Think of GT badges the way you’d think of a costume borrowed from a faster relative: it fits well enough, it looks the part, and everyone at the party assumes you can actually run as quickly as the person you borrowed it from. Kia’s EV4 GT wears its costume confidently. Whether it earns it is a more complicated question.
A Familiar Trick, Applied to a New Kind of Car
Performance-flavoured trim levels are nothing new — BMW has its M Sport package, Audi its S line, Hyundai its N Line, all borrowing credibility from each brand’s genuine performance models. Kia applies the same formula to its electric EV4, adding virtual gears with a rev limiter and synthesised engine noise, echoing the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. Product manager Francesco Conti calls it „fun for everyday driving.“ The fake soundtrack divides opinion sharply and switches off easily enough for anyone unconvinced.
Power: A Smaller Step Up Than the Badge Suggests
The GT shares its 400-volt E-GMP platform and 81.4 kWh battery, good for up to 505 kilometres of WLTP range, with the rest of the EV4 line-up. Where the base front-driven EV4 makes 150 kW (204 PS) and the existing all-wheel-drive version manages 195 kW (265 PS), the GT combines a 145 kW (197 PS) front motor with a 70 kW (95 PS) rear unit that engages only when needed, for a combined 215 kW (292 PS) and 468 Nm. That’s just 20 kW (27 PS) more than the standard all-wheel-drive car — a modest gain for a badge built on performance promises. During testing, which included some spirited driving, consumption came to 19.8 kWh/100 km, 1.9 kWh above the official figure, and the sprint to 100 km/h takes 5.6 seconds before the car tops out at a limited 170 km/h.
On the Road: Genuinely Agile, Genuinely Firm
Kia pitches the GT for country roads rather than motorways, and on that ground it largely delivers. The software-based torque-vectoring system, with no mechanical limited-slip differential, coordinates motor and brake inputs convincingly, and the car turns in eagerly without demanding much of the driver. That agility comes at a cost: the firm suspension, on unique spring rates, anti-roll bar tuning, damper maps and a quicker steering rack, gets noticeably choppy over rough tarmac, not helped by the standard 20-inch wheels. A dedicated electronically controlled damping system, using a forward-facing camera to read the road ahead, is the GT’s exclusive addition — genuinely clever, if not quite enough to smooth out everything underneath.
Inside and Charging: Familiar, Functional, Unremarkable
The cabin stays tastefully restrained, with neon-green seatbelt trim and matching seat accents the only real giveaway, alongside genuinely supportive sport seats. Kia’s familiar dual-screen layout works well, complete with proper physical buttons for temperature and volume, though the small climate display sits awkwardly behind the steering wheel rim depending on seating position. Charging reveals the EV4’s more modest 400-volt architecture rather than the 800-volt systems found in the EV6 and EV9: 128 kW peak DC charging gets the battery from 10 to 80 percent in 31 minutes, a competent but unspectacular figure.
Verdict: Convincing Handling, Unconvincing Value
Strengths: genuinely engaging agility, a clever torque-vectoring system, comfortable and supportive seats, and solid real-world usability. Weaknesses: a performance gain that barely justifies the GT badge, a firm ride that struggles on rough roads, and a price of €57,840 that sits well above rivals offering considerably more power — the Cupra Born VZ costs €50,990 with 326 PS, the MG4 XPower just €46,990 with 435 PS. The costume fits nicely. The relative it was borrowed from, though, is faster and considerably cheaper to hire.
