producing EVs that make impressive daily drivers.