2022 Kia EV6 detailed walkaround review

CarExpert

I've been hanging out for this! I drove the 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 recently and didn't love the ride and body control. Could the EV6 be better? Paul Maric checks out the 2022 Kia EV6, which is due to arrive in Australia in early 2022 with a fast GT model coming late in 2022.  More Kia content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/kia More Kia EV6 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/kia/ev6  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 00:56 Powertrain 05:30 Interior 06:34 Infotainment 08:03 Safety Tech 09:55 Practicality 11:21 Boot Capacity 14:33 Verdict 15:16  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #kia #ev6 #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So recently we drove the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and I remember commenting on how that was

00:05 a big departure from all of Hyundai's other cars and this is Kia's version of that and it is a huge

00:12 departure for Kia from the rest of the Kia range. It's called the EV6. Pricing for this is still yet

00:18 to be confirmed for Australia but we do know that it's going to arrive in early 2022 and today we're

00:23 checking out this pre-production car. This is going to compete with things like the Tesla Model Y,

00:28 the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Volvo XC40 Recharge. There's a whole stack of competitors in this

00:33 segment and we think it'll probably be priced around the same as the Ioniq 5, around that $70,000

00:37 mark. So today we're going to do a detailed walk around of this car. If you do want to skip ahead

00:41 to other parts of this video you can use the time codes up on the screen there or if you're on

00:45 YouTube just scroll down and use the chapters below and if you haven't done so already subscribe

00:49 to our channel and press the bell icon that's going to tell you every single time we check out

00:53 matte grey cars. Let's talk exterior design. So for the Australian market you're going to have

00:59 seven external colours to pick from including this matte grey. Globally there's 11 colours

01:04 available. Now matte grey you might be looking at this and going "oh my god this is so hard to

01:08 keep clean". My Supra was finished in this same colour. It was actually pretty easy to keep clean,

01:12 you just don't use any abrasive stuff on it and you know just clean it regularly and it'll be fine.

01:18 Now in terms of the design I'm going to jump down the front here. So new Kia logo up the top there

01:22 and it looks really cool here offset with the matte grey. It just gives it a bit of a polished

01:27 sort of finish and it kind of looks like this has just been cut straight out of this sort of solid

01:32 bit of metal. It's got the cut lines on it and I just think it looks fantastic. Down the front here

01:36 you've got a camera. All of this is blocked off. So I've mentioned in other EV reviews before that

01:41 they don't predominantly need as much cooling at this top end, it's mainly down here, but

01:45 they look kind of weird if you don't have a grille like your Tesla Model 3s just have that sort of

01:50 flat nose on them. So that's why all of this stuff's covered up. Beautiful sort of texture

01:54 on there as well. Down the bottom here is where you have that radar sensor as well and then more

01:58 parking sensors. Over with the headlights you have a full LED headlight package here with LED

02:03 daytime running lights and indicators and then down the bottom there you've got some faux vents

02:08 just off to the side. We'll hop around to the side here and have a look at these wheels. So

02:12 20-inch alloy wheels. This is the GT line. There is actually a full-fat GT model coming which will be

02:19 even faster still. They're talking about 0 to 100 time in the three second range. So that is still

02:24 yet to come but you can kind of see where they're heading with this. It is really going to have

02:28 those performance overtones and I think that this wheel design looks really cool. It goes one step

02:32 further with the full-fat GT and I think that that thing is going to be a lot of fun to drive.

02:38 As we move down the car here you've got LED indicators built into that wing mirror,

02:41 bit of piano black on the side there and also on this on this pillar that leads to the roof.

02:46 You've got a camera in the side there for the 360 camera and more piano black trim down the

02:51 bottom of the car. Now door handles. They're similar to Tesla in the sense that you push

02:55 them out like that and then to open the door you give that a pull and then close it like that. You

02:59 get a little tab on there to lock the car as well so you just put your finger on that and then the

03:03 car locks. So intuitive setup. Not quite the Tesla setup though where you don't need the key.

