Kia EV4 GT tested: Could less be more in an electric hot hatch?
Having a little under 300 horsepower and weighing a little over two tonnes, the EV4 GT’s got plenty of performance for keen road driving – though not enough, revealingly, to feel like just another point-and-squirt, rocketship performance EV.
Honestly, there are combustion-engined hot hatchbacks that accelerate harder than this. But that’s a conscious choice on Kia’s part; because it wants to lean on the car’s Virtual Gear Shift and Active Sound Design systems – those that make it drive and sound like a petrol-powered performance car, ostensibly – to make up the shortfall.
They do that rather well. The VGS system has both paddleshift manual and ‘automatic’ modes; in the latter it’ll shift ‘gears’ like a DSG-equipped ICE hatchback, while in the former it’ll run smack into a make-believe rev limiter if you forget to shift up. The way it regulates pedal response, and adjusts motor regen to feel like engine braking in the lower gears, is very convincing – and it’s remarkable how much more engaged you are at the wheel with it turned on than when just driving the car in its default setting.
As regards soundtrack, Kia gives you maximum power to choose. If you just want to drive a quiet, straightforward EV, simply leave the car in ‘normal’ drive mode and turn the volume down on the car’s Active Sound Design sound generator (which, by default, isn’t too strange or flying-saucer-esque on the ear, thankfully).
If you want something more familiar, however, turn on the VGS system, and the car’s audio speakers start issuing forth a combustion-engine warble not unlike an old Ford Focus ST’s five-cylinder engine note at lower crankspeeds; but becoming more like a Lamborghini V10’s howl at higher ‘revs’.
The car doesn’t broadcast the same engine noise externally, you might be a little disappointed to learn (though your neighbours doubtless won’t be). But, for a similar effect, you could just roll the windows down and turn the system up; because it’s hilariously loud at its most exaggerated (turned down to its lowest, thankfully, it’s acceptably subtle).
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