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The KGM Torres EVX is likely to be a new name to most people, but if you look past this, it’s a spacious electric SUV that undercuts most other rivals on price.
OK, so you’ve probably not heard of KGM, and you won’t be alone (and even if you have heard of the name, you may forget it, because it’s not particularly memorable). KGM is actually the new name for SsangYong. The business originally started in South Korea in 1954; SsangYong appeared in 1988, and in 2022 KG Global acquired a majority share, rebranding as KGM Motors in the UK in 2024. The Torres EVX is the company’s first electric offering in the UK, if you ignore the electric Korando, which was never really properly on sale. So what’s it like…?
The Torres EVX looks like it has benefited from some investment in product design. The boxy shape definitely has a Land Rover feel, and is there a Range Rover influence in those rear lights? However there are also some slightly quirky design details, including the ‘grab handles’ on both sides of the top of the bonnet (we assume these are cosmetic rather than functional features), the spare wheel cover on the tailgate (or rather half a false spare wheel cover), the tailgate with a handle that looks like it will swing open from the side, whereas it actually opens upwards, and then there’s the very, very small area of glass in the side windows in the boot, even though from the outside it looks like the SUV has much larger side windows.
The Torres EVX is big (4,715mm in length) and spacious; there’s lots of rear legroom, and a huge 703-litre boot – which increases to 1,662 litres with the rear seats folded. There’s space under the boot floor to store charging cables (but no storage space under the bonnet).
There’s also lots of space for the driver and passenger, but the dashboard – complete with the copper-coloured trim across its width – is a bit basic and can’t really be described as having a premium feel. A floating centre console includes space for two drinks and two phones, and there’s a large storage space underneath.
Although the Torres looks like an off-roader, and it has 169mm of ground clearance and a 300mm wading depth, it’s only front-wheel drive. However it has a decent towing capacity of 1,500 kg.
The Torres has a 73.4 kWh lithium ion phosphate battery supplied by BYD.
The headline is that the KGM Torres EVX is basically fine to drive, with good ride quality, and the normal levels of refinement that you would expect from an EV. It’s a comfortable motorway cruiser, with brake regeneration that you can usefully adjust using the steering wheel-mounted paddles, and performance is decent in Sport mode… but that leads us on to our first recommendation for improvement. There’s no physical button to change the drive mode – in fact there’s virtually no physical buttons anywhere on the dashboard.
What you have instead is a 12.3-inch driver’s instrument display, which merges into a 12.3-inch central touchscreen. So what about buttons to change the drive modes on the touchscreen? Well, there’s nothing obvious. What you might (or might not) spot is a thin white line at the very top of the touchscreen – if you grab this line and swipe it down, a few car controls appear, including for drive modes – of Eco, Normal and Sport. This isn’t the most user-friendly way to change drive modes – especially compared to cars such as the Kia EV6, which has a drive mode button conveniently located on the steering wheel to make this a very user-friendly process.
There are some shortcuts down the left-hand side of the screen, for home, media, phone, navigation, and a fan symbol. You would assume that pressing the fan symbol would give you a climate control screen, which is partially correct – but the climate screen also features a vehicle button, and pressing this gives you the same controls that you get if you swipe the screen down – who would have thought that a fan symbol would lead you to the drive modes? (or that a thin white line would lead you to the drive modes?).
The thing is, you need quick access to the drive modes, because if you leave the Torres EVX in Eco mode, it can be very slow to respond if you’re pulling out of a junction.
As well as no user-friendly drive mode button, there are no physical climate controls; you have to press the fan shortcut button to get the climate controls, or you can swipe a thin blue line at the right-hand side of the touchscreen to the left to bring up the climate controls in a box that sits over the right of the screen. If you use Apple CarPlay, you lose this climate control box and therefore any ability to adjust the cabin’s temperature.
Then there’s the beeps. If you cross a white line without indicating the car will beep (and try to wrestle the steering wheel out of your hand). And if you go 1mph over the speed limit, the car will beep. Many other new cars also do this – they have to due to legislation – but most other cars don’t beep as much or as annoyingly as the Torres EVX. You can switch off the speed and the lane departure warnings, but of course you have to do this every time you start the car (and despite which drive mode you’ve chosen, it reverts to Comfort mode every time you start the car). And then there’s also another issue – the car frequently tells you to take a break.
The vast majority of new EVs have a gear selector that shifts straight from Drive to Reverse and vice versa, but in the Torres when you select what you think is Drive, it actually takes you to neutral, and you have to pull it again to get to Drive (the same with Reverse).
Because the Torres is front-wheel drive, when you accelerate away, it’s very easy to result in wheelspin and torque steer – especially in wet or damp conditions. And when this happens the traction control also cuts in to reduce the power – which isn’t great when you’re in the middle of trying to accelerate on to a busy road. The Torres looks like a big SUV that should be all-wheel drive, and it would be a much better, and grippier, car if it was.
The Torres’ driving position may not suit everyone – there’s very little reach adjustment for the steering column, and, even bearing in mind that this is an SUV, the driver’s seat feels too high, compared to the position of the steering wheel and the driver’s instrument display.
The KGM Torres EVX has an official combined WLTP electric driving range of 287 miles. During a week of mixed driving, the real-world range was averaging at 280 miles – which is only seven miles less than the official figure.
The Torres EVX has a maximum rapid charging rate of 120kW, which is slower than most similar EVs. KGM quotes a 20% to 80% rapid charge using a 100kW charger taking 37 minutes. A 0% to 100% charge using a 11kW charger (typically found at a workplace in the UK) is quoted as taking 9 hours.
The Torres EVX has vehicle to load capability and, in K40 trim, a heat pump.
The KGM Torres EVX is available in two trim levels: the K30, from £44,495, and the K40, as tested, from £47,495. Some of the key differences between the two trim levels are that the K40 has 20-inch rather than 18-inch alloy wheels, leather seats, and a heat pump.
The KGM Torres EVX is basically a good car, offering lots of space, a comfortable driving experience, and an electric powertrain with impressive real-world range – for relatively good value compared to many rivals. However there are a number of areas where improvements could be made. This is a big SUV, seemingly engineered for off-roading, but it’s only available with front-wheel drive. This means that there’s lots of wheelspin and torque steer even on tarmac roads; it’s not worth contemplating what would happen if you took it off-road. There’s the over-intrusive safety systems, which result in lots of beeping. And the car controls could be made more user-friendly – having to swipe down a screen to change drive modes isn’t the best solution, and the same comment applies to the lack of ease in adjusting climate controls, especially when using Apple CarPlay. The KGM Torres EVX is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 7 out of 10.
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Paul Clarke, GreenCarGuide Editor