03:08 You still have to carry the key around with you to get in and out of the car which I think is a

03:11 bit counterintuitive. I think we're done with keys now. You've got these piano black pillars

03:16 down the side and then as you move to the back of the car, have a look under here, you have these

03:20 puddle lights that are attached to the spoiler element so that gives you projection down onto

03:25 the ground which is really cool. On the opposite side you have a charging port. I'll run you through

03:29 that in a second but come around to the rear. Up the top there you've got a shark fin aerial

03:33 and have a look at this aero element here. So because there is no rear wiper under there,

03:37 they basically redirect air down the back of the car here. It then pushes any sort of stagnant

03:43 water drops off the back of your window so in theory you don't ever need a wiper to keep it

03:48 all clean. Huge strip of LED along the back here and that runs all the way down the sides of the

03:52 car with the indicator built into this section. I love also that this is all 3D textured here

03:58 and then it lights up as soon as you put the indicator on. So really cool setup and then down

04:02 the bottom there more piano black with that big Kia logo and EV6. Now let's have a quick chat about

04:08 the dimensions. I want to put the size of this into perspective for you. It's just under 4.7m long

04:13 which makes it slightly longer than an Ioniq 5. It is 1880mm wide, it's 1550mm tall and that is

04:21 slightly shorter than an Ioniq 5. And then in terms of the wheelbase, it's on a 2900mm wheelbase,

04:26 so 100mm shorter than an Ioniq 5 but the same size as a Palisade so it should be nice and roomy

04:32 inside there in terms of the space. Now let me know in the comments section below what do you

04:35 think of the design? Are you as impressed as I am? Let me know down there. Now let's quickly talk

04:41 about charging. So it all happens behind here. Now this is a pre-production car so I've got to push

04:45 a little harder than you would on an actual production car. You've got your charge state

04:49 just here. You have both AC and DC charging. AC charging works at up to three phase 11kW,

04:56 DC charging will work up to 233kW peak, so it is a proper meaty setup. It does both 400 and 800v.

05:04 This moves depending on how much charge is coming into the car. The exciting thing with this and

05:08 the Ioniq 5 is that you can actually do V2L which is vehicle to load. So you plug into there and

05:12 you're able to take out 3.6kW of energy from the car through a 15 amp plug and run, you know,

05:18 whatever you need to run. There's also an equivalent port inside the car that I'll show you

05:22 later on, but in terms of charging this really is at the peak of charging capacity for a passenger

05:27 car which is really cool. In terms of the electric motors and the battery, globally you do have both

05:32 58kWh and a 77.4kWh battery, but for Australia we're only getting the 77.4kWh battery. That means

05:40 the two-wheel drive will feature 168kW of power and 350Nm of torque. That's good for a 0-100

05:46 in 7.3 seconds, while the all-wheel drive, which is what you'll get in the GT line and also non-GT

05:52 line models, will feature a 239kW set of motors, one on the rear axle, one on the front, that will

05:58 produce 605Nm of torque and will do 0-100 in around 5.2 seconds. But the thing that has me most

06:06 excited is the full-fat GT model. Same size battery but it produces 430kW of power and 740Nm

06:14 of torque and that will do 0-100 in about 3.5 seconds. And in terms of range, you can go from

06:19 around that 350km mark all the way to a little over 400km of range, so there is a fair bit there

06:26 to take in. Just keep in mind though that the specs for Australia are still to be confirmed,

06:30 so we'll have a little bit more on that when the car is ready for launch.

06:33 Righto, so we are inside the EV6. We'll start off with the key. So it looks like a regular key.

06:38 A key, you've got the ability to move the car forwards and backwards from outside. You have a

06:42 remote start function, new Kia logo down the bottom there. You've got lock, unlock, boot,

06:47 and then on the back it is blank. Proximity sensing key, so leave that in your pocket.

06:51 Once you're inside the car, you have an EV start button here. I know I've spoken in the Ioniq 5

06:57 review about how silly it is to just write EV there because obviously we're in an EV, but

07:02 anyway. In terms of the design, I think this looks sensational. So it's not quite as out there as the

07:08 Ioniq 5, but I think that's a good thing. That may not appeal to everyone. I love the fact that

07:12 they've got these two big screens here ahead of the driver. They've used recycled materials along

07:17 the dashboard there, and this is going to look familiar if you've seen our Sportage review,

07:20 because it allows you to switch between these two systems here, which is your

07:25 shortcut buttons for the infotainment plus the climate control. This whole centre stack looks

07:29 great as well. You've got LED lights you can configure around the cabin here, and it's just a

07:33 very smart design that I think just really suits the look and character of this car. In terms of

07:40 the materials, so that's all that recycled material. The carpets are recycled as well.

