Kia then really put the boot in the following year when it launched the EV6 GT. With dual motors and 577bhp, this was an acute demonstration of the performance potential of electric cars, capable of 0-62mph in just 3.5 seconds and a top speed over 160mph. It underlined that Kia was now a serious threat to the established pecking order. There was, however, some disappointment that it wasn’t as thrilling and engaging as the equivalent Hyundai, the Ioniq 5 N.

Here we are in 2025, just three years later, getting to grips with the facelifted EV6 GT. Revised alongside the rest of the EV6 line-up with a new look and some new in-car technology, the updated GT sports even more power – a spine-compressing 641bhp – and the novelty of a manual gearbox mode that means the single-speed transmission can pretend to have six gears in an effort to boost driver engagement.

Beyond this you also get a bigger battery, faster charging and a touch more torque. Yet – in the UK at least – the EV6 GT now costs less than it used to.

The EV6 is tricky to pigeonhole. Is it a saloon? An SUV? A coupe? Whatever, it has a hatchback boot opening, a long wheelbase, short overhangs and relatively squat stance, adding up to a far from conventional blend of angles and proportions. Not that I’d hold this against it – the Kia’s appearance is attractively assertive and not easily mistaken for anything else on the road. As the flagship model, the GT builds on this with some additional sporty detailing, including a GT-only design of 21-inch alloy wheels.

This newly facelifted version of the EV6 GT brings the same new ‘Star Map’ lighting signature as other EV6s. This moves away from a conventional headlight design and instead adopts a more intricate arrangement that sees the LED daytime running lights wrap around a protruding spur of the bumper. This gets more impressive the more you look at it; the main headlight elements – also LED – are now so small they take up very little room at the front of the car.

The front and rear bumpers are also redesigned for the facelift, with the intention of adding aggression to this variant. To my eyes the changes are smart but relatively subtle, rather than overtly angry. It’s still easy to tell a GT model from a regular EV6, however, thanks to the use of neon green for the brake calipers and some other components inside and out.

Yacht Matt Blue is a new paint colour for the update. Red, black, white and grey are the alternative choices, and carry over from before. The EV6 set the design standard for all of Kia’s standalone electric vehicles, and you can now see its influence in everything from the EV3 to the EV9.

Three things stand out consistently throughout the driving experience.

Firstly, it is very, very fast. Although the 0-62mph time is unchanged, the new version’s extra 64bhp makes the GT quicker in all other circumstances. Unless you’re using the VGS, which I’ll come back to in a moment.

Secondly, the brakes are exceptionally good for an electric car. They deliver very strong stopping power – thank goodness, given the available performance – and pedal feel I could really lean on. This is testament not just to a big set of discs and calipers but also Kia’s software and development engineers, as the braking effect is constantly juggling friction and motor regeneration. You can vary the latter on demand via the paddles on the steering wheel (again, unless you’re using the VGS), or you can use the automatic setting. At its fiercest, the regen will give you one-pedal driving, meaning barely having to use the actual brake pedal at all.

Thirdly, the body control is very well judged. Even in the firmest suspension setting there’s still enough compliance to take the edge off the worse surfaces, plus a degree of bodyroll that helps you understand how close to the limits you’re getting. This is useful, as the car is a little light on steering feedback and can, on occasion, be slightly twitchy.

For an instant contrast to the default mode, a single press of the (neon green) GT button on the steering wheel immediately turns everything up to maximum performance. However, this also disables the stability control, so it’s useful that the new model gives you access to a customisable ‘Individual’ set-up with a second prod of the GT button. In my case, this was the same as the regular GT mode, except with the stability control still firmly in place, allowing me to drive rapidly with greater confidence.

At its most extreme like this, the EV6 GT is a sharp-steering missile with an ultra-reactive accelerator pedal and a decidedly rear-biased delivery that the electronic limited-slip differential fitted at the back helps you to restrain. On the Old Military Road in Scotland – sweeping, undulating and, for the most part, well-sighted – it’s marvellous fun, although never quite able to mask its 2.2-tonne weight and near-4.7-metre length.

Once you’ve had enough of mucking about, simply switch back to one of the lesser driving modes, or change to a softer suspension setting, and the car settles into a relaxed demeanour that effortlessly soaks up the miles.

There’s plenty of space for four large adults in the cabin, and Kia has adjusted the rear seats for improved comfort as part of the facelift. You can carry five if they’re not too broad in the shoulders, with the flat cabin meaning there’s enough room even for leggy adults. Isofix child-seat mounting points are only available on the two outer rear seats, though.

The rear seats split 60:40, but you now get a ski-hatch that wasn’t fitted prior to the facelift. Beyond this, storage shouldn’t be an issue inside as the large double-decker centre console is joined by generous door bins. Power for your devices isn’t a problem either, as alongside the usual USB ports you’ll find a three-pin socket in the rear footwell.

