Our 2022 Kia EV6 AWD GT-Line long-term tester is zipping through winter with little fuss, and some of its success comes down to the rubber fitted to its 20-inch wheels. We acquired a set of Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 tires for the cold months here in Michigan, and the results have been what you’d expect and more from a Blizzak tire.
The specific model of Blizzak winter tire we’re testing, the LM005, isn’t what you’d typically find fitted to a family crossover/SUV/whatever the EV6 is. Bridgestone says the LM005 is a “performance” winter tire designed for performance cars to ensure the vehicle maintains handling and mobility on dry roads and provides the grip in snow we know and love from the more traditional Blizzak lines.
To check our updates on the 2022 Kia EV6 and other EV6 news click the links below:
https://www.autoblog.com/kia/ev6/reviews/
https://www.autoblog.com/buy/2022-Kia-EV6/
TranscriptZAC PALMER: Hello everybody. I'm Zac Palmer with "Autoblog," and in the fleet this week, we have our long term 2022 Kia EV6 GT-Line. This has been in our long term fleet for about six to seven months now. We've racked up over 7,000 miles on it. So going to give you guys a quick walk-around the exterior, look at the inside, talk a little bit about the powertrain, just overall give you guys an idea of what this car is like to look at and live with.
Up front, you'll obviously notice this is a nice runway red paint, all of the black trim and whatnot. Some of it's exclusive to the GT-Line. Some of it isn't. I really like these front DRLs up here. The lighting, some really good LEDs. One thing that is specific to the GT-Line are these nice 20-inch wheels that we have on here. You notice sort of black-painted with a nice pattern in there.
They're currently wrapped with a set of Bridgestone Blaszczak LM-005 winter tires. Now, there's not snow on the ground now, but we will be looking forward to testing those in the snow here soon. Moving along the side, this is where you guys really get a glimpse of the shape of this thing, which is a little perplexing and confusing. Is it a crossover? Is it an SUV? Is it a wagon? What exactly is it?
It's sort of tallish, like a crossover, but it also has a nice short and squat rear end like a wagon. It's a little confusing, but it's utilitarian and that's really all that matters, right? One neat feature on this side here. Because it's the GT-Line, it does have these nice pop-out door handles. When the car is unlocked, they're out. When it's locked, they sit nice and flush with the car. Really like that.
Around the back here, probably my favorite angle for the EV6 is just a nice almost wagon-esque shape here. I really love this long LED tail light. You notice it sort of blends well with the red paint, just this red light that goes all the way down the back. Of course, the new Kia logo looks fresh and modern. EV6 on that side.
And right down here is the only place where it actually says "GT-Line," which is our trim, the top trim. And after that, the last feature that I will point out in the back here is this really cool sort of design. Obviously, no exhaust down here, but it almost looks like a rain light or a bottom middle tail light, like you'll see in race cars. I just think it's a really neat touch. And yeah, it really ties this whole thing together.
So now that we've checked out the outside of our EV6, how about we pop inside and I'll give you guys an interior tour? Hopping into the EV6 here, we're immediately met with what is a very modern and tech-foward-looking interior. But when you pop it on, via this nicely-shaped on button right there, all of the screens light up and you get an idea that Kia is really going for that futuristic look.
So you're met with a 12.3-inch digital cluster there, a 12.3-inch infotainment system there. It all blends nicely with this nice curved screen. I like that a lot. It's fairly airy in here, save for this sort of monolithic sort of center consoleish. You see it sort of free-stands here. Below it is a bunch of storage.
Up top here, you have your main control. So you got your shifter right here. It's a rotary style. Pretty easy to control. A little button there for park. All of your seat controls and heated steering control is right here. So those are a little touch controls. I actually don't like them all that much. I accidentally hit them a number of times. Not great.
Your other main controls you have in this, adjustable panel, and I do really mean adjustable. So as is right now, you see that the little navigational arrow is highlighted. That means that your navigation and radio controls are up right here. So this is a screen, and all this changes. This is currently a volume knob. This is currently a tune knob.
When I press the little climate button, that changes. These knobs change to temperature control knobs. So I can change the temperature there, or the passenger can do the same. You can also adjust the fan speed, sync it, make it a driver-only for better efficiency. You'll use less energy in an EV. And you'll also notice that it times out. So after so much time, it just goes back to this right here. Your volume knob goes back to being a volume knob, so you don't accidentally crank your climate control up when you don't mean to.
In general, I really do like this interior design a lot. These seats are great. These are the optional suede seats with the vegan leather outers and all. It sort of transfers over nicely to the dash with this sort of line design black and white on the dash itself. Very airy-looking steering wheel too.
Just two big spokes, your drive mode button right there on the wheel. Easy-to-control controls. Nice little tabs there for volume and the cruise control. Even your advanced driver systems right there. Just really, really like this interior a lot, and it's so spacious. Let's hop in the back and look at that.
Welcome to the back seat of our Kia EV6 where you'll notice I am extremely comfortable and practically lounging back here. One of the beauties of this car is that it has the same wheelbase as a Kia Telluride, which is a massive three-row SUV. So back seat space is gargantuan, and it's even exaggerated more because this is a great electric car platform. So you have a flat floor, no big transmission tunnel through here at all. So much space to spread out.
Plus, I have nice heated seats back here. That's a GT-Line all-wheel drive. Any all-wheel drive EV6 actually will have that. And if you want to lounge even more, this has a reclining seat so you can go all the way back. And man, it is so, so comfortable. But how about we check out the storage spaces next?
So now that we've looked in there, how about we look out here in the front trunk? To access it, you got to pull the latch down here. There is unfortunately not a button on the fob to release the front trunk. Be as it may, now when you come around, undo, and OK.
Where is the front trunk, right? This is an EV. Well, just got to unlatch this guy right here, and voila, your front trunk. It really isn't much of a trunk, honestly. You can put some papers, maybe the owner's manual. You could really shove a charged cord in there if you tried. But hey, not much there. All the storage really for the EV6 is in the back, so we'll go there next.
So on the way to the back, I will point out that the rear hatch is, in fact, an electrically-operating hatch. We've got a button right down here. Press that, and here it goes. And boom! This is one of my favorite features of the EV6, just how big it is back here, how much stuff you can shove in the back. I love that. That's what makes it an SUV or wagon, whatever you want to call it.
You can, of course, put those rear seats down to get even more storage. And if you want a little more storage space, there is the underfloor storage. You can't really fit a lot in there. As you can see, a tiny mobility kit. Not much else. But yeah, that's about it for the EV6's storage spaces. One of my favorite things about this car.
And speaking of some of my favorite things with the EV6, I sort of saved the best for last, this thing's powertrain. This being the dual-motor all-wheel EV6 GT-Line, 320 horsepower, 446-pound feet of torque from the two electric motors. Yes, it is rear-biased. You get a little shake of the rear end. It's a lot of fun.
0 to 60 in 4.6 seconds. Does it consistently, cold, warm, whatever. It's so much fun, so much fun to drive, and it also has great charging tech. If you want to take it on a road trip, 10% to 80% in about 18 minutes if you get a good charger on a nice warm day.
And yeah. With that, I think that I'll leave you guys with the little party trick. You've probably seen in commercials before, but it's called Smart Park. And all you gotta do is just press a little button here on the key fob, and well, the car will go all on its own, so long as you stay close to it and move on forward. Now we'll just let it exit stage left here.
And that was our 2022 Kia EV6 GT-Line. Make sure you guys check back next week to see what else we have in the fleet and let us know what you think of our long term Kia in the comments below.
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