Not only capable and practical, the Kia EV9 packs a tonne of luxe and highly charged drive dynamics to match!

Yes, It’s HUGE!

At a glance, one can be forgiven for mistaking the Kia EV9 for a concept vehicle, and that is because this all-electric behemoth is meant to represent the Korean automaker’s new design direction known as ‘Opposites United.’

Some key design elements primed on the EV9, which have trickled down to other newer Kia models, include the grill-less front face featuring an illuminated ‘tiger nose’ front grille panel and L-shaped LED DRLs, plus a strong use of sharp lines and boxy elements. Further accentuating this SUV’s bold look is the GT-Line package offered standard to the local-spec EV9, which includes both the GT-Line bodykit and the 21-inch GT-Line alloy wheels it rides on.

Spanning over five metres long, the Kia EV9 stood as one of the largest EV SUVs you can buy in the market today.

Beyond its radical and futuristic design, what really surprises many is this flagship EV SUV’s sheer size. Measuring 5,015 MM long, 1,980 MM wide, and 1,780 MM tall, with a wheelbase of 3,100 MM, the EV9 is just a few millimetres shy of entering the full-size SUV territory. With that and its battery electric setup, it is unsurprising then that the EV9 tips the scale at a whopping 2,674 KG, thus making it one of the heaviest passenger vehicles on the market.

Granted that large SUVs are not everyone’s cup of tea, the EV9 is one boldly designed behemoth that easily turns heads. Don’t take our word for it; this Korean behemoth is the winner of the Red Dot Product Design Award 2024 for the cars and motorcycles category.

Flagship-level Space & Interior Equipment

It is good to see that Kia has not put the EV9’s sheer size to waste, evident through the spacious cabin beaming with all the bells and whistles expected of a flagship SUV.

Aside from the dual curved display, the EV9's front dash also comes with a dedicated display panel for the climate and a head-up display (HUD)

Up front lies a familiar dashboard setup featuring a dual 12.3-inch display, with the infotainment half featuring wireless mobile connectivity (Android Auto and Apple CarPlay) and being hooked to a 14-speaker Meridian sound system, while a third screen sandwiched between the two screens is reserved for the climate control.

What Kia gets right with the EV9 that most Chinese and even some European carmakers don’t is retaining as many physical buttons and controls as they can. Presently, the EV9 has dedicated physical controls for the climate control, gear shifter, drive and terrain mode selector, seat-related switches, and several driving-related toggles on the steering wheel.

What’s also decent are the two powered GT-Line front seats of the EV9 that not only come standard with both heated and ventilated functions, it also offers massaging abilities on the go. Memory function, however, is only reserved for the driver’s side.

The 6-Seater GT-Line tested sees a 2-2-2 seating configuration, thus priming the second row with two captain-style seats that offer maximum space and comforts. Not only fully reclinable with Ottoman support, they are both heated and ventilated too, thus making the EV9 a perfect ‘Boss Ride’ too.

Folks with a large family may be pleased to find the EV9’s third-row seats to be pretty usable for both adults and kids alike, and these can also easily fold down via one-touch buttons. Elevating quality of life in both second- and third-row seats are the A/C vents with a dedicated control panel, separate panoramic glass roof, as well as enough USB-C charging port for all six occupants aboard.

As for boot space, it is pretty sizable at 333 litres with the third-row seats up. Fold those and boot capacity raises significantly to 828 litres instead. That aside, you’ll also find a decent 52-litre frunk at your disposal. Our only gripe here is the absence of a spare wheel - a rather typical trait of most premium EVs today.

Though not as spacious or practical as the Kia Carnival, the EV9 GT-Line 6-Seater boasts pretty respectable and usable space for you and your family while at the same time boasting enough flagship equipment to make it an ultimate boss ride.

Effortless & Commanding Driving Experience

Don’t let its behemoth facade fool you, the Kia EV9 proved to be a pretty rapid people-mover with enough beans and means to deliver an exhilarating yet comfortable ride.

Powering the EV9 GT-Line AWD variant tested is a dual-motor powertrain setup rated at 380 HP and a whopping 700 NM. Kia claims this is good enough to enable 0-100 KM/H sprints in just 5.3 secs and a 200 KM/H V-max.

