The budget brand’s new electric car – a slap in the face for the premium brands


CHRONICLE. Not long ago, the Kia was seen as a cheap alternative for the uninterested driver. But the development has gone fast – and in the age of electrification, the car brand challenges the notion of what is premium, writes Ny Teknik’s Felix Björklund.

Historically, real performance has been associated with a few car brands. Should you buy a car with a towbar – choose a Porsche, BMW or why not a Corvette.

The order of the hack, or what you might call it, has been quite clear. But that is no longer the case – and Kia is proof of that.

When South Korean Kia launched the EV6 this week, they not only showed off an electric car of the latest cut – they hit a pole right in the actual “performance country”.

The GT version of the car is not only fast, with its 584 horsepower and 0-100 km / h acceleration in 3.5 seconds, few can measure up. It is at a level that means that a lot of cocky sports car drivers have to cry with shame when they are left behind during pubertal force measurements at traffic lights.

For the phase, it takes a Porsche 911 Turbo to beat this… or Taycan Turbo if you want to drive on electricity.

Read more: China’s electric car boom has Tesla as a model

No, I do not mean that the crossover Kian is a “Porsche killer” or even the right weapon to challenge sports cars with. However, it is a food for thought.

In an incredibly short time, electrification has changed the entire industry. Elon Musk realized that a “wow factor” was required for the technology to be of interest. He saw that car enthusiasts liked acceleration – so he gave it to them.

First sporty, then “Insane Mode”, “Ludicrous speed” and now the latest “Plaid”. With each introduction, the acceleration performance has been pushed further and further away from what stressed fossil car manufacturers hope to achieve with turbos and compressors.

At first, everyone thought, well, just wait until the German manufacturers enter the game – then it will go off. But not. So far, most traditional manufacturers have avoided launching a directly comparable model. The Porsche Taycan and now the Audi E-tron GT is what we got, but it took a long time.

And the fact that the power Germans BMW and Mercedes have not yet presented themselves in this segment has created a vacuum, which in the long run has led to us now having Kia cars that accelerate like 911s.

Yes, the top version of the EV6 has a price tag that puts it above what the average car buyer, or for that matter the Kia speculator, puts. But in the secondary market, it seems to be more affordable. Volkswagen has talked about wanting to democratize the electric car – what the Koreans are contributing is to make performance popular.

Think what a huge difference it will be when you beat Kia in the Blocket search in a few years and instead of diesel-powered Cee’ds and Piacantos with 68 horses – can choose EV6s with performance like a Ferrari Enzo.


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