Marketers typically want snappy product names, so it’s quite amusing when manufacturers bestow cars with comically long names. Think BMW Individual M760i xDrive Model V12 Excellence THE NEXT 100 YEARS, a limited-run car that nobody remembers the details of but everyone remembers the name of. While not quite coming for BMW’s throne, a new contender from Kia launches a valiant effort to enter the top ten. Introducing the Kia EV6 North American Utility Vehicle Of The Year Limited Edition.
So what milestone is the Kia EV6 North American Utility Vehicle Of The Year Limited Edition celebrating? It’s not the first battery electric vehicle to win the Utility Vehicle of the Year category, as that would be the Ford Mustang Mach-E in 2021. It’s not even celebrating the first time Kia has won this particular award, as the Telluride brought home the hardware in 2020. Instead, it’s just celebrating that the EV6 won in 2023. Weird, right?
In celebration of winning this award, Kia’s put together an intriguing mix of cosmetics on this EV6, starting with a great color combination. The Deep Forest Green paint is intriguingly dynamic, near-black in shadow but brilliant in sunlight, and it comes paired with the positively classic choice of tan upholstery. It’s the right sort of tan too, not too far beige but not borderline brown. Speaking of the interior, the center console gets a special plaque with slightly cheesy dual North American Utility Vehicle of the Year medallions, although that’s mercifully the only branding I can see. Think of it as a weird anomaly, a bit like Oldsmobile’s old international flag badge that celebrated, for some reason, all the countries GM vehicles were sold in.
Speaking of weirdness, the Kia EV6 North American Utility Vehicle Of The Year Limited Edition is a strange mashup of two different trim levels. It’s essentially a GT-line model with several blackout pieces like the wheel arch trims and valences borrowed from the mid-range Wind trim level, which almost makes this special edition a bit like dressing down. Sure, it has all the fancy luxury features you’d expect in a well-equipped electric crossover, but at a glance, it might look like a cheaper model than it actually is. How’s that for an odd decision?
Even though the feature packaging of the Kia EV6 North American Utility Vehicle Of The Year Limited Edition is strange, the powertrain is downright sensible. This special EV6 comes with 320 all-wheel-drive horsepower thanks to a 74 kW motor up front and a 165 kW motor out back. With a 77.4 kWh battery pack feeding these motors, expect range to clock in at 252 miles — not a groundbreaking figure, but potentially justifiable given the performance on tap. Plus, all-wheel-drive is nice to have for northeast winters, ski trips from Los Angeles to Tahoe, and everywhere in between.
Pricing for the Kia EV6 North American Utility Vehicle Of The Year Limited Edition hasn’t been announced yet, but we’d be surprised to see a price tag as long as this EV’s name. For context, the comparably-equipped all-wheel-drive GT-Line trim starts at $58,925 including a $1,325 freight charge, so don’t be surprised if this special edition model lands in that ballpark when it arrives later this year.
(Photo credits: Kia)
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I can assure you the last thing marketing want is a snappy name. They want to plaster EVERYTHING across the tailgate, so this “insert low wattage award of the year edition” totally tracks as a marketing decision.
“I have awards. They’re not ones you’ve heard of, but I do have them” – Jerry Seinfeld.
Not to be a douche but that’s basically the same headline/conceit as the jalopnik article.
The long name isn’t a very interesting or even notable hook.
https://jalopnik.com/kia-ev6-north-american-utility-vehicle-year-limited-edi-1850753079
I know people like British Racing Green but this thing’s Korean. I don’t know if they even have body/chassis colors but hang on…
Nope. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_auto_racing_colours
Since the national racing colors are directly descended from rail liveries, I think it would be perfect to use the Korail livery colors. White body with sky blue stripes over a light grey underbody.
Anyway where are the yellow stripes? It’s not BRG if there’s no yellow to offset it, it’s just generic forest green.
Isnt it just the EV6? KIA is brand so not part of name. The north a.erican award blah is marketing bs. What is on thr car?
Put the glass down…
As a connoisseur of stupid special editions, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Podium Edition variants of various late 2000s recession-era GM products, only sold in Canada to commemorate the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. All they really were were mid-range models with a circular badge (usually on the rearmost pillar) and I think a trunk badge too on some (but not all) models. Only really notable because it’s an easy way to tell one of the last ever Pontiacs apart, as they were some of the last to roll of the production line. They were weirdly common too, I still see them a lot. Apparently Quebec got a version with the badges in French, because of course they did. Probably the most obscure but common GM special editions out there.
