The official EPA range and efficiency ratings for the first three Kia EV6 models have been announced, and they are somewhat better than the Hyundai Ioniq 5 models. According to the EPA Combined Cycle, the entry-level Kia EV6 Standard Range RWD, with a 58-kWh battery and a single, RWD motor, can go 232 miles on a single charge.
The Kia EV6 Long Range RWD, which has a 77.4 kWh battery but is still RWD and has a bit more power, is predicted to travel 310 miles, more than the estimated 300 miles the South Korean company announced initially. Finally, there’s the Kia EV6 Long Range AWD, which has two electric motors for all-wheel drive on top of the 77.4 kWh battery. According to the EPA tests, this version should offer a range of 274 miles.
There’s a bit of a problem with these estimates though. As we all know, the wheel size makes a bit of a difference when talking about the range of electric cars. Most manufacturers list this in their official estimates and the EPA usually does too. In this case though, the EPA somehow forgot to mention the wheels they used during their tests so we’re going to assume that they were done on the base 19” rims the cars get as standard.
We don’t know the EPA range of the Kia EV6 Long Range AWD First Edition, which will be released first and was rapidly sold out, because of the uncertain wheel size. That’s because the First Edition has 20-inch wheels fitted as standard, so it should have a smaller range overall than the normal EV6 LR AWD, which has 19-inch wheels.
Compared to its brother, the Kia EV6 outperforms the Hyundai Ioniq 5 in terms of efficiency, which is unsurprising given the EV6’s superior aerodynamics.
Including charging losses, the SR RWD and LR RWD models should show values of 288 Wh/mi, which is a decent performance (almost equal to the much smaller Chevrolet Bolt EV and Hyundai Kona Electric). In the EPA Combined cycle, the LR AWD variant uses 11.5 percent more energy.
