LAS VEGAS — Most of us travel to Sin City to lose too much money gambling. I, for one, do not. I head to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a lovely bit of concrete and blacktop in the Nevada dessert that helps me satisfy my need for speed. In particular, I head for the dragstrip. It’s here that long ago that I pulled a 10.4-second quarter-mile time at 140 mph in a 2022 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. Officially, the car runs 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds. It’s so fast, so furious, and so mind-numbingly fun, it doesn't go quietly into the night.
But the 2023 Kia EV6 GT, the car I traveled here to drive, does go quietly into the night, if only because it’s a pure battery electric car. And while the Shelby boasts 760 horsepower, the Kia EV6 GT has a mere 576 horsepower, which on paper appears to be a disadvantage. But it isn’t. According to Kia, the EV6 GT runs 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds. In fact, I was able to run the quarter mile at the Las Vegas dragstrip doing an 11.6-second quarter mile at 120 mph. The EVg GT’s performance is akin to that of pricey Italian hypercars, yet it’s a midsize, five-door hatchback.
And it recharges as quickly as it runs. Its 800-volt system architecture allows for fast charging of up to 235 kW, allowing you to recharge from 10% to 80% of battery capacity in 18 minutes using a DC fast-charger.