GM did a similar thing for Holdens for the 2000 Sydney Olympics but I don’t know how extensive the rework was as I’m on the opposite side of the world from basically every Holden ever made and not many people are interested in writing detailed histories of dealership invented special editions like it. Seems like you just got a badge and some extra equipment. And then there’s all the European special editions like the Clio Campus and the Golf Bon Jovi. I think European small hatchbacks are the masters of stupid stuff like this.
At least this has a nice paint job.
A former coworker had an early 2000s “PGA Tour Edition” Buick Lesabre. We were never sure if it was an official GM offering or a made up dealer package.
It’s almost the same as VW Classic Green which my wife had on a 1997 Jetta way, way back. She was pulled over for speeding one night and the police wrote black as the car color.
IDK, the full name of my first car was…
Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Classic Landau Colonnade Coupe.
Love the color – hate the name.
And can we all come to the agreement that an EV6 is no more a CUV/SUV than an Ioniq5, or a VW Golf?
I’m torn on how to classify the EV6. One of my coworkers recently bought one, and he usually parks beside my MK7 GTI: side by side the EV6 is quite a bit bigger than the VW. The EV6 obviously doesn’t have the ride height of most CUVs, and is styled more like a car, but I think I’d still say it’s more crossover, and less hatchback.
Big fuckoff hatchback, BFH? What’s it crossing over from, except Korea?
Well, I suppose it was bound to happen. Out of all the myriad SUV’s, CUV’s, SUV’s and so on, eventually one of them would appeal to me esthetically. This KIA has accomplished this. Its lines are very nice and the overall form is also pleasing to the eye. Take this design and wrap it in the classic BRG/Tan combination and you’ve knocked one out of the park.
Congratulations to KIA!
I would spec nearly every car in green over tan, given the option.
Personally I’d rather have brown interior, but tan is certainly better than black or the “white/cream” color some have.
I took my EV6 in for a software update last week, and the dealership had one of these on the lot.
If it had been there when I bought my car less than a month ago, I would have it instead of mine. Mine is Gravity Blue with the gray interior. I wanted Yacht Blue, but none of them locally had the gray interior. I also went with the Wind trim over the GT-Line because of the 30 mile difference in range. I like some of the features of the GT-Line, but range is more important than larger wheels to me.
I thought the dark green was a stunning color. Just the right amount of metallic to it.
I have a yacht blue over gray wind w/ the tech package. Would take this green one over it 10-1. Remember when I was researching them that at the time dark forest green was available, just not in North America. Saw pictures of it and loved it. Sort of ironic that the NA edition now is in that color.
Bought mine in May of ’22. Would love to have the auto presenting handles of the GT-line, but didn’t want a sunroof and the few extra grand it took to get there when I bought it though. In hind sight, may have been worth it.
As this special edition appears to be an amalgamation of wind/GT, I wonder what handles it got? The manual ones kinda suck. Awkward one handed operation. The little area on the front of them where you push in already looks dull/worn from pressing on them to get them to flip out.
Other complaint of the wind: the 3D texture of the fender arches and the valances are horrible to wash. I imagine the GT is much easier. Bummer that the wind pieces showed up on this one.
Just looked and the dealer where I got mine has 3 of these. Has them listed as a Wind on their site for what it’s worth.
A dealership near me received one of these before the official reveal. I want to like it, but the GT-Line upgrades aren’t really selling me on it, and the dark green was too dark for the EV6, in my opinion. (I do kind of like the tan interior, but it feels a little out of place in the context of the interior design of the car. Not sure what they need to pull it together. Maybe some tan on the dash or lighter carpets? Woodgrain accents would be my choice, but I don’t think they’d go that direction with this one.) The Yacht Blue is a good color for it, because its lines really ask for something brighter.
I think they should have offered this package with RWD, because that extra range would be nice, but I’m definitely not the buyer for this, anyway. If I were buying one, it’s a RWD Wind, maybe with the technology package, because the blind spot/surround cameras are kind of nice, but probably not because $1500 is a lot for that.
I mentioned this limited edition in my comment in the Morning Dump, the EV6 is likely the EV I would get if I had to get one tomorrow, but good thing I don’t because I’d be searching for one of these specifically.
I like the vivid blue they offer on the EV6, and it’s paired with interiors that aren’t all-dark affairs. But blues in general are more common, even brighter ones (every other new Honda/Acura I see seems to be Still Night Pearl). Green like this is rarer yet still subtle. I’ve never gotten as many compliments on a car as I have my GTI, for the color alone (see: username).
