The Kia EV6 is one of the hottest electric vehicles to hit the market this year, and consumer demand is far outstripping the supply. We were able to grab an all-wheel-drive EV6 GT-Line on media loan recently so that we could perform the InsideEVs 70 mph highway range test.
Kia offers two battery options for the EV6; a 58 kWh pack in the base model that is only available in rear-wheel drive (EV6 Light), and a 77.4 kWh battery larger battery pack that can be paired with either RWD or AWD configurations.
The RWD model with the 58 kWh battery has a combined EPA range rating of 232 miles (374 km), while the RWD EV6 with the 77.4 kWh battery is rated at 310 miles (500 km). Our EV6 was the AWD GT-Line, which had the 77.4 kWh pack and is EPA range rated at 274 miles (442 km) per charge. However, that rating was established with the standard 19" wheels.
Check out the full catalog of InsideEVs 70 MPH range tests
Our vehicle was equipped with the larger 20" wheel option which doesn't have its own EPA range rating. We suspect that larger, wider tires would account for about a 10-mile range penalty had Kia listed a separate range rating for the larger tire & wheel option as some other manufacturers do.
| Segment Of The Test | Average Efficiency | Miles Driven | Total Miles |
| 100% to 75% | 3.3 mi/kWh | 65 | 65 |
| 75% to 50% | 3.3 mi/kWh | 63 | 129 |
| 50% to 25% | 3.3 mi/kWh | 59 | 188 |
| 25% to 0% | 3.3 mi/kWh | 57 | 245 |
We ended up driving the EV6 GT-Line 245 miles (395 km) and had an average consumption rating of 3.3 mi/kWh (18.8 kWh/100km). That's about 10.5% less than the combined EPA range rating. We would have preferred comparing our findings to the EPA highway range rating. Unfortunately, the EPA recently stopped publishing the city and highway range ratings, choosing to only disclose the combined rating.
About the InsideEVs range tests:
We want to make it clear our range tests aren't perfect. There are variables simply out of our control like wind, traffic, and weather. However, we do our best to control what we can.
We always set the tires to the manufacturer's recommended pressure, crosscheck the speedometer with a GPS for accuracy and place the vehicle in eco-driving mode (in the case of the EV6 that's called "Eco". We DC fast charge the vehicle up to 100 percent, reset the trip meter, and enter the highway immediately or within a couple of miles. We then drive at a constant 70 mph and in long loops so we end up either where we started, or very close by.
Driving conditions, temperature, and topography will affect an EVs driving range and our 70-mph range tests serve only as a guideline of approximately what you should expect if you drive the same EV under similar conditions.
