Kia EV9 review – a Range Rover on a budget?
Need an electric seven-seater with a 300+ mile range? The Kia EV9 is a great option
Enormous electric SUVs don't tend to shine under the evo microscope. Bolting a huge battery pack beneath a large, high-riding vehicle is the easiest way to produce an EV with an acceptable range and a healthy profit margin, but seems to completely miss the point when it comes to the thoughtful, forward-thinking design avenues that electric propulsion can open up.
A full-size seven-seater it may be, but the Kia EV9 feels like a breath of fresh air in some ways. This is an electric car that makes excellent use of its footprint and packaging to be genuinely useful and – for now at least – unrivalled in its segment. If you want a 300+ mile EV to carry seven passengers comfortably, this is the only place to look.
The EV9 rides on Kia’s familiar e-GMP platform (shared with the EV6), and comes in three variants; the rear-wheel drive Air, the all-wheel drive GT-Line, the GT-Line S, and the EV9 GT range-topper. Each model is priced at £66,035, £74,035, £77,035, and £83,235 respectively, with the optional six-seat layout of the GT-Line S and EV9 GT costing an extra £1000.
Powertrain, performance and range
- 99.8kWh battery pack in all EV9s
- 378bhp in GT-Line form, or 501bhp in the GT
- Performance doesn't justify the GT's price or loss of range
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Every EV9 is equipped with a huge 99.8kWh battery pack, sending (and receiving) its power through an 800V electronic architecture – there’s also a standard heat pump to improve efficiency. The Air can achieve an impressive 349 miles from a charge – 36 miles more than the dual-motor versions – and a peak charging rate of 210kW enables 155 miles of range to be added in just 15 minutes. A downside of that large battery is that it weighs 566kg on its own – or the same as the evo Fast Fleet Caterham Seven…
The GT-Line and GT-Line S use the same 378bhp dual-motor powertrain, which carries the 2648kg EV9 down the road very nicely, while the EV9 GT develops a full 501bhp from its dual-motor, rear-biased setup. For the GT-Line models, that means a 0-62mph sprint of 5.3sec and it feels genuinely urgent right up to motorway speeds, at which point the big Kia starts to struggle a little more against drag and friction.
The GT is obviously even punchier, though it’s perhaps not as beefy as you might expect given the power output, which must come down to its 2.7-tonne kerb weight; a fast estate with the same output feels a lot more exciting. The 200bhp, single-motor Air has to deal with most of that weight with far less power and feels lethargic by comparison – you miss the extra grunt when making overtakes or squirting down a slip road – but the immediate torque delivery makes it easy to keep up with traffic and stroll along at decent speed.
In all models, throttle modulation is smooth and controlled in the Normal drive mode, becoming snappier in Sport. The GT gets a dedicated GT button on the steering wheel, much like the smaller EV6 GT, and this calls up even sharper settings for its steering, electronic LSD, brake pedal feel, motor response and more, giving the car a sporty edge. The active dampers aren’t adjustable through the drive modes, however, and vary automatically according to road conditions.
The EV9 is capable of one-pedal driving, activated via the wheel-mounted paddles. Should you need to use the brake pedal, the blend between regen and the friction brakes is impressively seamless, with the 360mm front, 345mm rear brakes providing adequate and progressive stopping power. Initial bite isn’t particularly strong, and all that weight certainly makes itself known after a few stops, but this won’t be a problem unless you’re driving the EV9 in a manner you probably shouldn’t be.
The sport setting for the brakes doesn’t seem to make much of a difference to pedal feel on the GT either, but the quickest EV9 does have one further mode above and beyond the others: virtual gearshifts, much like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. The system is functionally impressive and uses the same paddles you use for regen, but it doesn’t quite give the GT the fun factor of the smaller Hyundai, and we suspect most owners probably won’t touch the system after their first exploratory play-around. This is one quick EV that’s better operated purely as an EV rather than a wannabe combustion car – the linear surge of power definitely shows off the GT in its best light.
The EV9 is capable of one-pedal driving, activated via the wheel-mounted paddles. Should you need to use the brake pedal, the blend between regen and the friction brakes is impressively seamless, with the 360mm front, 345mm rear brakes providing adequate and progressive stopping power. Initial bite isn’t particularly strong, and all that weight certainly makes itself known after a few stops, but this won’t be a problem unless you’re driving the EV9 in a manner you probably shouldn’t be.
