[Cyprio]

I wonder whether it will be the rear wheel drive or the awd - hope its the awd. Still, I should get an idea of what the car is like. If all goes well I'll be registering for a GT. Anyone else on here have their name down for the GT?

 

[MurlinatoR]

I wonder whether it will be the rear wheel drive or the awd - hope its the awd. Still, I should get an idea of what the car is like. If all goes well I'll be registering for a GT. Anyone else on here have their name down for the GT?

Hey there @Cyprio , happy Tuesday!

So, the full GT with the 576hp won't be available for about a year. The GT-Line with the 320hp is available now.

 

[Cyprio]

Hey there @Cyprio , happy Tuesday!

So, the full GT with the 576hp won't be available for about a year. The GT-Line with the 320hp is available now.

Thank you kind sir!

 

[MurlinatoR]

Thank you kind sir!

Here to help!

 

[Habu]

I wonder whether it will be the rear wheel drive or the awd - hope its the awd. Still, I should get an idea of what the car is like. If all goes well I'll be registering for a GT. Anyone else on here have their name down for the GT?

Pretty certain it’ll be the RWD as I don’t believe any dealers have the AWD for demo drives. This’ll change in due course.

 

[EVFan]

I also have a test drive booked for Friday and it will be RWD as, I am told, all dealer demos are 2WD.
I even was in contact with Kia Business department to try and find an AWD to test drive but they were not able to help. It seems that AWD demo cars will not be available in the UK until some time in the new year.

 

[AndyJ]

I also have a test drive booked for Friday and it will be RWD as, I am told, all dealer demos are 2WD.
I even was in contact with Kia Business department to try and find an AWD to test drive but they were not able to help. It seems that AWD demo cars will not be available in the UK until some time in the new year.

Having driven two RWD........and ordered one......I personally don't see the need for AWD - for my requirements -. I have had an X drive M sport pack on my BMW and I bet the 4 wheel drive has barely cut in. As for acceleration, 0 - 60 in approx 7 secs is pretty damn quick !! If you are unfortunate to be caught out in a snow storm I reckon RWD on top of half a ton of battery will go anywhere

 

[EVFan]

Having driven two RWD........and ordered one......I personally don't see the need for AWD - for my requirements -. I have had an X drive M sport pack on my BMW and I bet the 4 wheel drive has barely cut in. As for acceleration, 0 - 60 in approx 7 secs is pretty damn quick !! If you are unfortunate to be caught out in a snow storm I reckon RWD on top of half a ton of battery will go anywhere

I know I am going to have to make some compromises coming from the I-Pace, but I'm not particularly keen to give up as much as170hp and the additional torque. The effortless pull-away from roundabouts and ease of overtaking is what keeps me hooked on EV's.

Also, not sure about RWD in a snowstorm, even with half a ton of battery to weight it down. Although I have to admit it is likely to be the most fun.

 

[Desmo]

My Model S is RWD and I've never had any problems in the snow. Granted, Essex doesn't get the heaviest downpours so it depends on where you are in the country.

 

[Cyprio]

I know I am going to have to make some compromises coming from the I-Pace, but I'm not particularly keen to give up as much as170hp and the additional torque. The effortless pull-away from roundabouts and ease of overtaking is what keeps me hooked on EV's.

Also, not sure about RWD in a snowstorm, even with half a ton of battery to weight it down. Although I have to admit it is likely to be the most fun.

Curious as to what compromises you feel you will have to make? I'm considering either the I-pace or the ev6 GT. I've driven the I-pace a few times and apart from the marginally higher ride I can't think of another reason that would deter me from the ev6. Yes the I-pace has a more premium interior but the ev6 is not that far behind. Admittedly it's still too early to talk about the GT version but if the hype is anything to go by I think it could easily be a match for the I-pace.

