Kia EV6 supply strictly limited

The Kia EV6 is primed and on the starting blocks for an Australian launch early next year – but getting hold of one could prove just as tricky as it was nabbing the Hyundai IONIQ 5 sister car that sold out within hours.

Kia has confirmed it will only get 500 examples of the 2022 Kia EV6 for Australia throughout the course of next year – and none will be the EV6 GT hero model that promises supercar-like acceleration and which carsales drove earlier this year.

Pricing is also likely to sit above the $72,000 starting point for the 2021 Hyundai IONIQ 5.

With almost 14,000 expressions of interest registered with Kia Australia – four times that of the Kia Stinger when it arrived in 2017 – the company is expecting all 500 cars to be snapped up quickly when orders for the all-new EV open up.

Kia also confirmed it plans to eventually bring a more affordable smaller-battery version of the EV6 to Australia – just as Hyundai is doing with IONIQ 5 – but it would be in 2023 at the earliest due to the intense global interest in the first of the new EV-branded family for the Korean car-maker.

The big challenge for Kia Australia is getting hold of stock. Globally the car has been a hit and without local emissions regulations there’s little incentive for head office to divert vehicles away from regions such as Europe.

Kia Australia COO Damien Meredith confirmed it would get 500 EV6s for 2022. He said the first 100 will be built before the end of 2021, while the remaining 400 will be manufactured throughout next year.

“We’ve got a presentation [to head office] in the second week of December where I’ll be pushing the case very, very hard for more stock, not just for EV6 but of everything,” said Meredith, who didn’t appear overly confident of securing many more EV6s.

While sister brand Hyundai retailed its first batch of the IONIQ 5 online – the first 240 selling out within a few hours – Kia plans to use its dealer network to sell the cars in the traditional manner.

Kia has also run the EV6 through its local suspension tuning program, whereas Hyundai used an existing tune for the IONIQ 5.

Kia says every one of its 138 dealers will have the opportunity to sell the EV6, although some will get more than others.

The company says it will “work out a fair and reasonable allocation between metro and rural” dealers and that the split of cars could be influenced by how many of Kia’s first EV, the 2021 Kia Niro, each outlet sold.

However, Meredith conceded there would be some buyers who would miss out, saying “there are some dealers that are holding, eight, six, five orders”.

And those buyers hoping to get hold of the top-of-the-range Kia EV6 GT will be disappointed to learn there are none slated for Australia in 2022.

“The GT is delayed, that’s not coming out first,” said Kia Australia product planning boss Roland Rivero.

“The GT is 12 months away but [potential buyers are] putting deposits on that one – and even if the dealer tells them it could be 100 grand they’re still putting their money down.”

Meredith isn’t worried about the delay in the GT, saying it will give early adopters a chance to try still-brisk versions of the EV6 while aspiring to something more potent down the track.

The 430kW/740Nm all-wheel drive GT is claimed to hit 100km/h in 3.5 seconds.

One key question with the Kia EV6 still remains: pricing.

Early indications are that it will be priced above the Hyundai IONIQ 5, which sells from $71,900 plus on-road costs as a single-motor rear-wheel drive or $75,900 plus ORCs for the dual-motor all-wheel drive.

“IONIQ I thought was pretty sharp,” said Meredith.

Rivero all but confirmed prices would be steeper than the Hyundai that uses the same E-GMP architecture.

“Globally if you look at all the markets that are selling both … EV6 is priced above. There’s a premium on EV6 so don’t be surprised if we follow the same,” he said.

One reason the Kia is more expensive is that it gets a bigger battery pack – 77.4kWh for the EV6’s largest battery versus 72.6kWh for the IONIQ 5.

In the UK, the most affordable IONIQ 5 with the smaller 58kWh battery sells from £36,940 ($A67,715) drive-away while the 72.6kWh versions start at £41,890 ($A76,786). The IONIQ 5 range stretches to £48,090 for the most lavishly equipped model.

In the UK the EV6 is currently only offered with the 77.4kWh battery and is priced from £40,945 ($A75,054) drive-away, up to £51,945 ($A95,216).