The Kia EV6 is one of the fastest-charging electric cars, but is that enough to beat others on long journeys? We will see if the promises of the car of the year are well respected.
As part of our series on long electric car journeys, we look at charging times and costs for many different vehicles. Today it’s the Kia EV6 we’re focusing on, to see if its ultra-fast charging is enough to get ahead of the other contenders.
As usual, the rules will be as follows: the start will be at 100% battery, the finish at 20% and the vehicle will have to drive at the limit speeds. We will recall the characteristics of the vehicle (autonomy, battery, charging power) and compare them to the reality on the ground.
Thus, with the help of future files concerning other vehicles, you will be able to define the one that will allow you to arrive at your destination at the lowest cost and as quickly as possible. Without further ado, let’s take a look at how long trips in the Kia EV6 are like!
Features of the Kia EV6
The Kia EV6 was voted car of the year, and it has recently improved even more, especially with a 77.4 kWh battery that provides a WLTP range of up to 528 kilometers.
Unfortunately, as you will see below, its range is greatly reduced at high speed, due to soaring fuel consumption. We have also dealt with this problem recently, asking ourselves if a large battery was still necessary, or if there were other avenues to favor to cut the road in an electric car.
Also, one of the huge advantages of the Kia EV6 is its 800-volt battery architecture, which ensures it goes from 10 to 80% battery in just 18 minutes. Totalenergies, Fastned, Ionity or the Tesla Superchargers open to everyone on the course can be used without problem by the Kia EV6, which takes advantage of its Combo CCS port to recharge quickly wherever possible.
As always, A Better Route Planner will be used to plan routes, with the default fuel consumption benchmark announced for the Kia EV6.
Route planning
Before planning the trip, we apply the same rules as usual. We start trips at 100% battery, considering that you have to pay for this filling at the average price per kWh in France, currently at 0.17 euros. The 77.4 kWh then represent €13.20. We take this cost into account in the balance sheet for each major journey.
The first major route will simulate a summer vacation from Orléans to Arcachon (530 kilometers), and the winter route will begin in Caen and end in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (850 kilometers ).
For the summer route, the parameters shown in A Better Route Planner are as follows: 25 degrees Celsius outside temperature, no wind, arrival at a charging station with 10% battery remaining and arrival at destination at 20%. For the winter trip, it’s essentially the same, apart from the weather, where we chose a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius.
The balance sheet of the different routes
Less than 30 minutes of charging to travel 530 kilometers
With a WLTP range of 528 kilometers announced by Kia, traveling this distance should not be a problem for the EV6. Of course, at the speed limits of French motorways, you should not imagine achieving this autonomy.
Two 13-minute recharges are announced by A Better Route Planner to connect Orléans to Arcachon, which shows the strength of the Kia EV6: when you have to charge, it’s never for long.
The first charge is at the Futuroscope in Poitiers (€0.56/kWh) and the second at an Ionity terminal (€0.69/kWh). The total fast charging cost of this trip is then 43 euros, which gives us a cost of the trip including the departure charge of 56 euros. Consumption, meanwhile, is announced at 234 Wh / km, or a theoretical autonomy of 330 kilometers on the highway.
The Kia EV6 is not the champion of winter, but not so far
The 850 kilometers that separate Normandy from Haute-Savoie by 0 degrees are not easy for most electric cars. Consumption increases, charging may be slower and connecting the next charger may sometimes be difficult.
Fortunately, the Kia EV6 takes advantage of all its advantages to successfully complete this exercise. Four stops are needed to reach your destination with 20% battery, but none exceed 30 minutes.
In total, one hour and fourteen minutes of recharging are provided by A Better Route Planner, with two loads on Tesla Superchargers open to everyone, one at Ionity and one at Totalenergies. The costs related to fast charging for these 850 kilometers peak at 130 euros at the current rate, which corresponds taking into account the departure home charge at a price of 143 euros.
Finally, consumption reaches 272 Wh/km according to A Better Route Planner, i.e. a range of 285 kilometers with a full battery. Of course, this case is quite extreme since it combines high speed, elevation gain and freezing temperature.
Consumption, cost of recharging and autonomy
We summarize the costs and charging times (including home charging at 13.20 euros) in the table below. You will be able to visualize as we go through our examples where the vehicle you are interested in is positioned in relation to the others on a similar route.
