The Kia EV9 full-size SUV.Courtesy of manufacturer
Kia wants you to know there’s more to the new EV9 full-size SUV than you might think.
Yes, it’s big, with three rows on a flat floor and a second row of seats that can be optioned to swivel to face backward. It will tow up to 5,000 pounds in North America. It’s completely electric, built on the same E-GMP platform as its EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 siblings, and it uses 800-volt capability to recharge quickly, when possible. The rear-wheel-drive Long Range edition can cover up to 541 kilometres on a single charge.
It’s the stuff you don’t see, however, that makes the EV9 stand out.
This will be the first Kia, and one of the first from any carmaker, to offer Level 3 autonomous driving, though it will probably not be legal to regular Canadian drivers for some while yet. The upscale GT-Line edition will be available with Kia’s Highway Driving Pilot (HDP) system, which uses 15 sensors, including two Lidars in the front grille, to scan and map objects around it. This means that when conditions permit, in theory, the driver does not need to watch the road. They can have a nap or watch a movie. In practice, this won’t be sold right away because almost nowhere in the world will have regulations that permit it for regular driving. But Kia says, “we’re ready for this now.”
The front seats and dash of the Kia EV9.Courtesy of manufacturer
The EV9 will also offer several upgrades through an app on your phone. Want an extra 74 lb-ft of torque? Just tap the app and pay for an over-the-air update. Want to adjust the cluster of more than 40 small cube lights beside each headlight for a personalized pattern or download the software for remote parking? Just pay on the app.
According to Sang Lee, Kia’s senior product planning manager, “we have reduced the anxiety of having to make important purchase decisions on the spot.” Kia would not say if this will be a one-time purchase or a monthly subscription, or both.
The interior of the Kia EV9.Courtesy of manufacturer
Inside the SUV, many of the materials are both recycled and sustainably sourced, which should help Kia reach its global target of carbon neutrality by 2045. There’s no leather – the seats are covered with plant-based textiles that use corn and sugar cane extracts and natural oils. More than 70 recycled plastic bottles are used in the interior and there’s recycled fishing net in the floors. The company wants at least 20 per cent of the plastic in all its vehicles to be made from recycled material by 2030.
The second row of seats on the Kia EV9 can swivel.Courtesy of manufacturer
The second-row seats swivelled to face backward.Courtesy of manufacturer
There will be at least three variations of the battery and motors. No prices have been announced and there’s been no decision on what versions of the EV9 will come to Canada when it arrives sometime this fall or winter.
The “standard-range” rear-wheel-drive model will be equipped with a 76.1-kilowatt-hour battery and a 160-kilowatt motor. That will be enough for it to accelerate from to 100 kilometres an hour in 8.2 seconds.
The “long-range” rear-wheel-drive model will come with a 99.8-kilowatt-hour battery and a 150-kilowatt motor, producing the same acceleration in 9.4 seconds. This is the version with the greatest driving range, at up to 541 kilometres on a warm day.
The trunk of the Kia EV9 with the second and third row of seats folded down.Courtesy of manufacturer
The “long-range” all-wheel-drive model uses the same 99.8-kilowatt-hour battery, but attaches it to two electric motors that have a combined output of 283 kilowatts. This creates 442 lb-ft of torque and acceleration in six seconds, but if you pay for the upgrade on the app, you can get 516 lb-ft and acceleration in 5.3 seconds. There’s no official word on the driving range for this heavier vehicle, but on a Kia YouTube video, the display on an all-wheel-drive EV9 GT-Line model shows it to have a 444-kilometre range with a full battery.
The 800-volt architecture of the platform means the EV9 is capable of very fast charging if you can find a Level 3 charging station: a 15-minute charge at 350 kilowatts can provide up to 239 kilometres of range. The SUV can also create up to 3.68 kilowatts to power heavy equipment.
This is a large vehicle, with a wheelbase of more than three metres and an overall length of more than five. Its aerodynamic co-efficient is 0.28 Cd, which is slightly more slippery than the 0.29 of the smaller Ioniq 5. Kia says it’s working on a dedicated high-performance model for early in 2025.
When the pricing of the EV9 is announced later this year, it will probably be good value for money, but it almost certainly will not be cheap. “Of course, Kia is a mainstream brand,” said Kaoru Kumasegawa, Kia’s vice-president of global brand strategy, “but we also see that lately, with the shift to electrification, the boundaries between premium and mainstream are getting kind of blurry.”
Courtesy of manufacturer
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