Kia EV9 2023 Review | First Drive

Kia has been pushing its upward mobility as a brand over the past few years, putting out models like the Stinger and EV6 and the Telluride in the US, to see how buyers respond to higher-priced, more premium models from a Korean brand. That in concert with some serious emphasis on design and a hike in fit, finish and quality across the board has elevated Kia in the minds of buyers, well above its somewhat apologetic place in the market of yesteryear. 

That glow-up culminates in an all-electric semi-luxury SUV flagship, the EV9. Seating six or seven and priced from £64,995, rising all the way to almost £77,000, this had better be the masterstroke of Kia’s premium push. We get behind the wheel for the first time, in top-level GT Line S spec, which begs the ultimate question: can a Kia carry a near-£80,000 price tag in 2024?

Kia’s bold ‘opposites united’ design philosophy is fully realised in this E-GMP-based family-luxury SUV. Unlike so many in this space the EV9 is no pseudo-sporty amorphous pebble. Rather it embraces the more traditional, sturdy, upright stature of SUVs bygone. There’s something of the old Land Rover Discovery to its silhouette, with the addition of bold carved wheel arches in place of a strictly slab side. Those body lines are accentuated nicely by the matt Pacific Blue finish, though quite how well the original EV9 Concept’s hue will translate to practical real world use and cleaning remains to be seen.

There’s nothing Land Rover about what Kia calls the ‘Digital Tiger Face’, which of course incorporates those distinctive vertical LED headlamps with constellation-like DRLs. That ‘star map’ motif is explored more in the rear lights making for a very distinctive light signature that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else at night. In all, visually at least, it has the kind of presence and confidence that befits its price point and allows it to sit sturdily alongside the likes of the Land Rover Defender and Volvo EX90 with which it hopes to compete.

Performance is good, as you'd expect from 380PS (279kW) delivered near-instantly to both axles. Not so good are the constant nagging speed warnings for being even one solitary mile per hour over the prescribed limit. For your sanity, either switch it off – the options to do so are hidden within a few submenus – or follow the exact letter of the law. The same can be said for the steering assist, which is at best bossy and at worst downright snatchy. It’s pleasant enough on straight A roads where you can just rest your hands at the bottom of the wheel and let it do its thing, but is one to switch off – thankfully via a physical button on the wheel – everywhere else.

The confidence in the EV9’s styling is carried into the driving experience. There’s very little sporting pretence and very little acquiescence to athletic driving dynamics in its setup… and that’s absolutely fine. This is a soft, refined, luxurious SUV. Barring a bit of roar over certain road surfaces and the odd crash as the 21-inch wheels bounce in the arch, it’s a comfortable and cosseting thing.

This does however mean that the EV9 feels its mass when you start to press on a bit. Indeed the steering is similarly calibrated for relaxed driving, with a long ratio that you can find yourself short on coming out of some junctions. It’s claimed the ‘Sport’ driving mode sharpens up the EV9’s responses but it’s only really perceptible in the throttle map. ‘My Drive’ allows you to select individual settings for the steering, throttle and braking. Really, the EV9 is refreshingly unashamed in its disinterest in troubling the Cayenne in terms of handling response and body control. Why try to make sporty that which does not inherently want to be sporty?

Real range on the dual motor model isn't the worst but isn't what I'd call reassuring. Granted, northern Scotland in December with ambient -2 temperatures isn't EV-conducive so 180-220-mile real world range was disappointing but expected in such conditions, compared to the 313-mile stated range figure.

And yet as you look at the 99.8kwh battery on the spec sheet and see the EV9’s flagship billing, you’d be forgiven for hoping for more. It’ll charge quickly enough, though, with the 800-volt architecture aiding the EV9 in accepting charge at up to 210kW, allowing as much as 155 miles of charge to be added in 15 minutes. The addition of the heat pump has paid dividends too, with climate control sapping much less range than is customary in an EV.

Most of the time with mixed driving, you’ll see more than 250 miles from a charge in the EV9. A WLTP rating of 415 miles for urban driving means it should comfortably see you for more than 300 miles in real-world city driving too, which let’s face it, is what a lot of these will be doing.

Inside the EV9 has a futuristic, utopian sci-fi feel, with plenty of interesting and novel high-quality materials. The seats are very comfortable and trimmed in bio polyurethane that’s partly derived from corn, which serves as a worthy leather replacement. While various trims from the dash to the doors, carpets and even yarns and felts use recycled PET and TPO plastics. Yes, the carpets are made from recycled fishing nets, with over 30kg of materials in the EV9 being recycled overall. It’s all very clever stuff but there’s no perceptible quality sacrifice. There aren’t even any sharp edges from plastic mouldings in the lower door bins, for instance.  