The 480-litre boot is long but relatively shallow; it should still be enough for four suitcases, but a Skoda Enyaq can carry more. On the other hand, a Skoda Enyaq isn’t anywhere near this fast, so check your priorities. The EV6 has a 20-litre space under the bonnet at the front that’s ideal for storing charging cables.

All facelifted EV6s come with Kia’s latest ccNC (connected car navigation cockpit) infotainment system. Which is speedier but still has room for improvement. It all looks good on the central 12.3-inch screen, and Kia has cleverly incorporated some handy physical shortcuts. For example, holding down the volume control button on the steering wheel mutes the ‘speed limit exceeded’ warning noise, while the steering wheel icon disables the lane-keeping assist.

There’s another 12.3-inch screen ahead of the driver for the instruments, and above that a fairly rudimentary head-up display. The EV6 now offers ‘vehicle-to-load’ charging capability – meaning you can you use the drive battery to power electronic devices, which is still relatively rare. It also features fingerprint recognition, or you can use your phone as the key.

Even more unusual is the Virtual Gear Shift feature. Only the EV6 GT and its Hyundai Ioniq 5 N sister car offer this at present (though it’s coming to other Hyundai-Kia models soon), and Kia’s implementation here is deliberately different in order to further separate these two high-performance electric vehicles.

Once activated (via the star button on the steering wheel), the VGS gives you an almost mind-bogglingly authentic simulation of a six-speed automatic gearbox. With manual control available via paddleshifters on the back of the steering wheel, this means the driver has more influence over acceleration and response. It will even clatter into an artificial rev limiter if you don’t make an upshift in time.

This, and all the other simulated gearbox behaviour, is very impressive coding. But compared with the Hyundai – which has two more virtual gears and a higher artificial rev limit for each of them (8000rpm instead of 6500rpm) – it actually feels rather restrictive in the Kia.

The result is supposed to be reminiscent of a classic grand touring car with a big engine – whereas the Ioniq 5 N is giant hot hatch – but I found myself running out of ‘revs’ so quickly in the EV6 that it inhibited the speed of my progress and soon became frustrating. The accompanying ‘active sound design’ doesn’t help, as even at its loudest this fanciful fake engine noise is too quiet and doesn’t do enough to key you into the car’s self-imposed limitations.

It’s a bit of a puzzle, and something of a shame. It’s great that Kia made the effort to add this tech, and I wish more car makers would do the same – electric cars can be so one-dimensional to drive. But it doesn’t add anything enjoyable, or useful, in this instance, and I preferred playing with the variable regen instead. Everyone else on the team who tried the new EV6 GT felt the same.

Kia claims a 279-mile WLTP driving range for the latest EV6 GT, 16 miles more than the previous version, thanks in part to an 8.5 per cent larger 84kWh battery pack. Equally officially, Kia reckons the car is capable of 3.0 miles per kilowatt driving efficiency. Probably true, but not if you’re making the most of the performance.

In my hands, it averaged 1.9 miles per kilowatt over two days of hard driving, and on some particularly enjoyable sections of the route I had it down to 1.6. Given this, it’s good news that the low-battery behaviour is relatively benign. Neatly, the digital dashboard also displays theoretically minimum and maximum range remaining, as well as the estimate based on your current driving, which I found reassuring.

You start getting warnings at 20 per cent, and then a drop-off in power is apparent below 10 per cent – though since there’s so much power available it’s not necessarily going to be obvious. In fact, even when you start getting down to single-digit miles on the range meter, activating the Sport driving mode still makes the EV6 GT feel livelier. I would definitely recommend topping up before this point, mind, since pushing 2.2 tonnes of EV is never easy.

Charging speed has also gone up for the facelift, with the 800-volt system peaking at 258kW now instead of 239kW. In the right conditions on a suitably fast 350kW DC charger, this means a 10 to 80 per cent recharge in just 18 minutes. A 10 to 100 per cent charge on a 48-volt AC charger is quoted at seven hours and 35 minutes.

The EV6 GT remains an outstandingly good-value high-performance EV. The driving experience is even more polished than before, with an extra dimension of comfort that is welcome on longer journeys and bumpy roads in addition to the upgraded performance. That you get more of everything for less money is a bonus, too, and very few other cars will be able to live with the speed this Kia is capable of maintaining over a wide variety of roads.

One of those cars is the related Hyundai Ioniq 5 N – and this remains a better choice if you’re an enthusiast in search of a sharper driving experience. Kia’s deployment of the Virtual Gear Shift system doesn’t add as much to the EV6 as I’d hoped, whereas it’s a vital part of the Hyundai’s immediacy and involvement. However, the Kia is more comfortable and, neon green elements aside, more mature as well.

It’s great over long distances, has plenty of space inside and the in-car tech all works without issue. Just watch your right foot if you want to go as far as possible between chargers.