Kia EV6 vs Ford Endura

What's the difference?

It’s fair to say the Kia EV6 is not the most affordable mid-to-large electric SUV money can buy. Especially in the era of cheaper Chinese models.

It also lacks some of the practicalities of a few rivals. If that’s your focus and you’re dead set on buying a Kia, then the EV5 is the clear choice.

But that’s not the sole purpose of this car.

It doubles as family transport and a car for driving enthusiasts. It’s the sort of EV that can convert EV non-believers.

After a week with the EV6, it’s not a car I’ll forget easily. And I urge buyers looking in the EV space not to overlook this pioneering model. It’s a brilliant car to drive and the GT-Line RWD is the value pick of the whole line-up.

As much as I loved the Territory I have to say Ford’s Endura is a worthy replacement. This is an easy and enjoyable to drive, spacious, fuel efficient, safe SUV that’s great value with its big features list, long warranty and low servicing costs.

The sweet spot is the entry grade Trend as it get most of the equipment you'll find on the others, without paying more for bigger wheels or a sunroof.

When I first saw the Kia EV6, I have to admit I wasn’t a massive fan of the design. I was, and still am, a massive fan of the mechanically related Hyundai Ioniq 5. Perhaps one of the many reasons that model won Best Medium SUV Under $130,000 at the 2026 CarsGuide Car of the Year Awards!

But the 2026 facelift has given me a renewed appreciation of the Kia’s design.

The overall shape is the same but the front, which was arguably its least appealing angle, has been redesigned.

It’s 15mm longer thanks to the new front bumper design, and it has adopted a completely new headlight signature that's in keeping with the EV3, EV4, EV5 and EV9. The front looks meaner, more aggressive, but in a really hot way.

There’s also a new bumper at the rear but the tail-lights are pretty much the same.

Overall it’s a much sharper look, helping to breathe new life into the EV6.

The visual changes are more subtle inside, but it was already a nice cabin to begin with. The big changes include the new version of Kia’s dual-screen set-up which is more modern and centred than the previous version, and there’s more visually appealing graphics.

The other key change is the steering wheel. For GT-Line and GT grades, Kia’s dropped the polarising two-spoke wheel in favour of a sportier and more premium three-spoke, dual-tone wheel found in other models, including the EV3. The base Air retains the two-spoke wheel.

Is seems there’s not a single photo out there of the Endura that actually shows this SUV as it truly looks when seeing it with your own eyes.

Profile images make it look like an SUV version of a Ford Mondeo, while front-on shots make it look big and tall like a Ford Escape on steroids. Watching the video that goes with this story will probably give you the most truthful view short of seeing one on the road for yourself.

It’s a good-looking SUV with tough styling at the front with a giant version of the grille worn by the whole Ford car family, to the more delicately designed tailgate.

There are three grades in the Endura range – the entry level Trend, the sporty mid-spec ST-Line and the Titanium at the top.

The ST-Line is the most recognisable thanks to its body kit, blacked out mesh grille and black roof rails. You can spot a Titanium by its sunroof and its bright-finish 20-inch alloy wheels.

So, what are the Endura’s dimensions? Well, at just over 4.8m long, almost 2.2m wide (including the wing mirrors) and a bit more than 1.7m tall the Endura is almost the same size as the beloved Territory, even the wheelbases are within 6.0mm of each other with the new SUV’s being 2.8m long.

Talking of the Territory, if you’re familiar with that Aussie SUV’s insides then you’ll feel at home in the cabin of the Endura because of the way the display is integrated into the dash.

Have a look at the interior images – how much does that look like the screen in the Territory? I’m not a big fan of the air vents either side of the screen, but the dash and the centre console are otherwise beautifully symmetrical in their placement of buttons and dials.

There are high-quality feeling materials in most places. Yes, there are some hard plastics such as on the glove box lid, but there are soft-touch plastics on the dash and also on the rear window sills where many carmakers seem to use what feels like recycled takeaway containers thinking you might not notice.

Oh, and then there’s the gear shifter, or as Ford calls it the ‘E-Shifter’. It’s a rotary dial for the automatic transmission, rather than a lever. It looks a bit alien but it feels like a premium piece of equipment.

The interior of the three grades are almost identical with all of them coming with the chrome effect trim lining the centre console and the glossy black plastic around the cupholders up front. The ST-Line has aluminium-face pedals and a perforated leather-wrapped steering wheel, while the Titanium gets illuminated metal front door scuff plates.

