Kia EV6 GT to eclipse Stinger as Korean brand’s ‘halo’ flagship

Kia Australia believes its incoming Kia EV6 GT electric flagship will have a bigger ‘halo’ effect for the brand than the venerable Kia Stinger, which will be available for just one more year.

On sale from early 2023, the Kia EV6 GT will be Kia’s biggest product drawcard to-date, both in terms of its expected $99,590 (plus on-road) starting price and its worthy performance credentials, headlined by a 0-100km/h time of just 3.5sec.

According to Kia Australia executives, the new dual-motor 430kW/740Nm EV6 GT will make a bigger impact on the Australian market than what the Stinger did when it arrived here in 2017.

It’s a big call given the rear-drive sports sedan was an unequivocal success for the brand, elevating it to a new performance paradigm around the same time as the demise of the homegrown Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon.

“I think EV6 GT will have a bigger halo effect than Stinger,” said Kia Australia chief operating officer Damien Meredith.

“And we’ve been ecstatic with what the Stinger did for the brand.”

Kia Australia product planning boss Roland Rivero added: “It’s not bigger right now. It has to earn its stripes first, but we think it will be in time.”

Extensively tested in Australia, including a standalone suspension tune by the car-maker’s revered ride and handling engineer Graeme Gambold – specifically on roads in and around Canberra – the EV6 GT electric SUV offers a top speed of 260km plus a standalone ‘Drift’ mode in its software.

“I’ve known Graeme for 12 years, and I’ve never known him to be more excited about a new vehicle from us. Never. He’s pretty pumped about the EV6 GT,” said Meredith.

Kia Australia head of marketing, Dean Norbiato, believes the GT will simply be an extension of the existing interest in the garden-variety EV6, which we recently named our 2022 carsales Car of the Year.

“The level of interest that we track for the Stinger versus the level of interest for EV6 is next level. Even with sales being what it is [hamstrung by production issues], the EV6 has been our number one driver of web traffic every month this year except for one,” he said.

“The interest in this car versus our other models is huge.”

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