576 HP Kia EV6 GT Proves It’s Quick by Drag Racing RS3, Can Also Drift

The Kia EV6 is one of the most popular electric cars at the moment, available with standard or long-range batteries, RWD and AWD. However, where the EV6 starts from 168 horsepower, Kia have just launched the EV6 GT with 576 horsepower. It’s the most powerful car they’ve ever made, and we were curious if it really is as fast as sports cars.

The EV6 was announced a while back and was supposed to be available in 2021. So it’s a little bit delayed, but after showing up at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, it’s now in production and available to reviewers. Today, we got to sample multiple tests of the EV6 GT, some of which scrutinize its performance.

Until now, the most powerful version was the EV6 GT-Line with dual motors and 321 horsepower. We recently saw that drag racing an older Ferrari model and doing a great job. The EV6 GT features a high-performance propulsion system that increases the output to 576 hp (585 PS in Europe) and 546 pound-feet of torque.

With a claimed 0 to 60 mph time of less than 3.5 seconds, it’s freakishly fast, even compared to the 4.6 seconds of the GT-Line. It makes you wonder why Kia has built a small EV that can hit 162 miles per hour, but then you realize it’s going up against the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT and the Tesla Model Y Performance.

The first video we want to bring to your attention is a drag race + review combo from the British magazine What Car? They raced it against one of the fastest hatchbacks on the planet, the Audi RS3. This is sold as a sedan in America, but the 2.5-liter turbocharged powertrain is the same on both. One of the most special small performance engines delivers 401 horsepower, which doesn’t sound like enough to race… a Kia. Yes, an Audi RS model isn’t enough to compete with a Korean car, and we welcome this competition.

Even though they’re not evenly powered, the two were supposedly even from 0 to 40 mph at 2.2 seconds, although the RS3 launch control always lagged behind its EV rival. Over the quarter-mile, the difference is pretty substantial. And by beating the RS3, the Kia EV6 GT proves it’s a real sports car killer. We’re curious how this will do against performance SUVs like the Cayenne Turbo or BMW X5 M.

Will it drift?

A lot of these bespoke EV models have RWD platforms, but most of them won’t allow you to drift the car. Volkswagen, for example, won’t let you disable stability control, although people have gotten around this by pulling a specific fuse (under the hood).

This next video from German YouTuber Automann-TV proves that the new EV6 GT can also do burnouts and drifting while in GT mode. Now, we’re not saying it’s a BMW M3, but Kia lets you fully slide the car and destroy the tires like a baller, and that’s pretty special in this part of the EV market.

Pricing hasn’t been announced in the U.S. but is to be expected later this year. The EV6 GT-Line AWD maxes out at $57,200. And based on what the Europeans are saying, you could be looking at a $70,000 Kia EV here.

You can expect similar levels of performance from two sister models. We believe the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N will be launched quickly, followed by the Genesis GV60, which will be the most expensive.

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