Really, the main difference to the interiors are the seats – the Trend has cloth upholstery, the ST-Line has a suede-like material with leather accents and the Titanium has part leather perforated seats. All upholstery is black.

As for paint colours, there are 10 to choose from including 'Agate Black', 'Blue Metallic', 'Baltic Sea Green', 'Burgundy Velvet', 'Ingot Silver', 'Oxford White', 'Ruby Red' and 'Stone Grey'.

Under Australia’s vehicle categorisation, the Kia EV6 is classed as a large SUV. Which is not correct. Yes, it’s long and wide but it isn’t large. It’s medium. Also, is it an SUV? Or is it a low-slung coupe-style fastback? Perhaps a bit of both.

The EV6 has a decent amount of space in the cabin, but family-friendly practically might not be its strongest suit.

In the front row, headroom is limited. The sunroof is partly to blame for this, but the EV6’s front seats have always felt a little cramped for taller folks. Finding my perfect driving position took a bit longer as a result. Popping your sunglasses on your head is a no-no for a six footer like me. There is, however, plenty of space across the front of the cabin.

The front seats offer excellent upper body bolstering but could do with a little more for the thighs. But they are delightfully comfortable and look gorgeous.

The elevated centre console provides a high-set armrest and under that is a massive central bin, then there is a huge amount of open space underneath.

It houses two shallow and narrow cupholders with a phone charger, gear shifter, vehicle on/off and seat/steering wheel heating buttons. Yay buttons!

Climate control is managed via a digital panel separate to the main screen. It features smart dials that switch between air con and audio and sat-nav controls. Speaking of which, the air con flow is excellent.

Kia’s updated multimedia system brings it into line with other newer models. It’s a pleasure to use this system. Large tiles drill down into logical sub-menus, you can swipe every which way and the resolution is excellent. It’s also easy to navigate.

There are three USB-C charge ports under the centre stack.

Taller passengers might need to duck their head when getting in the second row, due to the lower sloping roofline. Once seated, the EV6 features that quirk of some older EVs where the rear seats are heavily bucketed and your knees sit up high because of the positioning of the under-floor battery. A lot of newer EVs keep the rear footwell free of battery packs to ensure more foot room and a more comfortable rear-seat experience.

There’s heaps of leg room behind my seating position, and headroom isn’t bad back there. It’s certainly better than the front. I had about 2.0cm between my head and the roof liner.

It feels a little dark back there due to the high window line, privacy glass and small rear window.

The rear seats are comfy but on the firmer side. There’s a fold-down arm rest with two shallow cupholders, and a small bottle will fit in the door.

You get two map pockets, USB-C ports on the back of both front seats, and chest-level side air vents.

You can lower the 60/40 split rear seats via a lower lever on the seat base. They fold almost flat, too. You can also lower the seats via a lever in the boot which is a handy feature.

The EV6 Air RWD’s boot can swallow 490 litres of cargo, and that drops to 480L for all other grades.

The boot area allows for a decent amount of usable space but the sloping tailgate means you won’t fit tall items.

Under-floor storage is limited but could easily fit flatter items like a charging cable. It also houses the tyre repair kit which is sadly what you get instead of any form of spare wheel. The boot also has a number of bag hooks, speakers and a light.

A front storage compartment under the bonnet can take 52 litres in the RWD grades, dropping to 20L in AWD versions.

The Endura is longer than a Hyundai Santa Fe and shorter than a Mazda CX-8. The thing is both of those SUVs have seven seats, while the Endura has five. The only seven-seater SUV in Ford’s range is the Everest, which is a big off-roader.

If you don’t need the extra row, then you may see it as a bonus because not having folding seats back there means you’ve got decent boot space – 602 litres up to the cargo cover.

Legroom is also good in the back. I’m 191cm tall and have about 40mm of space between my knees and the seat back, while headroom even in the Titanium with its panoramic sun roof is ample.

As for storage in the cabin, there are four cupholders - two in the front and two in the back. A bottle holder in each door (which are on the small side), there’s a big centre console bin under the armrest, a storage tray under the dash, another one in front of the shifter and a covered dash-top area.

All Enduras come standard with two USB ports, three 12-volt outlets and a 230-volt outlet.

The Endura range starts at a list price of $44,990 for the front-wheel drive (FWD) Trend (add $4000 for the all-wheel drive version), steps up to the ST-Line in FWD for $53,990 (again add $4000 for AWD) and then there’s the $63,990 Titanium in FWD (yep, $4000 more for the all-paw).