Vehicle | Summer ride cost | Summer ride charging time | Total summer journey time |
---|---|---|---|
Tesla Model 3 Drive | 36 – 49 € | 31 mins | 5 h 09 min |
Tesla Model 3 Long Autonomy | 31 – 45 € | 13 – 25 mins | 4 hrs 56 mins |
Kia EV6 58kWh | 52 – 60 € | 38 – 43 mins | 5 hrs 30 mins |
BMW i4 | 48 – 58 € | 22 – 37 mins | 5 hrs 11 mins |
Hyundai Ioniq 5 | 72 € | 36 mins | 5 hrs 16 mins |
Mercedes-Benz EQS | 44 € | 14 mins | 4 hrs 48 mins |
Tesla Model Y Propulsion | 46 € | 34 mins | 5 hrs 30 mins |
MG MG4 64 kWh | 66 € | 49 mins | 5h 39min |
Renault Megane e-tech EV60 | 67 € | 56 mins | 5h 40 mins |
Kia EV6 77kWh | 56 € | 26 mins | 5 h 07 min |
Hyundai Kona 64kWh | 61 € | 58 mins | 5 hrs 47 mins |
Peugeot e-208 | 73 € | 1 hr 13 mins | 6 h 09 min |
Vehicle | Winter trip cost | Winter ride charging time | Total winter journey time |
---|---|---|---|
Tesla Model 3 Drive | 102 € | 1 hr 42 mins | 9:16 a.m. |
Tesla Model 3 Long Autonomy | 101.3 € | 1 hr 02 mins | 8:27 a.m. |
Kia EV6 58kWh | 120 € | 1hr 54mins | 9 h 59 min |
BMW i4 | 147 € | 1 hr 32 mins | 9 h 08 min |
Hyundai Ioniq 5 | 145 € | 1 hr 29 mins | 9:14 a.m. |
Mercedes-Benz EQS | 115 € | 50 mins | 8 h 03 min |
Tesla Model Y Propulsion | 120 € | 1 hr 46 mins | 9 h 42 min |
MG MG4 | 109 – 141 € | 2 hrs 23 mins | 10 h 02 min |
Renault Megane e-tech EV60 | 104 – 139 € | 2 hrs 12 mins | 9 h 49 min |
Kia EV6 77kWh | 143 € | 1 hr 14 mins | 8 hrs 54 mins |
Hyundai Kona 64kWh | 98 – 132 € | 2 hrs 24 mins | 10 h 01 min |
Peugeot e-208 | 168 € | 2 hrs 49 mins | 10 h 59 min |
The Kia EV6 is among the fastest vehicles on long journeys
By taking advantage of its intrinsic qualities – a large battery and very fast charging –, the Kia EV6 ranks very well in our ranking, as we might expect. On the summer and winter route, only the Mercedes EQS and Tesla Model 3 Grande Autonomie show lower times to reach their destination.
Nevertheless, the high consumption of the Kia EV6 on the highway makes these trips relatively expensive, since the cost per 100 kilometers is 10.60 euros in summer and 16.80 euros in winter. Of course, these costs can be optimized in several ways: the first is to lower your cruising speed to 110 km/h for example and the second is to take out an Ionity or Tesla subscription, to reduce the cost of refills.
It will be necessary to examine each situation to know if a subscription is financially interesting, bearing in mind thata one-year commitment is imposed at Ionity (17.99 euros per month), whilethere is no commitment at Tesla (12.99 euros per month).
Still, long journeys in Kia EV6 are certainly fast, but the cost is quite high today, especially in the face of less electron-intensive Teslas. The Tesla Model Y Propulsion is certainly longer to charge, but more economical: charging the Kia EV6 costs 20% more on the winter route for example.
If you’re hesitating between the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6, these long-distance comparisons highlight the interest of the EV6: it wins every time, thanks to a consumption still lower than that of the Ioniq 5. Thus, in addition to charging for less time, the cost per 100 kilometers is lower in both summer and winter, making the Kia EV6 more attractive if this point is important to you.
Finally, it is important to compare this Kia EV6 77 kWh to its little sister equipped with a 58 kWh battery. It certainly offers less autonomy on paper and requires more charging time on our reference routes, but consumes less thanks to its lower weight. Some dealers offer a discount to lower its price below the maximum ecological bonus threshold, making the entry-level Kia EV6 much more attractive.
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