 

[EVFan]

Curious as to what compromises you feel you will have to make? I'm considering either the I-pace or the ev6 GT. I've driven the I-pace a few times and apart from the marginally higher ride I can't think of another reason that would deter me from the ev6. Yes the I-pace has a more premium interior but the ev6 is not that far behind. Admittedly it's still too early to talk about the GT version but if the hype is anything to go by I think it could easily be a match for the I-pace.

Well, hopefully not too much, and I won't know about ride quality, comfort, cabin noise and handling until I have driven the EV6, but certainly not expecting enough to justify a £25k uplift.
However, the additional power & torque, premium interior, air suspension, and the overall design would potentially be some of the things I would miss.

 

[Cyprio]

Well, hopefully not too much, and I won't know about ride quality, comfort, cabin noise and handling until I have driven the EV6, but certainly not expecting enough to justify a £25k uplift.
However, the additional power & torque, premium interior, air suspension, and the overall design would potentially be some of the things I would miss.

Yes air suspension was a must-have option for me when I was searching for a used I-pace. The problem now is how used prices have reached stupid level - a one year old I-pace HSE with air-suspension is around 65K+, the same car a few months ago could have been had for around 57K, so a brand new ev6 GT at 58K is looking pretty good value if you're looking for an EV in the higher end segment. My only reservations are the manually operated seats in the GT and no sunroof availability, it just seems weird why they're not even available as optional extras - hopefully this might change by the time the GT is ready.

 

[robby-d]

Regarding the sunroof, that much torque puts a lot of stress on the body and they'd likely need a different frame than the GT Line if they included the sunroof. (You often see the same thing in fold-down seats, the more powerful engines rely on structure across the middle of the car to stiffen, so often you get smaller pass-throughs instead of fully fold-down seats).

Similar to the seats, I'd expect these to be options, but in a future model year. With many manufacturers they'll keep things simple for the first MY, figure things out, and then have options for 2nd or 3rd MY. The Chevy Corvette is a great example of this, where they don't do the Z06 until a year or two after a wholesale change, while they work out the little details to make it perfect.

 

[Cyprio]

Regarding the sunroof, that much torque puts a lot of stress on the body and they'd likely need a different frame than the GT Line if they included the sunroof. (You often see the same thing in fold-down seats, the more powerful engines rely on structure across the middle of the car to stiffen, so often you get smaller pass-throughs instead of fully fold-down seats).

Similar to the seats, I'd expect these to be options, but in a future model year. With many manufacturers they'll keep things simple for the first MY, figure things out, and then have options for 2nd or 3rd MY. The Chevy Corvette is a great example of this, where they don't do the Z06 until a year or two after a wholesale change, while they work out the little details to make it perfect.

Interesting post, and makes a lot of sense

 

[dc30307]

Regarding the sunroof, that much torque puts a lot of stress on the body and they'd likely need a different frame than the GT Line if they included the sunroof. (You often see the same thing in fold-down seats, the more powerful engines rely on structure across the middle of the car to stiffen, so often you get smaller pass-throughs instead of fully fold-down seats).

I'm not so sure that would apply to the world of EVs. A big engine up front applying massive torque through a drive shaft to the wheels at the opposite end of the car can produce a lot of torsional strain on the body. But two motors producing torque directly to their respective center differentials isn't going to cause much structural force outside of that motor/suspension subassembly. There is linear/accelerating force, but that's not going to exceed the traction limit of the tires, which nearly any car can approach during hard braking.

Besides that, people in some markets have been able to pre-order GTs with sunroofs. 🙂

 

[EVFan]

