Long-Term Review of the Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD: Well, that was a successful year.
Our long-term EV6 turned out to be successful.

Important lessons learned:

    Compared to all the gas-powered long-term test cars we've evaluated, the EV6 turned out to be more affordable to run.
    Although its form isn't conventional, its striking design has captured attention all year long without significantly sacrificing functionality.
    Although Kia's charging technology is excellent, it is limited by the complex and fussy fast-charging network of today.

This is a difficult farewell. Our fleet no longer includes the long-term Kia EV6 GT-Line, which we will miss. Ultimately, we continued passed the 10,000-mile milestone, and even though there were some unforeseen dealer trips for upgrades and unexpected road debris, our EV6 showed to be dependable and a true pleasure over the course of a year.

By the time the EV6 entered our fleet, we had evaluated almost every new electric vehicle, but this was our first opportunity to test an electric car for a whole year. The nature of regular week-long loans for the media just cannot capture the genuine experience of automobile ownership, particularly for electric vehicles (EVs) since charging is such an essential component of the whole process. That's one of the main reasons we decided to commit to an EV6 test that would last for a full year. Fortunately, the Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis E-GMP platform automobiles are powerful chargers.
View all of the Long-Term Kia EV6 news here.

Prior to discussing public charging, it is important to acknowledge the significance of charging at home. For those of us at Autoblog who live with Level 2 chargers installed in our houses, the public charging infrastructure presents absolutely no problem. The 274 miles our EV6 is rated for on a full charge is more than enough range for most day excursions in metro Detroit, except for road trips. This means that people can come and go from their homes without ever having to search for "EV charger" on Google Maps.

But for those who did need to utilize public fast-charging stations, the EV6 was an excellent car for that kind of use case. It can charge quickly—from 20% to 80% in roughly 18 minutes—and our EV6 continuously delivered on its promises of performance. With rivals like the Ford Mustang Mach-E or VW ID.4 already charging, we would arrive at the local Electrify America event and leave before they could complete. We still consider it to be winning, even if it may not be as thrilling as taking first place in a drag race.

That's when the weather became nasty, and things grew more complicated. While those using fast chargers saw substantially longer wait times, those who charged at home continued to do so with just little inconvenience. Sadly, the battery preconditioning mechanism that pre-heats the battery to enable ultra-fast charging right out of the box was absent from our 2022 EV6. It might take a little bit for the speed to increase while you're sitting at a charger, but it more than doubled our average stay time at any given fast charger. For many EV owners, waiting 40 minutes at an Electrify America or EVGo is not unusual, but the performance decrease is striking if you're used to waiting 20 minutes or less. Thankfully, Kia has since upgraded its EV6 cars with a battery preconditioning device, and for those without one from the start, it is even providing a software update.

Our EV6 stood up throughout the course of the year to a more than adequate degree in terms of long-term fit and finish. It rattled and squeaked neither when it came nor when it went out. The interior's two-tone black and white design still looks brand-new and flawless. The piano black trim around the console and center armrest, on the other hand, wasn't as fortunate, which supports our belief that piano black trim is not an appropriate finish for often handled interior components. We don't want to cope with the added anguish of having to clean the area all the time to get rid of the fingerprints and very noticeable dust.

All we can say is that the EV6 has stood up rather well when it comes to driving. The AWD dual-motor GT-Line accelerates very fast—almost too fast for a car meant to be a daily driver or family vehicle. However, we're happy we chose the dual-motor as it's made the daily grind lively and allowed for some side-scratching fun in addition to painless snow driving. With its instantaneous maximum torque experience, the EV6 is unlike any other gas-powered crossover in that it can securely secure you to your seat at any time. Because of its low center of gravity, it can easily handle a freeway onramp and keep up with vehicles on curving roads that are too fast for it. Additionally, the EV6 has a surprising amount of staying power when you push its acceleration; it won't give up until you've used it to the limit for a considerable amount of time. It is prevented from flopping about or acting like the large, hefty crossover that it is by its wide tires and sporty suspension. If you really start pushing it, you should also be able to blast through tighter bends with some eager rotation.

Without overtly sporty intents, it's a very nice vehicle to drive, but it's clearly not quite as much fun as the fully functional EV6 GT, which can sprint from 0 to 60 mph in only 3.4 seconds. Despite the lack of acceleration, choosing the AWD GT-Line for the more intense GT isn't as regrettable as it would seem. The GT's range is severely limited, and even if the bucket seats are quite comfortable, the manual adjustment doesn't seem appropriate for a vehicle of this price.

In case you were interested in the specifics of efficiency and cost-to-run, we monitored them throughout the year. We ultimately traveled 2.9 miles per kilowatt-hour on average. Although the EV6 GT-Line AWD should have a combined efficiency of around 3.1, that statistic falls short of what it really is, and we will hold ourselves accountable for our driving habits. We typically arrived to that 2.9 number via a mixture of several lengthy road trips, a lot of driving in cold weather over the winter, and a propensity to use the EV6's entire 320 horsepower. When looking at overall energy utilized, we used roughly 3,400 kWh of energy at a cost of about $1,200 annually. To put that figure into perspective, the typical house in 2022 used 10,791 kWh of energy annually, according to the U.S. Energy Administration.

According to the EPA's fuel efficiency website, our EV6 should cost around $750 year for 15,000 miles of driving; however, our higher expenses are due to the fact that we fast-charge significantly more often than the average user. Even so, over the course of a year, the EV6 proved to be less expensive to run than any long-term gas-powered vehicle we tested. However, if you plan to depend mostly on the public charging infrastructure of the country, be aware that expenses will add up quickly.

With what is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most thrilling EVs available today, that brings an end to our year. After a year of driving the Kia EV6, I'm confident we have the answers to any questions you may have. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments section below. Go here to read every article we published on our long-termer.