2024 Kia EV9 (inc. 0-100 & autonomy) review

CarExpert

We finally got the chance to get behind the wheel of Kia’s HUGE all-electric seven seat SUV. It’s the 2024 Kia EV9. Is it any good? Paul Maric finds out!  Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Kia content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/kia  More Kia EV9 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/kia/ev9  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 01:14 Interior: 03:52 Infotainment: 05:49 Safety Tech: 07:22 Practicality: 08:13 Charging: 13:48 On the Road: 14:39 Performance: 24:26 Verdict: 26:32  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #Kia #ev9 #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.

00:01 So have you been after a seven-seat electric vehicle,

00:04 but have been coming up stamps

00:06 or didn't wanna spend like well and truly over $100,000?

00:09 Well, Kia might have a solution for you.

00:12 Here it is, the Kia EV9.

00:14 We had a closer look at this a little while back,

00:16 and I was just mesmerized by the design,

00:18 and I know that styling is subjective,

00:20 but here in person, this looks absolutely unreal.

00:24 Now, this is the top-spec version.

00:25 It is the GT-line version of the EV9.

00:29 This is priced at just over $120,000,

00:33 so it is a big bucket of money,

00:34 but if that is too expensive,

00:36 the entire range kicks off at 87 grand.

00:38 Now, this competes with things like the new Volvo EX90,

00:41 the Tesla Model X, Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV.

00:45 It's that type of vehicle, that size of vehicle,

00:48 and if you have a look at all of those competitors,

00:49 they are significantly more expensive.

00:51 So use that as your frame of mind

00:54 when it comes to thinking about pricing for this.

00:56 Now, today we're gonna do a detailed review of this car,

00:58 so if you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of this review,

01:00 you can use the time codes that are on the screen,

01:02 or if you're on YouTube,

01:03 you can scroll down and use the chapters below,

01:05 and if you haven't done so already,

01:06 I'd love it if you could subscribe to the channel

01:08 and press the bell icon so you can find out

01:10 every single time we talk about a Kia.

01:12 Righto, let's talk about exterior design,

01:16 and I'm gonna start off with the dimensions of this.

01:18 This is an enormous vehicle.

01:20 It sits on a 3.1-meter wheelbase,

01:21 and a wheelbase is the length

01:23 between the center of the front wheel

01:24 to the center of the back wheel.

01:26 The bigger that number is,

01:27 the more room you should have inside the cabin,

01:29 and that's gonna come in handy for something like this,

01:31 which is a seven-seater.

01:33 This color here, it's a matte color.

01:34 It's called Ocean Blue.

01:35 It's only available on the top spec,

01:37 and that's about $4,000 extra for that color as well.

01:41 Down the front here, you've got that Kia logo,

01:43 and then as you fall down the front here,

01:45 it comes down to the cooling.

01:46 This is Active Vane technology,

01:48 so it basically opens up

01:50 when the vehicle needs additional cooling.

01:52 Look at these headlights.

01:53 So full LED headlights with adaptive beam.

01:55 I kinda like that design with that LED

01:57 daytime running light section down the front there,

01:59 and then lashings of black down the bottom there,

02:02 and then that sort of metallic color

02:04 down the bottom as well.

02:05 Now, around the side of the car,

02:06 you're sitting on a set of big old 21-inch alloy wheels.

02:10 They have an aero cover on them.

02:11 This'll be interesting to see how this goes.

02:13 21 isn't outrageous.

02:14 We drove, what was it recently,

02:16 the XM that was on 23-inch alloy wheels,

02:19 so this is certainly a step back from that,

02:21 so hopefully this goes well.

02:22 This actually had an Australian ride and handling tune,

02:24 so it should benefit from a decent set of wheels

02:27 and someone that has taken

02:29 Australia's roads into consideration.

02:31 Piano black on these wheel arches.

02:33 Normally I hate piano black inside a cabin,

02:35 but it kinda works here on the outside.

02:37 Not too many people are gonna be touching that,

02:38 so it should be okay.

02:39 Look at this stumpy thing here.

02:41 So this is your wing mirror.

02:42 It's a video mirror.

02:44 You have screens inside the car,

02:46 and then there's a camera built into here.

02:48 The whole purpose of this is that it's more aerodynamic,

02:51 and in theory it should give you slightly more range,

02:54 but I don't know.

02:55 The thing with this stuff is you knock that off,

02:58 that would cost an absolute fortune to replace,

03:00 so something worth keeping in mind.

03:02 Little camera built into there as well.

03:03 So more of that piano black down the side here.

03:05 You have door handles that come in and out

03:07 depending on whether the car's locked or unlocked.

03:10 You have roof rails there, privacy glass.

03:12 Look how big that door is.

03:13 That is absolutely enormous.

03:15 As the flies come and attack me,

03:16 come around to the back of the car.

03:17 Now around the back here, really sleek looking design.

03:20 LED taillights there that wrap around.

03:22 You've got a brake light built into here.

03:24 Shark fin aerial up the top.

