KGM Musso EV: Korea’s new lifestyle-focused pick-up driven

While pitching its new Musso Rhino as a traditional workhorse, KGM is venturing into new territory with its all-new Musso EV, an electric four-wheel-drive pick-up truck. 

This is a very niche segment: it has only the Maxus eTerron9 and Isuzu D-Max EV or company, although the pool of electric pick-ups is set to expand with the arrival of the Toyota Hilux Electric. 

Unlike the Rhino, with its body-on-frame chassis, the Musso EV borrows its platform from an electric car, the KGM Torres EVX.

Compared with the high-riding Rhino, then, the EV looks more SUV-like, with a noticeably lower ride height and longer wheelbase.

It has a sleeker, cab-back stance and its styling is more aligned with KGM’s range of SUVs rather than the Rhino’s more rugged aesthetic. 

The Musso EV is powered by a 80.6kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery that’s good enough for up to 236 miles of range.

On a very short drive around Oxfordshire, it returned 2.6mpkWh, which means it should cover more than 200 miles in real-world conditions. 

While its real-world range isn’t outstanding, the Musso can still travel much further on a charge than the Hilux Electric (159 miles) and a D-Max (163 miles). 

Hook the Musso EV up to a rapid charger and a 10-80% boost should take no longer than 36 minutes, or 10 hours if you plug it into an 11kW home wallbox charger.

Plus, like Kia EVs, the Musso features vehicle-to-load (V2L) technology, allowing you to turn the car into a giant charging station for small electrical appliances, such as a kettle. 

The dual-motor powertrain makes 234bhp and 250lb ft of torque for a 0-62mph of 8.0sec. While that sounds fairly sedate, it’s more sprightly than the diesel-engined Rhino. 

And while performance tails off fairly quickly, it has more than enough pace for nipping into gaps in traffic and motorway slip roads. 

The choppy ride that afflicts the Rhino isn’t present here either. The EV may feel more floaty, but it’s more comfortable – although the low-speed ride can be quite brittle.

The Musso EV has also inherited the interior design of its SUV siblings, and overall it’s more interesting and colourful than the Rhino’s durable cabin.