07:44 All of this stuff is pretty nice. This is a pre-production car, so I'm probably going to

07:48 just reserve judgment. We won't do our hardness test on this just yet because there's no point,

07:53 but in terms of your touch points, that is kind of firm there and then softer on the door,

07:57 but I suspect this will be softer when we do get our full production cars. Now let's talk

08:02 infotainment. Now some of these specs aren't yet confirmed for Australia, but I'll run you through

08:06 what we see here in front of us. So two 12.3-inch displays. This is really similar to the infotainment

08:12 system we've seen in the Ioniq 5 and also the new Sportage. So here in EV-specific vehicles,

08:16 you can see you get an EV display there with a pretty generic looking vehicle. I suspect the

08:21 production car is going to look a little different to that, but then when you swipe across, you have

08:24 access to the rest of your functions. So the EV menu gives you all of the car's EV details,

08:29 so battery capacity, range, and also the ability to schedule charging and also do

08:35 your vehicle to load setup through here. In addition to that, you have AM/FM, DAB+ digital

08:40 radio. We don't know how many speakers it is, but Kia is now working with Meridian. So there's a

08:45 Meridian branded sound system, similar to what you find in Jaguar Land Rover products, and normally

08:49 they're pretty good, so pretty excited for that. You have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Both of

08:54 those are wired, so you don't have a wireless setup, which I think is pretty disappointing in

08:59 this day and age, but anyway, I'm sure they will get to it eventually. And then some of my favourite

09:03 functions like quiet mode, so the kids don't hear your radio in the back there. Voice memo,

09:08 if you come up with any great ideas out on the road, and then internal satellite navigation as

09:13 well. But because this car is pre-production, it says we're in Germany somewhere, and we're

09:19 actually not. So yeah, that is that infotainment system. Ahead of the driver, you have another

09:23 12.3-inch display. This is pretty straightforward, but you can move through the menus here in the

09:28 centre, so that gives you your safety details and also compass drive modes. You dig to both the

09:33 Ioniq 5 and this is going to be that the EV6 will actually have a head-up display in Australia,

09:38 or the ability to option it, and it gives you augmented reality projected up on the screen.

09:44 We've seen this in Mercedes-Benz products in this centre screen here, but I haven't seen it before

09:48 on head-up display, and I think that is going to be some seriously cool technology when this

09:52 finally does land in Australia. Now moving on to safety technology, you have both front and rear

09:57 AEB that detects pedestrians and cyclists. You have a lane departure warning and a lane keeping

10:02 assistant. Blind spot monitoring, so you have that built into the wing mirror, but you can also

10:08 activate the indicator and that will activate the blind spot monitors here ahead of the driver,

10:11 and I think this feature is sensational. I really love Hyundai and Kia products that have that

10:16 technology because it is just a good backup in case you miss the flashing light on your blind

10:21 spot monitor, and then you've also got rear cross traffic alert, radar cruise control, and then when

10:26 it comes to parking, you have both front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera. I'll show you

10:30 what that looks like. So the quality is actually pretty good, so that's looking out the back of

10:35 the camera, that's your 360 view. Then what you can also do is get tighter angles, so that's like

10:40 a trailer parking view, kind of redundant, you can see it's really hard to see what's going on there.

10:44 Then you've also got a side view for the wheels, and then finally you've got a wide angle at the

10:50 back there, plus a 3D mode, so it gives you your EV6 there, and then you can scroll around and

10:55 see what's going on around you. So yeah, not a bad setup. Now, super quickly, Kia and Hyundai have a

11:01 stack of EVs coming. Would you, I guess, venture into the EV market because it's Kia and Hyundai

11:07 as opposed to other brands because they'll be cost effective? Kia, seven-year warranty here in

11:12 Australia. Yeah, are you excited by Korean EVs above and beyond other brands? Let me know what

11:16 you reckon in the comments section below. Moving on to practicality, and we'll start with your

11:20 connectivity. So down the front here you've got a USB-C port, a USB-A port, another USB-C hidden

11:26 under here, a 12-volt outlet. Then up the top you have wireless phone charging. And in terms of your

11:33 storage for your phone, so it can live on the wireless charging pad down there, or you can pop

11:37 it here in the cup holders or even that slot just there, so plenty of storage options for your phone.