Ride and handling
- Relaxing, comfortable and controlled if not engaging
- Lack of rear-steering makes it difficult to manoevre
- Smaller wheels aid the ride
From the first turn of the wheel, it’s clear that the EV9 has been set up to be relaxing over long distances rather than engaging to drive – a sensible approach for this kind of car, and for the most part the Kia fits that brief well. It's calm and quiet at motorway speeds with well-controlled body movements, but on fiddly, bumpy back roads, the EV9 begins to unravel slightly – particularly on 21-inch alloys. It’s generally comfortable, but imperfections can shimmy through the structure and the suspension works hard to maintain a level platform on heavily crowned roads. The smaller 19-inch wheels provide an extra layer of compliance to take the edge off bumps, and we’d stick with these.
The EV9 is easy to position on the road for a two-metre-wide SUV, and if you gently introduce it into corners, it’s stable, secure and sure-footed. Up the pace and there’s a ponderous feel as you persuade all that mass to change direction, but the EV9 doesn’t throw up any surprises – at worst, it leans into gentle, easily manageable understeer. The single-motor Air feels similar, aside from slightly more positive steering feel and a more neutral balance when accelerating out of corners. Whichever version you choose, there’s no escaping the fact that you’re dealing with a five-metre-long SUV without rear-wheel steering, so manoeuvring in tight spaces can be tricky.
The engagement does step up a notch with the EV9 GT, but not enough to put it among our favourite performance SUVs. The extra power and the effects of the electronic LSD and torque vectoring mean you can actually play around with the car’s balance, though the sheer size of the EV9 means that just like a Land Rover Defender Octa, you really need to pick your moments. Unlike the Defender, though, there’s also not much reward for doing so beyond the novelty and unlikeliness of driving a car this big, this quickly – the steering weights up but never really talks back, and it doesn’t hide its weight as effectively as some hot SUVs. The ride is even more knobbly than the regular EV9 at lower speeds too (despite Kia trimming 2kg a corner from the weight of its 21-inch wheels) which chips away at its family car credentials, though it’s just as adept at more sweeping A-roads or motorways.
Design, interior and tech
- Compelling boxy design, nice interior
- Generous standard kit
- Screen-heavy UI plus hard keys – intuitive enough
The design of the EV9 is quite unlike anything on the road – it’s boxy, modern and has real presence in the metal. The party trick, however, is that it feels like Kia has maximised its size to offer a vast, extremely versatile interior. Unlock the EV9 via its part-recycled key and its flush handles emerge from the doors. Climb aboard and the lack of a transmission tunnel gives a completely flat floor throughout the cabin, and with sliding second-row seats, you can fit three adults behind one another in relative comfort. The GT-Line and GT-Line S come with heated and ventilated seats throughout, with the latter offering an optional six-seat layout with individual swivelling chairs in the second row. The GT also gets a six-seat option, while the front seats are a pair of well-bolstered buckets – incongruous in an SUV, but they look and feel fabulous.
This practicality is backed up by solid – if not overly plush – build quality and an enormous suite of kit that includes a digital rear-view mirror, active noise cancellation, three-zone climate control, six onboard USB-C ports, a 360-degree parking camera and a full-sized three-pin UK plug socket in the boot. The EV9 even goes as far as blocking the scent of the washer fluid from entering the cabin when you clean the windscreen.
A pair of 12.3-inch displays take centre stage up front, along with a row of illuminated hard keys on the dashboard (which can take one or two attempts before registering a press, it must be said) while buttons on the wheel (including a neon green GT button on the three-spoke wheel of the sportiest variant) ensure you don’t need to dive into touchscreen menus for absolutely everything. The infotainment touchscreen could be more responsive but the interface is relatively intuitive to use on the move, but if you don’t get on with it, Apple Carplay and Android Auto are included as standard. Thankfully, the climate controls are always accessible via a dedicated display to the left of the driver.
Price and rivals
Regardless of whether you can stomach the thought of a £66,035 Kia, the truth is that the EV9 lacks any direct rivals at the moment, and justifies that asking price with excellent versatility and equipment levels. It’s by no means as plush or sophisticated as a Range Rover, but it doesn’t cost over £100k either…
Closest in spirit is probably Volvo’s EX90, but that costs significantly more than the Kia for anything approaching like-for-like specification. There are some pretty brisk versions too but in certain trim levels, the EX90 nudges £100,000, so by this metric even the EV9 GT starts to look pretty good value. The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is similarly priced to the Kia, though you need to spend a little more for the seven-seat LWB, and it comes with a shorter 258-mile range than the EV9. If you don't need seven seats but want to prioritise range, BMW's iX3 could be worth a look, being able to deliver almost 400 miles of real-world range in 50 xDrive spec, from £58,755.
As a rival for the EV9 GT, there’s very little in the electric market other than that Volvo; the only cars you’re likely to consider use combustion power, sometimes hybridised, and even then it’s tricky to find seven-seat equivalents. The EV9 isn't perfect, but given what it offers for the price and its lack of competitors, it’s impossible not to recommend.
