Kia has magicked* some more range from the funky new EV6

When Kia pulled the digital wraps off its striking new EV6 electric crossover-hatch thingy earlier this year, it told us that the big-battery rear-wheel drive version was going to have a target range of 316 miles. And that sounds pretty healthy to us.

But, the finished EV6 has now officially had its WLTP range certified, and it’s been rated as good for 326 miles. This is the progress we like to see.

Kia points out that this is enough to drive from Geneva to Paris on a single charge. Bon.

Should you prefer all-wheel drive (and well you might, given the 577bhp AWD EV6 GT is apparently good for a ridiculous 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds) then you’re not going quite as far. Sorry. But 506km – or 314 miles in Queen’s English – is still pretty healthy, huh?

What’s especially noteworthy here is this is an electric car (and a Kia at that) you might not buy purely because of sensible things like range or warranty or how big the boot is. Just look at it. This is from the people that used to give us the Rio, and thought being wacky was ‘putting an apostrophe in a reasonably priced hatchback’s name'. How times have changed. 

All UK-bound EV6s get the bigger 77kWh battery pack (there’s a 58kWh one on sale elsewhere) and prices kick off at £40,895 for an entry-level 226bhp version. 

Like its sister car, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 which is built on the same platform, the EV6 supports 800-volt charging and ‘bi-directional charging’, which means you can use the battery to run an electrical device you might like to plug in. Even another EV, if someone’s broken down. 

Sales will start later in 2021. Most exciting Kia since the Stinger? We reckon so…