Kear The upcoming performance flagship will be built with Australian roads in mind.
The company has confirmed that it has started tuning EV6 GT In Germany, before production began in September.
It is scheduled for an Australian launch in late 2022 or early 2023.
“There will be only three [suspension] The tune of the world: Europeans, Koreans and Australians, “said Roland Rivero, product planning manager at Kia Australia.
And after a brief hiatus during COVID-19, Kia Australia is once again tuning in to the steering wheel of new vehicles.
The Niro and EV6 GT will be the first car in a few years with Australian steering tune.
Vehicles like Carnival missed because Kia said a Mando or ZF steering engineer would have to physically plug in a laptop for a bespoke steering tune, which was difficult to organize during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Kia says other markets are following some of the tuning changes made to vehicles by its Australian engineers.
Tuning is led by Graeme Gambold, who has localized more than 50 Kia model rides over the past decade.
These include the standard EV6, Mr. Gambold has worked closely with the team at the local chassis setup in Namiang, South Korea.
Despite the complexity of the COVID-19 lockdown, Kia was able to perform local testing of the EV6 Air and GT-line.
Kia has not confirmed a local price for the GT, but says there is already a lot of excitement.
“Sellers are now taking deposits without any knowledge of the price, and the dealer will give a hint and I think most of our dealers are advising somewhere around $ 100,000,” Mr Rivero said.
“It certainly didn’t stop people dropping $ 2000,” he said, noting that refundable deposits have been placed on buyers.
Although local specifications have not yet been announced, Mr Rivero said it would not necessarily provide more equipment than the GT-Line, although it would have more performance-based seats.
It has a unique front bumper, bright green brake caliper and 21-inch alloy wheels, though it’s under the skin where the GT arguably distinguishes itself from the lower EV6.
It has an electronic limited-slip differential, randomly adjusts the wheel torque with the highest grip, as well as an electronic control suspension with constant damp control.
There’s also a Dedicated Drift mode, where the regular EV6 has 380mm front and 360mm rear brakes compared to the 325mm all-round.
It has the output of a dual-motor electric drive setup 430kW And 740NmAnd it comes with a 77.4kWh lithium-ion battery pack.
Kia cites 0-100km / h sprint time of 3.5 seconds and maximum speed of 260km / h.
Driving Range Hall 424 km In the strict WLTP test cycle.
As a reference, the current Audi RS6 packs 441kW and 800Nm from its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 petrol engine, hitting a speed of 100km / h from a standstill in 3.6 seconds on its way to a limited maximum speed of 280km / h (305km / h). D optional).
A more direct comparison would be the Tesla Model 3 performance, which has a 3.3-second sprint time and a top speed of 261 km / h – and it retails for $ 84,900 plus on-road costs. Also, its 547km claimed range (WLTP) is much higher than Kia’s.
The upcoming Model Y Performance has a 3.7-second sprint time, though it still loses the EV6 in the range with a WLTP claim of 480km.
The current EV6 pumps 239kW and 605Nm with flagship, dual-motor GT-line, 484km range.
More: Everything Kia EV6