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There’s a great American tradition in hitting the road to find something, a sense of scale, the smell of old pine forests, or maybe just a new way to test the limits of whatever machine now calls your garage home.
For one Reddit user, that rite of passage took shape in a 1,600-mile loop through Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks behind the wheel of a freshly purchased 2025 Kia EV6 Wind RWD. The car was new, the landscape ancient. It was a perfect pairing, until modern visibility met a very old boulder.
“Our first EV (of any kind) – a 2025 EV6 Wind RWD. I hadn’t planned to buy until later in the year, but when the model I wanted showed up at my preferred dealer, uncertainty about tariffs and tax credits convinced me to trade in our Sorento hybrid a few months early.
That meant taking our planned 1600-mile week-long road trip to see Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks as first-time EV owners.
Overall, I couldn’t be happier with how the EV6 performed. It gobbled up the miles on long highway stretches, handled the twisty mountain road through Kings Canyon like a much smaller/lighter car, and HDA2 was a blessing when crawling through a two-hour accident delay on I-5.
The bad came on the way back from Yosemite when I doubted the route guidance and decided to pull off into a small parking area to check the map. The driver’s side A-pillar concealed a large boulder marking the corner of the entrance, and I drove right up onto it with the front left corner of the car. Low-speed impact, but that was enough to crush that part of the fascia and the condenser and coolant lines behind it.
The car was drivable after, but quickly lost all the coolant. We pressed on for a couple of miles in a desperate quest for cell service before the 98°F temps caused a drop into “turtle mode”. Reduced power wasn’t enough to even climb the grades, but we had managed to reach weak cell coverage.
Pulled off, contacted roadside assistance, and they dispatched a flatbed. Thankfully, the A/C still worked, so we were comfortable on the two-hour wait for rescue. Finished the last two days of the trip in a much less pleasant Mazda 3 rental, but finished nonetheless!
We will be without the car for a few weeks while the damage is repaired. Hopefully I can manage the withdrawal symptoms 🙂”
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The moment the story hit Reddit’s r/KiaEV6 community, fellow owners rallied behind the post. One commenter summed it up with comedic brevity: “TL;DR ‘Got in an accident.’”
Another added the crucial qualifier: “…Of no fault of the car’s.” And they’re right. This wasn’t a failure of electrification or drivetrain technology.
It was the kind of freak accident that could happen in a Buick Electra or a BMW M3, though it’s worth noting that today’s bloated A-pillars can hide a tree trunk with terrifying ease.
2025 Kia EV6: Range, Charge Time, and Trim Levels
- The 2025 EV6 offers up to 319 miles of EPA-estimated range on the Long-Range RWD model, with the standard battery RWD variant rated at 270 miles
- Thanks to its 800 V electrical architecture, the EV6 can recharge from 10 % to 80 % in just 20 minutes on compatible DC fast-chargers
- Kia’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) port grants EV6 owners access to over 18,000 Tesla Superchargers nationwide (40,000+ DC fast chargers total via adapter)
- Available trims include Light, Light Long Range, Wind, GT-Line, and the high-performance GT, each offering different AWD/RWD configurations, battery packs, and power outputs
As Redditor FeetOfAChicken wryly noted,
“When I’m turning, it’s like I’m dancing in the front seat, having to move my head to make sure I’m not about to turn into a pedestrian.”
And that was echoed across the thread. In the relentless march toward five-star crash ratings, the A-pillar has swollen into an architectural hazard, often turning a glance into a neck workout.
One user put it plainly:
“A pillar these days is so much more dangerous than pop-up headlights were.”
Still, the EV6 acquitted itself admirably in nearly every measurable way. It tackled tight mountain passes with the nimbleness of something half its size.
It soaked up long freeway stints with composure and confidence.
Is Kia’s HDA2 Useful?
According to the original poster, Kia’s HDA2 (Highway Driving Assist) was invaluable in traffic, easing the grind of a two-hour jam on I-5.
First-time EV owners, first major road trip, no range anxiety, no charger horror stories. As another commenter pointed out, the charging landscape has come a long way:
“We just did a similar road trip… the entire trip was so easy to charge, such a change from a similar trip two years ago.”
2025 Kia EV6 Dimensions
- Front legroom: 42.4 inches, providing generous space for the driver and passenger to stretch out
- Rear legroom: 39.0 inches, comfortably accommodating adult passengers in the back
- Shoulder room: 57.8 inches up front and 55.6 inches in the rear, ensuring ample lateral comfort
- Cargo capacity: 28 cu ft behind the rear seats, expanding to 54 cu ft with the 60/40 split seats folded flat
There’s something quietly poetic about the story’s ending. The rescue came, the A/C kept blowing, and the rest of the trip, albeit in a rental Mazda 3, still happened.
No family meltdown. No Reddit rant against EVs or modern tech. Just one driver, a few scars on the bumper, and a tone of reluctant separation. “Hopefully I can manage the withdrawal,” they wrote. You don’t say that about a car unless it mattered.
And that’s where the EV6 surprises you. It’s not loud. It’s not trying to sell nostalgia or brute force. It’s something subtler: a real-deal grand tourer in crossover form.
A car that quietly and confidently earns its stripes across 1,600 miles, and makes you miss it when it’s gone. That, more than anything, is the mark of a great road trip car.
Image Sources: Kia Media Center
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
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Source: torquenews.com