The Trend is the base grade but it offers the best value with a giant standard features list. This includes: proximity key, power folding mirrors, 18-inch alloy wheels, rain-sensing wipers, LED headlights, LED DRLs and fog lights, LED tail-lights, dark-tinted rear windows, roof rails, dual exhaust tips, push button start, power adjustable driver’s (10-way) and front passenger seat (six-way), leather-clad steering wheel and paddle shifters, 10-inch screen covering the instrument cluster and dual-zone climate control.

Also coming standard is an 8.0-inch media screen, with sat nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Bluetooth connectivity, Ford’s 'Sync 3' media system and a nine-speaker stereo.

The ST-Line grade comes with all of those features and adds a 10-way power adjustable front passenger seat, heated and cooled front seats, a power hands-free tailgate and the sporty body kit mentioned under the design heading above.

The Titanium adds a panoramic sunroof (which means it loses the roof rails), heated second row seats and adaptive Bi-LED headlights.

The EV6 has a range of powertrains depending on the grade. The Air and GT-Line RWD have a single motor set-up offering 168kW of power and 350Nm of torque, and the GT-Line AWD dual-motor pumps out 239kW and 605Nm.

Kia has boosted power in the high-performance GT by 18 kilowatts to a bonkers 448kW.

These figures are higher than some cheaper rivals and on par with other similarly priced EVs.

The 0-100km/h sprint time for the rear-drive grades is 7.7 seconds, dropping to 5.3 seconds for the GT-Line AWD, while the GT can do it in a blistering 3.5 seconds when engaging Launch Control.

The Endura has a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine making 140kW of power and 400Nm of torque. That torque peak comes in low at 2000rpm which is where it’s most useful for towing and accelerating off the line.

Braked towing capacity for the Endura is 2000kg.

All Enduras have an eight-speed automatic and you can choose between front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

All EV6 grades get a bigger under-floor lithium-ion battery, up from the 77.4 kilowatt hour unit in the previous model to 84kWh.

Driving range is up more than 50km in rear-wheel drive variants to 582km in the Air and 560km in the GT-Line, according to the WLTP testing cycle.

The GT-Line AWD’s range is now 522km (up from 484km), and the range-topping dual-motor GT offers 450km of range - a 26km increase.

All EV6 grades have vehicle-to-load charging via a port under the rear seating row or by using an extender for the external CCS Type 2 charging port.

Maximum DC charging is 10.5kW but the EV6 supports AC charging infrastructure up to 400 and 800 volts.

Using a 50kW fast charger should take 80 minutes to get from 10 to 80 per cent full, while a 350kW charger takes 18 minutes. Slow AC charging at home with three-phase power should take about seven-and-a-half hours.

Official energy consumption varies between grades. The Air RWD is 15.9kWh/100km, GT-Line RWD is 16.9kWh, GT-Line AWD is 17.7kWh and GT is 20.9kWh.

The car’s trip computer recorded an efficiency figure of 19.1kW/h when I handed it back, but I engaged in some enthusiastic driving. Factoring in the usable battery capacity (80kWh), the EV6 GT-Line RWD’s theoretical range is 473km.

It has multi-mode regenerative braking that is exceptionally smooth, including one-pedal driving, various EV sounds to choose from and a utility mode function to save battery life.

There’s even a soft close function for the charge flap that’s integrated nicely in the driver’s side rear tail-light.

The diesel engine and the eight-speed auto transmission make an efficient team with claimed fuel economy for the front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive being the same at 6.7L/100km over a combination of open and urban roads.

The launch saw me drive the Endura in Trend FWD, ST-Line AWD and Titanium AWD and the trip computers were reporting a couple of litres more than this, but this would certainly be because of the winding, hilly country roads, and the driver.

The Endura has a 64-litre fuel tank.

This is where the EV6 excels. There’s a lot more competition out there now, but the good news is the EV6 still impresses on the road.

I am purely focusing on the GT-Line RWD for this section as it’s the grade I had for a week.

It’s not brutally quick from a standing start, but it offers a nice, linear build up of speed. It adds speed quite quickly when at pace and this is more than enough poke for most people.

If you are intent on more power and speed, but without stretching to the GT flagship, the GT-Line AWD might be your cup of Jarrah. Although that is an $8000 premium over the RWD.

If you want to save the cash the RWD has drive modes ('Eco', 'Normal', 'Sport', 'Snow', 'MyDrive'), so you can add some spice with Sport mode.

