The onslaught of new electric vehicles includes a lot of crossovers. They’re already popular with customers, and they can more easily accommodate an all-electric powertrain’s bulky battery packs. Automakers will expand the variety of EV offerings as the technology advances, which should include sportier-looking offerings. A new rendering from X-Tomi Design shows off what a three-door Kia EV6 could look like if the crossover turned into a hatch.
The bulk of the changes made to the crossover is behind the front doors. The rear doors are shorter, and the C and D pillars are further blended, eliminating the small window behind the rear doors. The lack of rear doors doesn’t diminish the EV’s size, though, which still looks quite large and crossover-like. A sporty two- or three-door Kia will need more than just shortened doors to win any style awards.
The front-end design doesn’t help the shortened EV6 in its quest to downsize. The sloping and short clamshell-style hood gives the crossover a bulbous face that puts a lot of mass at the front of the vehicle. The shortened ride height helps, and the rear-end design works well on the shortened model, but the face needs a major redesign if Kia were to shorten the model, which it won’t.
Kia hasn’t detailed what will arrive after the EV6, though there are rumors of a city electric vehicle in development launching in 2023. Kia also teased the EV9 with a big, boxy concept late last year. If the Kia EV6 and EV9 Concept are any indications, the production EV9 should be quite the looker when it arrives.
The EV6 is available in the US with either a 58.0- or 77.4-kilowatt-hour battery, with an estimated range of 232 miles (373 kilometers) to 310 miles (499 km). All-wheel drive with a dual-motor setup is available, but only with the larger battery pack. The AWD EV6 delivers 320 horsepower (239 kilowatts), but it also limits the range to 274 miles (441 km).
The hotter EV6 GT will arrive in the US in late 2022. It packs a dual-motor setup that makes 576 hp (430). It’s capable of reaching 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) in less than 3.5 seconds. With stats like that in a crossover, who needs a three-door hot hatch?
