Kia EV6: huge supply increase in 2023 for Australia, 2500 sales targetted

Curt Dupriez

Deputy editor

Kia Australia is aiming to deliver 2500 EV6s next year, including over 800 high-performance GT examples

Kia Australia is gearing up to sell around “2000 to 2500” examples of its in-demand EV6 electric midsize SUV car in 2023.

That’s a potential 450 percent lift on the circa-700 unit volume currently projected through to the end of 2022, a figure the local importer says has been stymied through restricted supply.

Kia is aiming to bring over 2000 units of the EV6 to Australia next year

“The initial shipment for EV6 in 2022 was 500 (units) though we’ll probably get about 700 this year,” Kia Australia chief operating officer Damien Meredith told Chasing Cars recently.

“[But] I think we’ll probably get about four and half times that for 2023…probably around 2000 to 2500 EV6s,” he says.

“We hope to get more but we’ll just have to wait and see,” he adds. “Our 2023 business plan is pretty strong in regards to the amount of EVs we’re getting.”

Tesla Model Y 2022 midnight silver rear end — The increased allocation will see the EV6 become a more viable alternative to the Tesla Model Y

The higher allocation would also see the EV6 provide a more accessible alternative to the uber-popular Tesla Model Y, with circa-1800 units delivered until the end of November this year – despite only going on sale in June.

A healthier local allocation of EV6, which is technically common with the Hyundai Ioniq 5, is bolstered by the imminent (January) launch of the much anticipated, high-performance GT flagship variant, which joins the Air RWD, GT-Line RWD and GT-Line AWD variants to create a four-pronged Australian model lineup.

“The split of those [variants] will depend mainly on what the [customer] orders are doing,” Meredith adds.

Kia EV6 GT 2023 front driving — A sizeable portion of the inbound stock is said to be made up of the EV6 GT

Kia Australia has high hopes for the new GT variant – rumoured to cost in the vicinity of $100k – suggesting that a 30 percent take-up of the flagship version could well be a “conservative” estimate.

“If a third of the demand was for the top of the range [GT] we’d be able to satisfy that from a production point of view.”

Kia Australia believes that it could benefit from way more than the circa-2500 unit projection.

Kia Stinger 2022 rear 3/4 red — Like the Stinger, the EV6 has brought notable interest to the Kia brand in Australia

“To satisfy the customer, to satisfy the dealer network and to satisfy ourselves [Kia Australia], you’re probably looking at 4000…or 5000 cars,” he adds.

In terms of potential buyer interest versus actual sales, Kia says that to date “the EV6 only sits behind Stinger performance sedan in Kia’s lineup.”

“The Stinger has done a fantastic job for us, but the EV6 is going to be far more important for us [from hereon in], from a brand point of view and from a product point of view.”