Kia EV6 review - Reliability & safety
Kia scores highly with owners and the EV6 is loaded with safety kit
While it may have been the first model built on Kia's new E-GMP platform, the brand has built up a great reputation with some of the people who’ve already made the switch to electric cars. Models like the Kia e-Niro and Kia Soul EV have proved durable, with an excellent driving range that doesn't appear to diminish significantly over time.
Kia EV6 reliability
Both Kia and Hyundai have built up solid reputations as some of the leading proponents of EV technology, and models have sold in large numbers around the world. Hopefully this knowledge will have helped inform lots of decisions to make Kia’s first ground-up electric car even better.
Kia is certainly in a reassuring position in our 2023 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, placing sixth, although this is a slip from an even more impressive third-place finish in 2022. Despite the drop, rankings were strong across the board, and Kia came fourth for value. A fairly high 25% of owners did, however, report a fault within the first year of ownership.
The Kia EV6 itself came seventh out of the 75 models included, with just the electric Citroen C4 outperforming it in the EV standings overall. Its powertrain, running costs, practicality and more were all praised, but reliability was rated as just below average and it could only manage 45th for ease of use.
Kia EV6 safety
It’s fair to say that the Kia EV6 is a very safe car, having achieved five stars in Euro NCAP testing. Contributing to this score was a very impressive 90% for adult occupant protection and 86% for child occupant protection. It also achieved a great 87% rating for its safety tech, although pedestrian safety was less impressive and the EV6 achieved just 64% in this category.
It’s no surprise the EV6 got a great score for its safety features as it’s bristling with them. Even the standard version gets autonomous emergency braking, which looks out for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as other vehicles. It also has a navigation-based smart cruise control system that can assist with driving in heavy traffic. GT-Line versions add blind-spot warnings, supplemented by semi-autonomous parking, highway driving assist, an augmented reality head-up display and a system to help avoid collisions while parking.