This is essentially BRG over tan which works every single time. I’m not sure if there’s a better color combination in automotive history. If I was in the market for one of 891,233 $60,000 EV crossovers that are currently on the market this would be at the top of my list. Aesthetics are pretty much the only way to distinguish one EV from another in this early adapter phase and this one looks incredible.
In fact the EV6 in general is a really nice looking car. I think I’ve started to prefer it to its Ioniq 5 stablemate. The cyberpunk vibe of the Ioniq combined with the fact that seemingly every one I encounter is a shade of gray have soured me on that car a bit and I don’t think it’s going to age well.
I still wouldn’t even vaguely consider incinerating $60,000 on an EV crossover from a normal ass brand like Kia, but at least this one looks good. I’m sure you’ll be able to find them in the 30s in a year or two anyway and on buy here pay here lots for $12,500 in 4 or 5. Maybe at that point one of these vehicles will intrigue me a bit more…
Dealer near me is offering 5k off the top on all their EV6s, including if I request something not on the lot and I’m still not excited enough to pull the trigger. And certainly not on this one that has too dark a green in person for more money than a good bright blue. The shape of this car, in my opinion, asks for a brighter color.
They’re still overpriced with 5k off the top. This would still be a $55,000+ car even with that discount. There is no way in goddamn hell that I would spend that much money on a first gen EV. You’d just be throwing money away and at that price you can get a legitimate luxury vehicle.
Would it be a BEV? No, but that’ll get you in a Volvo XC60 or S60 Recharge if you need electrification. I know what I’d choose…and if you’re okay with sticking with ICE for the time being then that puts you in range of some serious cars.
If you want one of these leasing it is the move because you’ll get the tax break and it’ll be obsolete in 2-3 years anyway.
I hear you on that. I drove one and liked it well enough (I enjoyed the GT version, but definitely wouldn’t be looking at one). If I were to get one, it’d be the Wind RWD for 45k, with the lease knocking that down to 37,500…and it’s still a hard sell for me.
I feel like you have to really want an EV for personal reasons to get one right now. Don’t get me wrong-I’m certainly not knocking it and I’m far from anti-EV. If that’s what you’re passionate about it’s all good.
But the value is just horrendous, especially for a vehicle that requires you to make significant compromises. They’re bad investments, they’re extremely infrastructure dependent, and they’re expensive to boot. As I’ve said on this site several times…if you care about your carbon footprint a PHEV or traditional hybrid work better right now.
And apparently BEVs don’t even have a lower carbon footprint than a traditional ICE vehicle until they hit 60,000ish miles anyway because of how resource intensive they are to make in the first place.
I currently run a Niro PHEV, and I’m looking at something slightly bigger to replace both it and my pickup. The RAV4 Prime is nigh unobtainable, but would be a possibility. The hybrid Tacoma is certainly a contender. The EV6 wasn’t even something I was interested in, but I drove one to kill time waiting for my Niro to have the charge port checked out (still an ongoing problem to have fixed, which does give me some pause regarding an EV6). I had ordered the Sportage PHEV, but cancelled when they couldn’t get the green over sage I wanted by the end of the year (I wanted to be certain I was getting the tax credit).
There are a lot of things out there, and I like too many of them. I’ll probably be looking for some time, and the EV6 probably won’t even be on my short list.
For some of us a used bicycle works even better.
For longer trips or for heavier shopping an e-bike can also a better choice for those who can make it work.
That’s as long as most modern hotel names (is it the Hilton? No, it’s the Hilton Garden Inn & Suites Central City/Downtown Airport Highway Exit Hotel)
North American (Only Counting USA and Canada (Get Fucked Mexico(?))) Utility Vehicle of The Year Edition
That must have one hell of a Texas belt buckle for a badge.
Why is the North American Utility Vehicle Of The Year Limited Edition painted in British Racing Green?
Seriously, though, if I were in the market for an EV, it would be this exact model.
glad to have the cool color combo tho 😀
Love me a green car, and this is top notch green!
Green is the one, true, and correct car color. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a car that isn’t improved by green, much less a shade like this one.
combine that with the tan interior, and I’m sold.
Oh heck yes. I found my Wrangler used, with green exterior, black interior. I was still this close to ordering a new one so I could get a tan interior too.
Nobody would have blamed you.