11:42 In terms of further storage, you've got two cup holders, you've also got cup holders inside the

11:46 doors, heaps of storage down here. It's not like the Ioniq 5 which has like big gaps down the bottom

11:52 here and they're kind of useless those things because if you do put a bag down there it'll

11:55 just roll into your foot space over here. Centre console is quite deep, so plenty of storage space

12:01 there. And again, unlike the Ioniq 5, it's not like a bucket type thing, it just goes all the

12:05 way in for your glove box, so plenty of storage space in there as well. Now let's talk comfort.

12:11 You've got dual zone automatic climate control. Like I said before, one push of this activates

12:16 that. You've got heated and cooled seats for the front row here, heated steering wheel. And then in

12:21 terms of your seats, loving this design, so there's like an Alcantara finish in the centre there with

12:27 this offset colour. Love this sort of contouring on that headrest as well, it really is quite a

12:32 creative setup. In terms of the seat adjustment, both full electric seat adjustment, you also have

12:38 the ability to store your memory up the front here as well. But like the Ioniq 5, this has

12:43 the zero gravity seats, which means a couple of pushes of buttons here means you can go into the

12:49 full recline mode, so while the car is charging you can kick back and relax, maybe stack some Zs

12:55 or something like that, then once it's charged you just get straight back into action. So yeah,

13:01 really cool and novel setup and I like the way they've been able to do this without integrating

13:05 that sort of footrest down the bottom. Steering has both tilt and reach adjustment. And then

13:12 finally our reach test. All of this stuff is easy to reach but I do find the outer edges of that

13:16 screen just a little bit of a stretch from the driver's seat. So second row, let's start off

13:22 with room. Look at this, have stacks of knee room there. Toe room is surprisingly not very good,

13:27 my toes are kind of just wedged there. I would have liked to be able to stretch out a little bit

13:31 here while in the second row but headroom is not too bad. This doesn't get that full glass roof

13:36 that you get in the Ioniq 5, so it's just that sort of front sunroof setup there. I'm not sure

13:40 if a panoramic roof is going to be available as an option but yeah, it's just one of those cool

13:44 things that kids love. You've got map pockets in the back of the seats here. You've got air vents

13:49 in the B-pillar. Nothing down here and that's because your USB ports are built into the seats

13:54 here. So two USB-C ports. You've got a center armrest here with two cup holders but have a look

13:59 at this. You can swipe them out of the way and I think that is such a good feature because sometimes

14:04 you don't want your cup holders. You can just move them out of the way and have that setup. So same

14:09 design for the seats here with that Alcantara stuff and the offset colours. ISOFIX points on

14:13 the two outboard seats and then you can also move these seats if you do want to recline a little

14:19 bit. Now down here as well you don't have to just use your charge port for vehicle to load. You've

14:24 actually got a power point down here. So this is the type of stuff that makes electric cars so

14:28 versatile and I think people are going to love it. Now let's talk cargo space. So similar to the

14:33 Ioniq 5 you've got a power tailgate and then depending on whether you go for the premium

14:39 sound system or not you've got a little over 500 litres of cargo space available here with a sub

14:44 floor. So beneath here you've got room to store some of your cables, the V2L plug for example,

14:49 and you can also tuck away that cargo blind. Then if you don't go the premium sound system you have

14:53 a little bit more depth. Up the front there you have a little bit of storage as well. Again,

14:57 depending on whether you go rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive it varies in size but in

15:01 all-wheel drive trim it's kind of a tiny little space around 30 litres. What you can do though

15:05 is drop that second row and then it gives you a pretty flat loading floor making this I think

15:10 perhaps a little more practical than the Ioniq 5. So the Kia EV6. One of the things I forgot to

15:17 mention earlier is that unlike the Ioniq 5, which I didn't really love the way that it rode on

15:22 country roads, I thought it was just really unsettled, didn't have good body control,

15:26 all of the ride and handling tuning for the EV6 has been done here in Australia. So during COVID

15:30 they were hard at work giving this an Australian tune and that will generally mean it will be a

15:35 great car to drive. So I can't wait to get behind the wheel of this. I'm really keen for your

15:39 feedback. Let me know in the comments section below. They've had something like 16,000 expressions of

15:43 interest in Australia but they only have about 500 coming in 2022. So it's going to be slim

15:48 pickings for a lot of people but let me know what you reckon about it down there. Are you on the

15:52 waiting list for one? Let me know the colour and spec that you're going for. I think I'm going to

15:56 hang out for the GT. This should be an absolute weapon when they start sticking those fast motors

16:01 inside it. Now if you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and share it with your mates

16:06 and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel. But until next time, take it easy.

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