![Kia EV9 review](/sites/default/files/cars-car/image/2024/02/1%20Kia%20EV9%20review%202024.jpg?w=424&h=239)
Good stuff
Vast inside, quiet, well-finished interior, decent range, lots of kit, looks cool
Bad stuff
Huge outside, occasionally unsettled ride, irritating driver aids
Overview
What is it?
It’s Kia’s final boss: the EV9. An all-electric, three-row SUV which costs from £65,025. That’s for the entry-level rear-drive 200bhp Air that lands in the UK this summer. Initially you’ll have to make do with four-wheel drive, more equipment, and a starting sticker £73,275. This is not your nan’s Kia Rio. Nor is it Sorento money; you can get into Kia’s ICE seven-seater for £45k.
What on earth makes Kia think it can take on the Land Rover Discovery and Mercedes EQE SUV?
If you’ve not been paying attention. Kia and its sister brand Hyundai are behind some of the very best electric cars around today: the Niro EV, the EV6, the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6… the Korean electric revolution is no fluke. It’s putting the wind up the big European ‘premium’ players, and now it’s beaten them to the punch with one of the only fully-electric, full-size seven-seaters you can buy.
Is this an SUV that can go off-road?
Not really, although the twin-motor version is of course four-wheel drive and there’s a button on the steering wheel for choosing Mud, Snow and Sand modes. Think of this more as a seven-seater minivan, masquerading as a square-jawed, muscle-bound, go-anywhere land-conqueror. At over five metres long, and riding on 21-inch rims, it’s certainly got some presence.
What are the battery options and how far’s the range?
Don’t hold out for an entry-level ‘small battery’ version: all UK-bound EV9s get a whopper of a 99.8kWh battery rooted into the floor. The twin-motor GT-line S we tested, which develops a heady 380bhp and sprints from 0-62mph in a worryingly rapid 5.3 seconds, delivers a claimed range of 318 miles.
If you’re happy to tack four seconds onto your 0-62mph time (and your many passengers may well thank you for it) and drop down to 20-inch rims, then the rear-drive version will stretch range closer to 350 miles. Healthy numbers for something that appears at first to have the aerodynamic properties of a medium-sized leisure centre, and a similar ballpark of weight. Welcome to a 2.6-tonne Kia, folks.
Presume it has all the latest driver aids and tech?
The EV9 is inundated with gadgets: self-parking, a driverless ‘crawl’ mode so it can be summoned in and out of tight spaces without opening the doors, and autonomous lane-changing on the motorway. It’s also festooned with bonging driver aids which may grind your teeth into dust before the first finance payment is due. Be warned.
There’s also a dizzying standard equipment list. The idea is you only have to choose the colour – don’t worry about ticking options boxes.
Okay, any surprises along the way?
Kia’s very keen this enormous 4x4 has an eco-conscience beyond zero local emissions. So the interior is made largely of recycled or sustainably sourced materials. There’s no leather, the plastics are either recycled or fashioned from crops, and even the paint on the trim has been concocted using fewer nasty chemicals. That said, it’s still pretty grey in here and although tech-laden, doesn’t have much of a luxury vibe.
What are the rivals to this?
There are plenty of big electric SUVs around. In fact from the Audi Q8 e-tron to the BMW iX, they were among the first electric products launched by many brands. However, none was especially practical or family orientated. In fact, there are still very few seven-seat electric cars out there, and most of them, such as the Mercedes EQV, are van based. This puts Kia in a commanding position. They’ve beaten brands such as Volvo and Land Rover to market, and will surely lap up those who can’t face the thought of paying £100k for an EX90.
Our choice from the range
![Kia EV9 review](/sites/default/files/cars-car/image/2024/02/1%20Kia%20EV9%20review%202024.jpg?w=424&h=239)
What's the verdict?
The EV9 is a very rounded bit of kit. “No it ain’t – looks pretty square to me actually”, etc etc. Ho-ho. The point is that Kia’s flagship product feels like a worthy range-topper not simply because it offers a lot of metal, chair and equipment for the money.
It’s actually a properly well-thought out product – one that feels tough enough for everyday family life, feature-stuffed enough to be futureproof, and packing enough range and performance to justify a price that would’ve seemed laughable for a Kia – or any Korean car – a decade ago.
We’ll keep egging on Kia – and all manufacturers – to find less intrusive ways of integrating the safety and assistance tech that the law requires into their cars. So the very gadgets designed to keep us less distracted and safer don’t have the opposite effect...
But for now, the handsome and commodious EV9 looks like it’s got a big slice of the market to itself, and deserves to own it for the time being. It leaves you asking yourself the seventy-five grand question: while you might like a car with a posher badge, when this offering is so fit for purpose, do you genuinely need one?
The Rivals
Trending this week
- Long Term Review