From our short stint, this dual-motor AWD setup indeed delivers effortless pep that brilliantly masks this 5-metre-long SUV’s three-tonne heft. Both Normal and Eco driving modes are self-explanatory and yield linear, smooth performance. Sport, on the other hand, is the mode that lets you go pretty wild and fast, should you choose so.

Despite its large size and weight, the EV9 boasts a pretty respectable ride and handling performance!

The EV9’s sheer weight and size only becomes apparent when thrown into high-speed corners. There’s a substantial amount of body roll and lean, but these are perfectly normal behaviors for large SUVs.

Impressively, despite not riding on an air suspension like many other contemporaries, the EV9 delivers decent and refined ride for passengers, which could be attributed to the E-GMP platform it underpins—the same bones as adopted by many Hyundai and Kia EVs, manic Ioniq 5 N included.

Given its elongated bodystyle, both blind spots and rear view can be quite a premium in the EV9, although visual aids like the 360-degree camera view and both the rear- and blindspot-view cameras are all present to help drivers manage things better.

Our only gripe with the EV9 is Kia Malaysia’s (Bermaz Auto) decision to exclusively offer the SUV with digital side-view cameras. The learning curve in adapting to which can be steep for many drivers. Fortunately, the presence of several other driving and visual aids mentioned above helps to mitigate this unfortunate shortcoming pretty well.

Big Battery, Rapid Charging

Besides decent ride and handling performance, Hyundai’s E-GMP platform also grants the Kia EV9 GT-Line with decent battery and charging performance, thanks to its native 800-volt battery architecture.

In this top-spec GT-Line AWD trim as tested, the EV9 packs a sizable 99.8-kWh lithium-ion battery unit that Kia says will do 505 KM (WLTP). Large capacity aside, said battery can also re-charge from 10-80% in just 24 minutes using a 350 kW DCFC. The only caveat here is the capped 11 kW AC charging speed.

Nevertheless, the EV9 also still covers Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) function via its 3.58 kW power output, which should sufficiently power small appliances and thus make it somewhat an ideal off-grid camper.

Again, our short stint with the EV9 tester didn’t let us gauge its true range performance, but we did surpass the 400-KM mark mentioned through a mix of urban and highway driving. Provided that you’re more light-footed and practice more lenient driving, we’d reckon that you can get closer to the claimed WLTP figure than we did.

Should Bermaz Auto decide to offer the single-motor Long Range RWD variant of the EV9 for our market, we’d immediately recommend it as an ideal family car for road trips, albeit at the expense of a less exciting driving experience. Then again, its sub-500 KM max range is still decent enough to make the EV9 GT-Line a perfect boss ride and a capable urban commuter for you and your family.

Should You Buy One?

Bold styling, generously spacious and richly-equipped, not forgetting the charged performance and drive dynamics, all make the Kia EV9 GT-Line AWD 6-Seater a near-perfect choice for those who are looking for a premium three-row SUV.

While the EV9 may seems too expensive to be a Kia, this Korean behemoth is still well underpriced compared to its European adversaries.

Priced at RM374,668 on-the-road, this Korean number is also more affordable versus other luxurious three-row SUVs currently on sale in our market. Sweetening things is the aforementioned price’s inclusion of a 5-year or 150,000 KM vehicle warranty and 8-year or 160,000 KM EV battery warranty.

While paying almost RM400,000 for a Kia may seem like a stretch for some, we’d reckon the price truly makes the EV9 a very compelling buy. In hindsight, the EV9’s price is very reasonable indeed, especially when contrasted against key European adversaries that are mostly priced way beyond the RM400,000 mark.

With that said, should you be brave and daring enough, the EV9 will handsomely reward your bravery with a three-row EV SUV that boasts both space and luxe that also makes it a near-perfect, all-in-one vehicle.

…Or Try These

*Volvo XC90 Recharge T8 AWD Ultimate (RM432,888)*	*BMW iX xDrive50 M Sport* (RM465,800)
Though *a second facelift* is on the horizon, the ageing XC90 PHEV still stands as a good alternative for those who are not ready to fully switch to electric as this Swede alternative offers arguably better luxury and almost-equal practicality, albeit at a slightly higher premium.	Arguably a sportier alternative to the EV9, one of the best-selling premium EV models in our market does have a rather divisive design, but this electrified Bavarian also ticks almost all the right boxes to make it an ideal luxury midsize EV SUV, albeit with less practicality and a higher asking pricing.