The EV6’s precise steering has a little weight to it and good feedback.

On dynamically engaging roads the EV6 doesn’t feel its two-tonne weight. It has loads of grip when you lean into a corner and remains flat through the twisty stuff. There’s the tiniest hint of lateral movement in the car but there’s a lack of top-heavy body roll.

Thanks to the rear-wheel drive configuration, it’s also playful. The rear flicked out briefly when turning in wet conditions, but otherwise the stability control keeps everything in check.

This car has clearly been engineerd by driving enthusiasts for driving enthusiasts.

The ride quality is a little jittery on uneven roads. It’s not cushy like the EV5. You will feel tram/train tracks, potholes and random bumps. I detected a little vibration through the steering wheel on crumby roads. The Continental Premium Contact 6 (255/45 R20) tyres have a decent sidewall but they can’t soak up everything.

As well as being dynamically excellent, it’s also a lovely cruiser on smooth freeways and roads.

Other related points - it has a large turning circle (11.6m) and visibility is impeded by enormous B- and C-pillars, small rear windows and a middle-seat headrest.

There’s lots of good news here. The diesel engine is quiet. The cabin is well insulated. Both of those combined saw me on one occasion press the start button not realising the engine was already running. That was in the FWD Trend grade, too. The ST-Line and Titanium have even better levels of insulation.

Steering is excellent – it’s weighted well, accurate, and it’s easy to turn the steering wheel in car parks or in three-point turns.

The ride is comfortable in all grades, but most of all in the Trend and Titanium, while the ST-Line has firmer sports suspension. But that makes it the most fun to drive in the corners where it handles impressively well for a 4.8m long SUV.

Visibility all-round is also outstanding. The side windows are large, the windscreen feels expansive with pillars that don’t get in the way, the dash is low and you sit quite high. While you are high up, the Endura doesn’t feel like a truck to drive. And that goes for the engine too, I’ve already mentioned how quite it is, but it’s smooth as well.

The engine could do with more grunt, though. There were times climbing hills in the overtaking lane that a bit more oomph would have made me feel a little less concerned that we weren’t going to make it past that semi-trailer before his lane ran out.

That was with two people on board and a couple of bags. The Trend FWD is the lightest at 1976kg while the Titanium AWD is 100kg heavier. That’s pretty heavy. The heaviest Mazda CX-9 (a bigger SUV with seven seats) for example weighs 1924kg. I wonder how the Endura would go fully loaded up with family and holiday gear, plus a boat on the back?

AWD or FWD? Well, they both use the same amount of fuel, so it just comes down to, can you afford it?

The FWD Trend I drove struggled for traction under harder acceleration from a standstill. The AWD ST-Line and Titanium I tested had no issues with traction at all. An AWD Trend is where I’d put my money.

Keep in mind the Endura isn’t an off-roader. The AWD system helps in the wet and on gravel, but its lowish ground clearance will prevent it from climbing anything more adventurous than a gutter. Unladen the AWD Endura’s belly hangs 193mm off the ground, while the FWD’s ground clearance is 186mm.

The Endura has scored the maximum five-star ANCAP rating. The level of advanced safety equipment in the Endura is mighty good. There’s AEB with pedestrian detection, evasive steering assistance, lane keep assistance, which will pull you back into the centre if you drift out, front and rear parking sensors and a reversing camera.

A standout safety function is the traffic sign recognition system which when used in conjunction with adaptive cruise control will spot speed limit signs and adjust your speed to keep you on the right side of the law. Along with all that there are seven airbags, and of course, traction and stability control.

For child seats you’ll find three top tether anchor points and two ISOFIX mounts in the second row.

A space saver spare is under the boot floor.

The EV6 is covered by Kia’s solid seven year/unlimited kilometre warranty and it has a battery warranty of seven years or 150,000 kilometres, whichever occurs first.

The service schedule is every 12 months or 15,000km.

Kia offers service plans of three, five and seven years with pricing for Air and GT-Line of $728 for three years, $1391 for five years and $2055 for seven years.

The GT is a little pricer at $842, $1570 and $2319, respectively.

This pricing isn’t astronomical, but it is more expensive than the Cupra Tavascan and MG IM6.

Kia has 147 dealerships across the country covering metro, urban and rural areas and all of them service EVs.

The Endura is covered by Ford’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended every 12 months or 15,000km and is capped at $299 for the first four services.