Everything’s soft and nothing’s really what you’d call scratchy but somehow it’s still no Range Rover imitation. It doesn’t have the warm feeling of a traditional luxury SUV – it’s more top floor Seoul Penthouse than Sandringham estate cottage. Would some warmer interior colour options as an alternative to the slightly prosthetic greys and dull bluey greens help with that? Absolutely.

Riding on the E-GMP all-electric platform, the EV9 is a spacious thing to be in. The relatively tall glasshouse gives an airy feel that, like the boxy exterior design, is reminiscent of family-friendly SUVs of old, with plenty of leg and headroom for all. We wouldn’t stick adults all the way back in the third row for too long but it’s no sardine tin.

The centre console has a couple of nice cubbies, one with a sliding Cybertruck tonneau cover-like lid. Below that on the floor, another decent-sized trinket tray. In a smaller cabin, all this could be accused of being an inefficient use of the space left in the absence of a transmission tunnel. In the EV9, it works.

Luggage-wise you’re looking at 333 litres with all the seats up and 828 litres when the rear two are stowed. What we might have hoped for more of is frunk space. You’d imagine with all that snout and bonnet there would be a good amount of space in there, even with a motor up front. The reality you’re met with is a seat of plastic cladding surrounding a rather apologetic 52-litre storage space. For what it’s worth, that rises to 90 litres in the rear-drive ‘Air’ model. Still, neither are as much even as in the front of an Audi R8, which often also sends drive to its front wheels. A bit of a missed opportunity, we fear.

Of course one of the EV9’s coolest features is in fact an aspect of its interior. While it is available as a conventional seven-seater with a middle bench, it’s also available as a six-seater with – get this – rotating seats. That means middle row passengers can sit back-to-driver when the car is still for a ‘lounge’ layout. A long sliding tray coming from the centre console can then extend giving the swiveled seats a table between them to complete the feel. The swivel seats also allow turning to face the door opening, for ease of car seat fitment or simply improved accessibility. There’s genuine versatility to the EV9 here that could prove useful for all sorts of families.

The front seats are electrically adjusted, heated and cooled at this trim level. They can also tilt and have fold-out leg supports, leaving you in a sort of summer deckchair laying position that's very pleasant indeed as a passenger. Only the driver gets the massage function, though.

In terms of technology, the EV9 is in Kia’s own words, its ‘most feature-rich, tech-laden’ model to date. Certainly in support of that claim is the digital key and fingerprint recognition – both firsts for a Kia. EV9s will also get better as they age, thanks to over-the-air updates. This high-spec GT Line S is about as fully loaded as an EV9 can get. That means you get the full 14-speaker Meridian sound system powered by Kia’s latest 12.3-inch touch-sensitive infotainment system and 12.3-inch digital driver’s display.

There’s smartphone integration for both Apple and Android, a wireless phone charging pad and indeed, six USB C sockets throughout the cabin with which to charge your devices. If not defaulting to CarPlay or Android Auto, Kia’s latest ccNC infotainment system is intuitive and smooth enough. The dedicated climate control panel between the driver's display and infotainment display is however almost totally obscured by the steering wheel, depending on your positioning.

By no means essential but plenty pleasant anyway is the rear-view mirror that can double as a screen, displaying the view from the rear-mounted camera. Incidentally, we hear the camera mirrors have been quietly dropped as an option in the UK – we approve.

Also extremely handy is the 360-degree around view monitor that lets you see a representation of the EV9 as it sits on your screen. The ‘invisible’ touch buttons that only appear when lit up through the dash are very Star Trek. We like, although the haptics do take some getting used to, like when iPhone screens and MacBook touch pads lost their buttons and clickers in favour of haptics. 

All in all the EV9 is a worthy flagship for Kia and an appealing tool with which to tackle modern motoring with a young family. Of the current crop of E-GMP-based models, it also feels the most natural on its platform, like this underpinning was made for this car.

Can it carry the asking price of a sturdily-optioned Porsche Cayman? This is a car that knows exactly what it wants to be and, as such, is not a car that feels like it’s cut corners. There’s real quality, appealing design and a great range of features. That said, the £65,000 rear-driven ‘Air’ makes for less of an ideological stretch, while offering more range and more frunk space, if you can get away with having just the two driven wheels.

In terms of trims, there is visual separation between GT Line models and the entry-level Air and I’m not sure I love what GT line adds visually by comparison. I suspect smaller wheels will suit the EV9 better too. If you have to have AWD and the sportier looks, well, the lesser GT Line should offer not much less EV9 for a sturdy discount.

Even with that price, the EV9 has a rare optimistic and innovative energy, last seen when the original Volvo XC90 and Land Rover Discovery 3 delighted middle class families in the early 2000s. Viewed in such a way, the EV9 is actually quite cleverly priced. With 800 orders already without a single customer even driving it yet, it must be.  It isn’t just a good car, it’s the perfect flagship for an ambitious Kia in 2024.