John and Laurie Wiles 8:57pm • June 8, 2022 Archives, Automotive, History, People, Pinehurst, NC, Radio, Travel, Yonkers, NY Leave a Comment
Listen to John and Laurie Wiles’ review of the 2022 KIA EV6 GT-Line AWD Automotive Review on their Driving Me Crazy radio broadcast that airs this Thursday, June 9, 2022, at 10 a.m., DST and every Thursday throughout the year at the same time. The broadcast is heard “Live” or “On Demand” by clicking onto this specific hyperlink — http://tobtr.com/s/12105551. Please note that the hyperlink is specific to this review. It changes every week. Listeners are welcome to call the broadcast at 347-205-9201 and are asked to stay on topic. Please share your first name so that we may address those who call respectfully!
Driving Me Crazy automotive review Columnists Laurie and John Wiles.
PINEHURST,NC — June 9, 2022 — Okay, this is our second fully electric vehicle. The car is a beauty and most of you know that Hyundai and Kia are ‘joined at the hip’ in South Korea, as Hyundai owns a stake in KIA. We absolutely loved the Hyundai Ioniq 5, our first all-electric vehicle, and expected the EV6 to be similar. It was similar and we certainly enjoyed it but we ran into something we hadn’t experienced before and that’s the real-world problem that an all-electric powered car presents. Read to the end of our review to find out about that.
When you look at the EV 6, you get that futuristic idea of a vehicle somewhere between the Demolition Man movie and George Jetson’s cartoon flying cars. Honestly, to me, it’s very eye catching and really good-looking. Very aerodynamic in its overall appearance and the sweeping front grill that gives the car a really solid appearance. The wheels too are futuristic and sort of remind me of Spock’s Vulcan symbol for “live long and prosper” that Star Trekkies love so well.
The interior is surprisingly spacious and the seats extremely comfortable, especially for the driver and passenger and though there’s plenty of room to store devices, carryalls, and small gear between the seats, the armrest and electric dial control (forward, neutral, and reverse and in the middle of the dial, a button to push down for park), the design of the armrest makes all that open space underneath somewhat difficult to reach and less useful than the thoroughly open, between-the-front-seat design of the Hyundai Ioniq 5.
Now, let’s talk about driving range. The specs say that completely, fully, 100% charged, the Kia EV6 will go 310-miles but as we noted in our review of the Hyundai Ioniq 5, that range varies with stop-and-go traffic, driving up and down hills, and altitude. (Before I say more, I want to note that the EV6, like the Ioniq 5, has incredible response when you put the pedal to the metal—surprising, really.) Back to mileage. Fuel economy is listed at 105 MPGe, or 32 KW-hrs per 100 miles—that may not make much sense in a realm where distance is measured in miles per gallon of gas, but as electric car sales edge forward, kilowatt hours will become part of the common car vocabulary. Annual fuel cost—meaning the cost of electricity—is estimated at $600, which means, add about $50 a month to your electric bill.
As our good friend and car guru Bugsy Lawlor of Automotion in Boston says, there’s no such thing as a bad car anymore. What we used to refer to as Detroit but has morphed into the worldwide automotive manufacturing industry, manufacturers build wonderful cars and, in the process, keeping you out of harm’s way is just as important as protecting you in the event of an accident. We can’t say enough about safety innovations we’ve seen over the past several years, such as Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, Blind Spot Collision Avoidance Assist, Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Avoidance Assist, Lane Keep Assist, Lane Following Assist, Parking Distance Warning – Front/Rear, Parking Collision Avoidance Assist Rear, Safe Exit Assist, Highway Driving Assist, and Remote Smart Parking Assist. You’ve got all that and more in the EV6. Keep my beautiful car out of a ‘fender bender’ and I am a happy man.
When it comes to comfort and convenience, the EV6 has all the bells and whistles: a Dual Panoramic 12.3” Display with Navigation, a concert hall-like Meridian Premium Audio System, Navi-Based Smart Cruise Control with Stop and Go, Smart Key with Push Button and Remote Start, Dual Zone Climate Control, Surround View, Wireless Phone Charger, Vegan Leather Heated and Ventilated Front Seats, Power Adjustable Front Seats with Lumbar Support and two driver memory, Heated Steering Wheel, and Heated Rear Seats. Beautiful. With a $55,900 MSRP, fully loaded price tag (ours cost $58,890 with the additional charge for upgraded paint and suede seats), however, you’ve got to weigh cost against convenience…so now, as the late Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s the rest of the story.”
We’ve told you about some of the many wonderful attributes of the EV6 and Kia has done an amazing job in what still remains early days in the development of a totally electric vehicle. Both the Hyundai Ioniq and the Kia EV6 have outlets at the left backside of the vehicle where you plug in the charging head and the attached long cord plugs into the outside 110V outlet of your home or garage. That would make it easy and convenient to recharge the car every night, which we made a point of doing because basically, although you only get a 10% upcharge while you’re asleep. We expected the same head and cord with the KIA. Not so.
We had driven the car for two days before we attempted to recharge and during that time, got down to 56% with 131 miles still to go. When I went to plug in the car, there was the outlet. There was the charging head. But there was no cord to plug into an outlet. I dutifully looked all through the car, checked the hatch to see if I missed something, checked the trunk, under the seats, but look as I might, I found no extension cord. We then realized we could drive over to the electric quick charging station in downtown Pinehurst, and did, and Voila! Accessed the car’s charging port and the Kia EV6 was charging. Since this was a ‘quick charge’ station, we thought, I was confident the car would be back up to full-charge by the time I returned, about 45 minutes later, from running my assorted errands. I was dismayed that the charging station indicator read: 6 hours and 40 minutes to 100%…Progress, one-percent! I know that’s NOT what they mean by rapid charging? Rapid charging is 800 KV DC charging. And that’s why, my friends—as much as I love and respect both the Kia and Hyundai electric vehicles we recently drove—I think electric cars have a-ways to go before there’s an acceptable solution to the time it takes to recharge a vehicle and the distance it can go before you have to juice up. My story ends like this: with no way to charge the beautiful Kia EV6 at home and not enough time to charge it in town, it sat magnificently in our driveway for three days before it was whisked away by our terrific, highly professional team at Prestige Automotive to take it to a faster fast-charging station before delivering it to the next one of our car review colleagues. Thanks, Kia—it’s not your fault. The technology will catch up, but, in the meantime, keep making your beautiful, stylish, dependable cars!
10910 US-501 Suite B, Southern Pines, NC 28387
Sales | Service | Parts: 1-(844)-327-7844
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