What is it? 2023 Kia EV6 GT. High-performance, all-wheel-drive electric wagon/SUV.

How much? Base price $61,400, excluding $1,295 destination charge.

Why should you consider it? Value, performance, fast-charging electric system.

What could be better? Puny 206-mile range. At this price, seats should have more adjustments, memory.

When can you buy it? On sale December 2022.

LAS VEGAS – Kia’s getting greedy. Already riding a wave of rising sales, fighting Ford to be country’s second-best selling electric vehicle maker for the year — everybody’s jockeying for No. 2 behind Tesla, and will be for the foreseeable future — the surging Korean automaker ends the year by adding a 576-horsepower performance model to what was already one of the year’s best EVs.

Arriving in dealerships this month, Kia’s EV6 GT is quicker to 60 mph than a Porsche Taycan GTS Sport Turismo and costs less than a Ford Mustang Mach-E GT.

That’s heady company and a gauntlet to the face of other brands from Chevrolet to Toyota and Volkswagen. The battle for the coming EV sales boom has just begun, but Kia — and its corporate siblings Hyundai and Genesis — is poised to be a leader.

Limited numbers — and range

Unlike some brands that introduced promising EVs but only delivered in tiny numbers in 2022 — I’m looking at you, Cadillac Lyriq — Kia has sold more than 20,000 EV6s in the U.S. this year. It’s available in every state.

EV6 GT sales should begin in December. Kia expects to sell between 2,000 and 2,500 EV6 GTs in the U.S. in 2023.

It’ll succeed, but supercar performance brings some penalties: most notably, range.

Kia expects an EPA rating of 206 miles on a full charge. Even with speedy charging enabled by Kia’s advanced 800-volt electrical architecture, that’ll take the EV6 GT out of contention for many common trips, probably including many of the weekend getaways people envision when they buy a sleek, fast, exotic looking car.

What makes it special?

The EV6 is the fastest and most powerful Kia ever.

It has standard all-wheel drive, provided by two electric motors — a 160 kW/215 hp motor for the front wheels and 270/362 for the rear wheels. Don’t sweat the 1 hp missing from Kia’s rated 576 hp. Rounding happens.

The motors produce 545 pound-feet of torque.

Other performance features unique to the EV6 GT include:

• Sport suspension

• Electronically controlled dampers

• Electronic limited slip rear differential

• Neon lime green monoblock brake calipers

• 21-inch wheels

• Z-rated Goodyear Eagle F1 tires

Six drive modes take full advantage of the precise control possible with electric modes.

The Eco mode uses only the rear motor, detuned to 214 kW/287 hp.

Normal and Sport modes turn up the wick a bit, as you’d expect.

Modes unique to the EV6 GT are:

GT mode: Tweaks motors, brakes, steering, suspension, stability control and ELSD for performance. Activated by a neon lime button on the steering wheel.

My mode: Allows the driver to mix and match performance and comfort modes in various systems.

Drift mode: Gives the rear wheels full power and activates the front motor only when the steering wheel indicates the driver wants to end a dramatic, wheel-smoking drift.

The EV6 also has two selectable electronically generated sounds to denote performance.

2023 Kia EV6 models and prices

• Wind RWD: $48,500

• Wind AWD: $52,400

• GT-Line RWD: $52,700

• GT-Line AWD: $57,400

• EV6 GT: $61,400

Source: Kia/Edmunds

Prices exclude $1,295 destination charge.

 Driving impressions

The EV6 GT is smooth and tractable in normal traffic, but the electric motors’ immediate torque deliver immediate, exhilarating acceleration. The bright green steering-wheel mounted GT button raises acceleration to another level. It’s best not experimented with in traffic, though: It delivers a surge with no change of the accelerator pedal.

I drove a bright red EV6 GT from the Vegas Strip through empty breathtaking desert vistas and on crowded highways and city streets.

It’s quiet, with a mild electronically generated sound to keep the lack of engine and transmission sound from growing eerie. Wind and road noise are minimal at high speed.

The steering is direct, predictable and firmly weighted, while the adaptive dampers and sport suspension cushion bumps.

Driven hard on sweeping, curving roads among desert rock formations, the car was fluid, holding the road with ease. Its hefty 4,795-pound curb weight kept it planted cresting hills.

In repeated drag runs at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, novice dragsters regularly notched 11-second quarter miles.

Driver assistance and safety features

• Automatic high beams

• Adaptive cruise control

• Surround view monitor

• Parking alert

• Rear parking automatic brake

• Forward collision alert and braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection

• Junction collision alert and braking

• Blind spot alert

• Blind spot monitors in instrument cluster

• Lane departure alert and assist

• Driver attention alert

• Lane keeping assist

• Evasive steering assist

• Remote parking assist

• Rear occupant alert

Interior features and comfort

The EV6’s interior is snug, but the front seat is accommodating, with controls that are generally easy to use.

The instrument cluster and 12.3-inch touch screen both have excellent resolution. The head up display is clear and customizable to provide speed, navigation, blind spot alert and other information.

Kia continues to experiment with a flat panel just below the nav screen that uses a single line of touch points for climate, navigation and audio controls, depending on which icon the driver touches. It’s an efficient use of space, but I’m not sure some raised physical buttons or toggles wouldn’t be an improvement, particularly in a performance car where the driver will presumably be fully occupied with driving.

A couple of other features carried over from other EV6s could use work, too:

• USB ports that are hard to reach and don’t provide a space to hold mobile phones.

• Wireless charging is standard, but neither wireless CarPlay nor Android Auto is available.

The materials on the dash, doors and seats look and feel good. Bright green accents like the brake calipers and GT switch add life to a black color scheme.

The sport seats provided good support and comfort. They’re manually adjustable, though, and lack lumbar adjustment. Those features, and a memory for driver settings, should be expected in a $60,000-plus vehicle. The same goes for ventilated seats.

Heated seats and steering wheel are standard, as they should be in all EVs, where they are the most efficient way to keep occupants comfortable.

2022 Kia EV6 GT at a glance

Base price: $61,400 (all prices exclude $1,295 destination charge)

Electric high-performance all-wheel five-passenger SUV/wagon

On sale December 2022

Specifications as tested:

Price as tested: $61,400

Drivetrain: One electric motor on each axle

Output: 576 hp; 545 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: Gear-reduction unit

Battery: 77.4 kWh lithium ion

Battery weight: 1,073 pounds

Charging time: 7 hours, 10 minutes @ 240v; 18 minutes 20%-80% @ 350 kW

Manufacturer’s range estimate: 206 miles

EPA estimated annual fuel cost: NA

0-60 time: 3.4 seconds

Top speed: 161 mph

Wheelbase: 114.2  inches

Length: 184.8 inches

Width: 74.47 inches

Height: 60.8  inches

Passenger volume: 79.4 cubic feet

Cargo volume: 24.4 cubic feet with rear seat up, 50.2 cubic feet rear seat folded

Curb weight: 4,795 pounds

Assembled in Hwasung, Korea

Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 576-hp EV6 GT makes Kia an EV leader – and not just on the track