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Kia’s first dedicated EV is due for a facelift. The new Kia EV6 was caught testing for the first time, showing design elements pulled from its flagship EV9.

The new Kia EV6 facelift has been spotted testing

After launching in 2021, the Kia EV6 made its mark as a fun-to-drive, spacious EV. Within 40 days of launching, the EV6 gathered over 30,000 pre-orders.

However, that was over two years ago, and several new EVs have hit the market since then. Kia plans to take on the new competition with a range of new EVs. The automaker introduced three new electric models at its first annual EV day in October.

Kia unveiled the EV5 compact crossover in full. It also introduced a pair of new concepts, the EV3 and EV4. The new EVs come months after Kia launched its flagship EV9 electric SUV.

Looking at Kia’s new lineup, there’s one that stands out. It’s the EV6. The brand has introduced several design changes with its new models, but the EV6 has fallen behind.

Kia-new-EV6
Kia’s updated EV6 (Source: Auto Express)

Kia plans to fix this with a new, updated EV6 model. The new EV6 was spotted testing for the first time on public roads.

From the new images, courtesy of Auto Express, you can see several design changes. The first thing you will notice is the changes to its headlight shape.

Kia-new-EV6
Kia’s updated EV6 (Source: Auto Express)

The headlights are thinner and more triangular. Kia has moved toward this design on new models to include its signature Star Map lightning.

Although the camo is covering it, we expect to see upgrades to the front and rear light bars. Other noticeable changes include a new bumper design to improve aerodynamics. You will also notice the new EV6 sitting on a new set of wheels.

Kia-new-EV6
Kia’s updated EV6 (Source: Auto Express)

Kia has yet to provide any info on the new EV6. It’s expected to still ride on Hyundai’s E-GMP platform with up to 77.4 kWh battery capacity. However, other upgrades are expected to boost the range to over its current 310 miles.

A video from MOCAR detailed the changes and showed the updated interior last month. Despite retaining most features, Kia is expected to include its latest software and connectivity tech.

Kia-EV9
Kia EV9 interior (Source: Kia)

You can expect to see Kia’s new ccNC operating system with dual 12.3-inch displays and instrument screens. The same one is featured in the EV9 (shown above).

Kia confirmed to Auto Express the new EV6 will pull features from its flagship EV9 to align it with its newer design style. Check back for more details closer to launch, which is expected around mid-2024.

Electrek’s Take

Kia’s EV6 helped establish the brand in the new electric era. Kia’s first dedicated EV continues to see demand despite competition flooding the market.

Sales of the Kia EV6 more than doubled in the US this past month. Meanwhile, wholesale shipments are down significantly.

Kia exported 4,291 EV6 models in October, down from a peak of over 8,000 in March. The brand is hoping the new updates can help recharge sales.

The new base EV6 model will likely stay around the $42,600 current starting price, with high-performance GT models running upwards of $60,000. Kia did introduce a new longer-range Light trim to the 2024 lineup to bridge the gap between more range and affordability. The Light Long Range RWD offers up to 310 miles of range, starting at $45,950.

If you’re looking for your next Kia EV6, we can help you find great deals at a nearby dealer. You can use our link to get started today.

Source: Auto Express

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I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

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I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.

Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!

I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!

Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.

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To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.

Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!

Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.

The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.

The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!

I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.

That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.

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OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

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OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

The OPEC logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a computer screen displaying OPEC icons in Ankara, Turkey, on June 25, 2024.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Eight oil-producing nations of the OPEC+ alliance agreed on Saturday to increase their collective crude production by 548,000 barrels per day, as they continue to unwind a set of voluntary supply cuts.

This subset of the alliance — comprising heavyweight producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, alongside Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — met digitally earlier in the day. They had been expected to increase their output by a smaller 411,000 barrels per day.

In a statement, the OPEC Secretariat attributed the countries’ decision to raise August daily output by 548,000 barrels to “a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories.”

The eight producers have been implementing two sets of voluntary production cuts outside of the broader OPEC+ coalition’s formal policy.

One, totaling 1.66 million barrels per day, stays in effect until the end of next year.

Under the second strategy, the countries reduced their production by an additional 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of the first quarter.

They initially set out to boost their production by 137,000 barrels per day every month until September 2026, but only sustained that pace in April. The group then tripled the hike to 411,000 barrels per day in each of May, June, and July — and is further accelerating the pace of their increases in August.

Oil prices were briefly boosted in recent weeks by the seasonal summer spike in demand and the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which threatened both Tehran’s supplies and raised concerns over potential disruptions of supplies transported through the key Strait of Hormuz.

At the end of the Friday session, oil futures settled at $68.30 per barrel for the September-expiration Ice Brent contract and at $66.50 per barrel for front month-August Nymex U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude.

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Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

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Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.

The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.

As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.

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After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:

We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.

Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:

Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:

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