Kia spices up the EV3, EV4, and EV5 with proper GT variants

Electric cars are already plenty fast with their instantaneous torque and fairly high power outputs, especially if they have dual electric motors. Kia has had a few fast EVs in its past, usually designated with the GT badging. One example is the EV6 GT, which was capable of up to 641 horsepower and 770Nm of torque, and would go up against supercars when compared online.

The sporty cosmetics are usually carried over to a pared-down version called the GT Line, which is what the rest of Kia’s electric lineup usually receives. However, the Korean brand is now sharing the rest of the GT love and giving the EV3, EV4, and EV5 a much-needed shot in the arm with proper GT variants.

These models now get the performance enhancements, such as the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive powertrain, a new GT drive mode, enhanced steering, electronic torque vectoring control, improved energy regeneration, and the Preview Electronic Controlled Suspension, which is Kia’s term for adaptive dampers that use a camera to check the road ahead and pre-set the damping for improved comfort and better handling.

The cosmetics are pretty much similar to the GT-line variants, but they’re identifiable by 20-inch GT-specific alloy wheels, neon green accents all around the car including the brake calipers, on the semi-bucket sports seats, GT-specific steering wheels, and model-specific digital interfaces, to name a few. It also gets the Virtual Gear Shift functionality, Launch Control, and a revised Active Sound Design to make for different allowing for a more engaging experience.

The EV3 GT’s performance gets bumped up to 292 horsepower and 468Nm of torque, allowing for a 0-100kph sprint in 5.7 seconds, making it crazy fast for a subcompact crossover. As for the EV4 GT, it has the same power output as the EV3 GT, with a slightly faster 0-100kph sprint of 5.6 seconds. The EV4 GT’s rated WLTP range goes up to 537km for the fastback and up to 505km for the hatchback, while the EV3 GT has none at the time of this writing.

Finally, the EV5 GT gets the most power, with 306 horsepower and 480Nm. Because it’s a bigger crossover, it’s slightly slower to 100kph, doing it in 6.2 seconds. It has an 81.4kWh battery, and the higher power draw naturally brings the range down to up to 476km (WLTP) on a single charge.

These will be initially available in South Korea and Europe, but we hope to see Kia Philippines introduce these to our market for some much-needed electric performance models to fill in the gap that the EV6 and the Stinger left behind.

^{Photos from Kia}