With Chinese EV’s doing so well how about some love for the Korean KGM Torres, a large family SUV that offers great value & practicality. During the hottest week in June we drove the electric EVX version & discovered a car that’s well worth your consideration.
Tell me more ?
If you’re not familiar with KGM they took over Ssang Yong in 2022 & set about updating the model range including our test car the Torres which is also offered in hybrid petrol form.
Model choice & pricesThe Torres EVX is available in two trims, K30 which costs from £36,995 or K40 which retails at £39,295.
Powertrain & performanceThe EVX comes with a 73.4kWh battery courtesy of BYD’s Blade tech, powering a single e-motor & is front-wheel drive. Top speed is 109mph with 0-62mph reached in 8.1 seconds, with 204bhp & 339Nm on tap.
Exterior
It’s chunky & despite not being 4WD it certainly looks the part. Plastic grab handles on the bonnet & a large tailgate handle are reminiscent of old Toyota’s & Nissan’s. A bonnet-width light bar looks nice & you also get low-down headlights, aero alloy wheels, black roof rails & a sturdy rear hatch. The charging port is located front left & overall it definitely has road presence.
Interior space & practicality
First & foremost the cabin is incredibly spacious with loads of leg & headroom in the front & the rear. The rear bench is large enough for three adults but the centre seat is raised a touch so it does mean the centre rear passenger gets less headroom.
Storage space comes in the form of a small glove box, front door pockets big enough to hold large drinks, an under armrest area, a large shelf underneath the floating centre binnacle, a slim wireless phone charger & small area at the front of this. Rear passengers get twin USB’s, a fold down armrest with twin cup-holders & the front seats feature useful organisers including pockets for your smartphone.
Boot
This is generous with between 839 & 1,662 litres available. A removable soft rear parcel shelf enables larger items to fit in. We folded down the rear seats to move some large planters & this was achieved quickly & easily. The tailgate opens wide so even if you’re tall you won’t bang your head on this. The boot floor lifts to reveals space for your charging cables.
CabinThis reflects the cars exterior in that it looks & feels sturdy & functional. Most of there dash is trimmed in soft touch materials & the copper coloured interior trim along the dash base, around the centre controls & seat stitching breaks up the ubiquitous blacks & chromes nicely. Cheaper finishes are hidden lower down.
The dash itself is dominated by twin 12.3” displays that seamlessly join together making one large section. The centre screen is for infotainment whilst the right side one illustrates your speed & trip information. As with many cars circa 2026 almost everything is controlled in the screen menus, but not all. Right side steering wheel switches activate cruise control & the ones on the left the volume & entertainment. Drivers window side exterior mirror switches & electric window controls also feature. The gear lever is located in the floating centre section next to the electric parking brake.
Infotainment
The KGM set-up is more Chinese in style than Korean. And what do we mean by that ? Simply that it’s fiddly & takes a bit of getting used to. Climate can be accessed by touching the fan icon & in daytime temperatures of 35 degrees this June, this was frequent. When it appears it’s simple to adjust but remains in part on the screen when you try to access other icons.
You can swipe down the screen from the top to access some menus but overall it’s too slow, lacks precision & encourages you to look at it & not the road for to0 long as you await a response. And turning of the holy trinity of speed warning, lane departure & driver distraction is a long-winded process as well. And if you want to connect your phone to CarPlay you’ll need to use a cable & leave it in or the connection is lost.
Warranty
5yrs/100,000 miles
SpecificationsKGM have been far from stingy here. The K30 comes with 18” diamond cut alloys, LED headlights, a heated steering wheel, heated front seats which are electrically adjustable, front & rear parking sensors, SatNav, a wireless phone charger, cruise control, dual-zone climate control, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto connectivity & those twin 12.3” screens. K40 offers 20” wheels, premium leather upholstery, adaptive cruise control, cooling front seats, adaptive cruise control, a 360-degree camera system, blind-spot monitoring & a heat pump.
Driving rangeA 287 mile driving range looks good on paper & in a very warm June we were getting close to this with a 3.4 miles per kWh return, meaning a range of 250+ miles in warmer weather. For example a 100 mile motorway jaunt at a constant 70mph with the air-con very much on we used 115 miles of range. Factor in a cold Winter & even with the heat pump on our K40 & we’d expect to see this fall to 200 miles.
Driving modes & regeneration
The EVX features three of each so Eco, Comfort or Sport & 1, 2 or 3 levels of regeneration which you activate via the steering wheel paddles & whilst you can feel these increase or decrease the cars lag, none are one-pedal.
To access the driving modes you simply swipe down from the top of the touchscreen. Driving mostly in Eco gave us our range findings but Normal & Sport do loosen the car up & if you do try the Sport set-up you’ll want to keep an eye on the front wheel spin that introducers itself on gravelly junctions.
Charging
The EVX has a maximum charging speed of 145kW so lags behind many rivals, meaning slower mobile charging compared to others. An 10-80% top-up on a fast charger will take 37 minutes. At home expect a 0-100% charge in 10 hours.
Safety
Our K40 featured everything including Blind Spot Monitoring. But unless you pre-select what to turn off before you set-off on your journey – speed warning, lane departure & driver distraction – you’ll be constantly bombarded by beeps & bongs. Annoying but well worth learning to make every journey more enjoyable.
Driving
In town the steering is light enough to make the EVX feel smaller than it actually is with enough power to nip in & out of traffic as required. Parking is aided by the cameras & sensors which is great because you’ll notice the large C pillars do obscure some rear view when you turn around.
Head out onto some fast A roads & the cars weight, shape & size which are typical of a large SUV are hard to disguise. Here the steering feels too sensitive & not heavy enough whilst the inevitable body-roll appears on any twisting section. You’ll also notice some road & wind noise entering that cabin which is not helped by the twin bonnet grab handles which are not very aerodynamic.
Push down hard in Sport mode & there’s a tendency for wheel spin & at the same time the suspension feels harder & much less forgiving. Better to select Comfort or Eco mode where things soften up, although not enough to prevent the inevitable vibrations from our poor UK tarmac entering the cabin as the EVX bounces along. Whilst it’s not unexpected it could be better.
Motorway
Here the EVX does better. Utilising cruise-control you simply set this & go & it proves to be a decent cruiser. While the cabin isn’t completely quiet we were still able to make hands-free calls & have a conversation without shouting & the CarPlay connection via the USB & cable worked fine as well. The EVX’s torque means overtaking is hassle-free & the myriad of electric seat & steering wheel adjustments means finding a comfortable driving position is good as well.
The good
Hugely practical, competitively priced & generously equipped, the EVX also comes with just 3% BIK. Chunky looks make it stand out in crowd.
The badOver reliance on the touchscreen, annoying safety warnings & charging speed is just average. Tech & brake-regeneration feel dated compared to rivals.
Verdict
The Torres EVX may have gone under your radar but in a sea of Chinese electric SUV’s we felt that it genuinely offers something different, even old-school to the sector. Think Toyota RAV 4 or Nissan X-Trail but with an electric power train & you won’t be far wrong.
If you can accept the inevitable intrusive safety warnings & touchscreen distraction that come with the territory in a modern electric SUV, you’ll discover a car that’s really easy to like & one that’s decidedly different enough to stand on it’s own
Not perfect but may be perfect for you 3.25/5