Had my test drive last Friday and EV6 has gone straight to the top of the list of my current contenders, although I have to say partly because some of the others ruled themselves out.
We liked a lot of things about the Kia - the interior layout, comfort, roominess, the tech (love the camera view in the dash when indicating), and quality was good.
The exterior looks were a given; we had already ruled out the Hyundai i5 just walking up to it, but the EV6 was the opposite feeling, and drew us to want to get inside.
The cabin was very nice indeed, really liked the layout, and found the search function of the infotainment centre helped enormously in finding the features that I wanted to try.
Once the Polestar 2 and the Audi Q4 were out of consideration, this just left the Mach e in the running.
I really liked the design of the Ford/Mustang, particularly externally, and the seats were very comfortable, but not so keen on the Ipad style of the infotainment display, although it was very easy to use.
The drive started out really well, but I was able to take the Mach e over roads that I drive daily and these were what ruled it out in the end. I live in the Cambridgeshire fens and because of the nature of this area the roads are very challenging for suspension, and the Mach e did not cope very well. Both I and my passenger were thrown about too much for it to be a comfortable journey.
After the Mach e road test we drove home over the same roads and it was very (very) noticeable that the I-Pace (admittedly on the expensive air suspension) was way, way better. I may have forgotten over the 3 years that I have had it, just how good the Jaguar handled these roads.

So, the conclusion of my initial test drives is that Polestar 2, Audi Q4 E-tron and Mustang Mach e are no longer on my shortlist, but the EV6 very much still is.
However, I am going to need to take a 2nd test drive in the Kia and drive it over my home roads to confirm that it can handle them, and I also need to check the function of the intelligent speed limit assist (ISLA) and the regen performance of the i-drive 1-pedal drive because I didn't really get them set up as I would like during my initial test drive.
Assuming these all perform as expected then I anticipate placing an order for AWD GT-Line S by the end of the year.

 

[Cyprio]

So my wife and I arrived at our local Kia dealer to find a gleaming black ev6 parked outside ready for us to take out on a test drive. The sales guy said it was a rwd gt line, though he didn't mention whether it was the S spec - I should have asked.
My wife drove it first so I could play around with the tech and the very first thing I did was connect a flash drive which had a mixture of mp3's and flac music files. Music in a car is very important to me and immediately I thought the sound coming from the Meridian audio was good enough. Vocals were clear and bass was reasonably tight (I don't know if this car had the rear sub installed). Still, I'm sure the sound could have been tweaked more to my liking had I the time to play around.

The seats were very comfortable and the quality of the interior was nice - not premium, though not far off. There was just a little too much scratchy plastic and too much piano black plastic for my liking. I also found the twin function touch panel for the infotainment and heating controls a bit annoying as I kept touching the panel when turning the rotary dial to adjust the heating, so that will take a little getting use to (for me it will anyway).

Something that I did find peculiar which I've never experienced in a vehicle before was a quite noticeable vibration coming though the centre armrest, almost like the armrest needed a couple of rubber dampers placed on the underside. As a passenger I would find this irritating - maybe it was just this particular car but I would want something done to rectify it.

On to the driving - the first thing I noticed was the suspension which I felt was a little firm when driving around town but this definitely improved when we took the car on a couple of fast roads. My only concern is that If I go for one of these cars it will be the GT variant which will probably have a stiffer suspension setup. Hopefully the electronic adjustable suspension on the GT might help with that.

The brakes were very good and the car felt very sure-footed when cornering at speed and had a nice precise feel to it. Talking of speed it picked up nicely - as an EV should - and felt reasonably quick.

So in conclusion, I would be happy to put a deposit down on a GT but the only thing holding me back is the limited colour choice - I'm not keen on the car in Black and I'm not quite sure about White, which then only leaves the stunning Matte Grey. In the meantime I'll find out as much as possible about the do's and don'ts of matte paintwork before I decide to take the plunge.

 

[dc30307]

The sales guy said it was a rwd gt line, though he didn't mention whether it was the S spec - I should have asked.

Did it have a sunroof? That's probably the most obvious clue. Then you'll know if you were listening to the Meridian system, or standard. 🙂

 

[Cyprio]

Did it have a sunroof? That's probably the most obvious clue. Then you'll know if you were listening to the Meridian system, or standard. 🙂

Do you know, I never noticed whether it had a sunroof lol though the speaker grills did have the word meridian etched on them.

 

[dc30307]

Well, then it probably had a sunroof. 😄