WITH more curves than a catwalk queen at a Paris fashion show the new Kia EV6 is a masterpiece of automotive design.

Muscular front haunches, a bonnet with two stylish bulges in it, side panels with nicely flared shapes in the metal and a skyward curved rear this Kia certainly catches the eye.

And with the EV6 the beauty is anything but skin deep.

As one of the longer of the new breed of electric cars - it's almost identical in length to a Jaguar I-PACE and not dissimilar in styling - it's ideal for large families or if you just want a model which offers a superior amount of rear leg room.

The EV6 is available in two formats. With a single electric motor driving the rear wheels or with twin electric motors - one on each axle - making it four-wheel-drive.

The model driven here was the less pricey rear-wheel-drive version, which offers 226bhp as opposed to the 321bhp of the four-wheel-drive model.

Opt for this one and you will pay just over £44,000 compared to £50,000-plus for the high-performance model.

And while the latter will hit 60 miles per hour in just 5.2 seconds the model I drove is no slouch hitting the same speed in 7.3 seconds, more than a match for most hot hatches on the road. Both have the same top speed of 114mph.

The interior of the EV6 is minimalist yet futuristic. It features a seamless high-tech curved high-definition audio visual and navigation screen with all essential information focussed immediately in front of the driver while onboard features like radio and satellite navigation details sit above the centre console.

For my ideal seating position, however, the digital speedometer was set too far to the left and so was always partly blocked by the steering wheel.

A comfortable central armrest with storage space leads into a floating centre panel housing the circular gearshift and the buttons for the heated seats and heated steering wheel. Below is a useful storage tray capable of accommodating numerous large items.

Build quality of the EV6 is up there with the best of the best. Everything feels well put together and solid and the doors close easily but with a solid clunk while the rear tailgate is nicely weighted making it easy to open and close even for youngsters.

On the road you have the choice of driving the car as a normal automatic or switching to the one-pedal driving mode much beloved by electric car makers to give you more regenerative braking and extend the car's battery range.

Paddles behind the steering wheel also allow you to take a halfway house option by not quite going to single pedal drive but introducing a stronger level of regenerative braking at each pull of the left hand paddle.

It's a new and interesting take on the one-pedal system - as opposed to simply being able to switch it on or off - and takes a little getting used to but works well once you have adapted to it and it certainly allows you to have more of a hands-on feeling.

Handling and road holding are top notch with the batteries situated under the floor and between the axles ensuring there is a low centre of gravity to give plenty of stability when you want to push on enthusiastically.

For most people, however, electric cars are all about range - or in some cases lack of it - and charging times.

In the case of the EV6 range anxiety soon fades into the background with a car the manufacturer claims can cover an average of 328 miles on a single charge.

Using an ultra rapid 350kW charger, if you can find one, the EV6 can be charged from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in just 18 minutes.

More realistically a 50kW watt charger, of which there are plenty around, will do the same job in just under and hour and a quarter.