2023 Kia EV9 review

The march of all-electric vehicles in Australia has reached a substantial milestone, with Kia throwing its cat amongst the pigeons in the upper large SUV category. It first revealed the EV9 concept vehicle at the 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show and, after nixing the solar panel built into the hood, what has emerged from production lines looks strikingly similar. 

The seven-seat Kia EV9 arrives in three variants: Air ($97,000), Earth ($106,500) and GT-Line ($121,000). The base-model Air features a single electric motor and 76.1kWh battery, delivering 160kW and 350Nm to the rear wheels and a claimed range of 443km.  

Both the Earth and GT-Line benefit from a dual motor and larger 99.8kWh battery set-up, boosting output to 283kW and 700Nm in AWD, with respective ranges of 512km and 505km. 

The EV9’s bold and boxy exterior design is tempered with angular creases, giving a tough and futuristic road presence. This is indeed a big boy, with a length, width, height and wheelbase all exceeding its Sorento sister – so making it also appear sleek and aerodynamic is a neat trick.

Flush door handles, 19-inch low-drag alloys in the Air and Earth (21-inch in GT-Line), and front air curtains all aid in reducing its drag coefficient to 0.28.

Things are far more subdued inside, where dashboard buttons have disappeared into a void of dark grey and black sustainable materials.

Kia is phasing out real leather across its range and the EV9’s artificial leather doesn’t disappoint comfort-wise, while the mesh headrests are surprisingly supple. Some welcome pizazz is added in the GT-Line with a two-tone beige colour scheme on the seats’ upper and outer areas. 

Kia has stuffed the EV9 to the gills with high-tech features, starting with a panoramic 12.3-inch instrument cluster and 12.3-inch infotainment screen with over-the-air updates.

A hidden touch bar sits below it in the GT-Line and provides haptic feedback on disguised shortcut buttons (turns out they haven’t all disappeared).  

The top-spec also gets digital side mirrors that take some getting used to, and the rear-view mirror can switch to digital to bypass stacked luggage.

On top of the floating centre console is a wireless smartphone charger, cupholders (10 in total around the vehicle), and a fingerprint reader. This remembers driver settings and can be used with the Kia Connect smartphone app to unlock and start the vehicle instead of the key fob. 

The flipside of more tech is it can prove frustrating if it’s not implemented well and Kia’s audible driver assistance alerts are still teeth-clenchingly annoying.

However, Kia has addressed the issue to some extent, lowering the sound by three decibels and adding a shortcut button on the steering wheel to make it quicker to mute them after every engine restart.  

Kia says it’s targeting a maximum ANCAP rating and the EV9 is currently being tested under 2023 Euro NCAP protocols. 

The EV9 has a braked towing capacity of 900kg (RWD) and 2500kg (dual motor), though you’ll probably see your driving range cut in half hauling anything close to that. DC fast charging at 350kW from 10–80 per cent can take as little 20 minutes, but the more common 50kW charger will take around three times as long. 

While Earth variants are delayed until early 2023, both the Air and GT-Line’s had impressive on-road performance on our test drives. Despite obvious differences in get-up-and-go – the GT-Line’s 0–100km sprint time of 5.3 seconds is almost three seconds faster than the Air – each has a spring in its step, which is amazing considering the EV9’s 2636kg kerb weight in top-spec. The locally-tuned suspension is firm enough to keep the EV9 planted through corners and NVH levels are superb. 

Final verdict? 

The end result is the EV9 will give families an entirely new alternative in shuttling their brood around. Its steep starting price will deter some, but for a brand that’s shaken off its cheap and cheerful past to compete with premium offerings, the value for money is still there.  

Pros: Bold design; high-tech interior; on-road performance 

Cons: Driver assistance alerts; no spare tyre