03:26 Now this camera isn't the reversing camera.

03:28 This is your digital rear view mirror.

03:29 The reversing camera's actually located down here.

03:32 Little bit more piano black there.

03:33 GT line badge as well,

03:35 and then a big Kia badge just there too.

03:38 It's not exactly the tallest car either,

03:40 so you can see here that when we test land cruises

03:42 and stuff like that, they're often taller than I am,

03:44 but yeah.

03:45 Anyway, let me know what you reckon about the design

03:47 in the comments section below.

03:49 Do you think this looks good,

03:50 or do you reckon I need to go to spec savers?

03:52 Okay, so we are inside the EV9.

03:54 This is what the key looks like.

03:56 So blank on the back there with Kia.

03:58 Unlock, you have a button there for the boot release.

04:02 Lock, and then remote start, remote park,

04:05 and then a button there for the frunk.

04:07 Now this is actually made out of recycled materials,

04:10 which is pretty cool,

04:11 and then when you press anything on there,

04:12 that lights up green, which I really like.

04:14 Proximity sensing key,

04:16 so you can leave that in your pocket once you're inside.

04:18 You have a push button start just here over

04:19 on the gear lever, which is now a twisty thing.

04:22 So what do we think about this interior?

04:24 So this is $120,000 car.

04:27 I think what they've done here is they've gone

04:29 for a minimalist approach,

04:30 and if you have a look at some of these surfaces,

04:32 they look like hard sort of scratchy plastics,

04:35 but they're actually quite soft,

04:37 and then they have this textured material.

04:39 Built into this material is actually

04:41 a capacitive touch button, which I really like.

04:44 That is such a cool little setup,

04:45 and then physical switches as well

04:47 for climate controls and things like that.

04:49 So there's a really sort of big, airy space to be seated,

04:52 and that all comes thanks to that big wheel base.

04:54 Then you have these giant screens over here

04:57 that service those wing mirrors.

04:58 So we'll see what it's like when we go for a drive,

05:00 but immediately, I love that.

05:02 One other thing I did notice as well,

05:03 just in terms of usability of this whole thing,

05:06 the steering wheel like literally blocks

05:08 that entire panel.

05:09 I can't see any of that,

05:11 but if you do wanna sort of change any of that

05:12 while you're driving, you have to kind of look around

05:15 and make those adjustments.

05:16 So I don't think they really thought that through at all,

05:18 but I'll run you through some of that stuff

05:21 in just a sec.

05:22 In terms of your touch points, that is firm but soft,

05:25 and then on the door, it's softish.

05:27 How soft are they?

05:28 Well, we've got our durometer.

05:30 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.

05:32 If you wanna see how this car compares to others

05:34 that we've tested before,

05:35 have a look at the link in the description below.

05:37 Now, build quality.

05:38 What is it like?

05:39 Tiny bit wonky there in the center,

05:42 but the rest of this is nice and solid,

05:44 and this is what the door sounds like.

05:45 (door thudding)

05:49 Now, let's talk about your infotainment.

05:51 So I mentioned already the issue here

05:53 with not being able to see that screen at all,

05:55 but in terms of the infotainment system, it's new.

05:58 Well, it's new to Kia,

05:59 so this looks totally different to what we've seen already,

06:02 and I really like it.

06:03 It is such a high-resolution display,

06:06 nice and quick as well.

06:07 It has connected services too,

06:08 so you can connect your phone to the vehicle

06:10 and access it remotely.

06:11 So in-built satellite navigation,

06:13 similar to the system they had previously,

06:16 which is a good thing,

06:17 and it is cool to see shortcut menu up the top here

06:20 that gives you access to stuff like quiet mode

06:21 and passenger talk,

06:22 which is the feature that allows you to press a button,

06:25 and then it uses a microphone up the front here

06:27 to relay your voice to the back of the car.

06:29 It actually sounds like I'm in an echoey hall here.

06:33 (imitates echoing)

06:35 Yeah, anyway.

06:37 On the radio front, you have AM, FM, and DAB digital radio,

06:41 and it's all plumbed through a 14-speaker

06:43 Meridian-branded sound system.

06:45 It's a good sound system.

06:46 It sounds really nice and punchy.

06:47 Smartphone mirroring comes with Apple CarPlay

06:49 and Android Auto.

06:50 Now, they are gonna roll out an over-the-air update soon,

06:52 which will bring wireless smartphone mirroring,

06:55 which is great, but at the moment, it is wide.

06:57 This is what Apple CarPlay looks like.

06:58 So there it is.

07:00 Nice, big, full-screen integration.

07:03 No dramas there, very good.

07:05 And this is what Android Auto looks like.

07:09 So full-screen integration again.

07:12 That all looks quite nice as well.

07:13 And in addition to that, you have a screen here

07:16 ahead of the driver.

07:17 So this is configurable.

07:18 You can switch between the screens

07:20 just by using the steering wheel button here.

07:22 So safety tech, you have autonomous emergency braking

07:26 that has pedestrian, cyclist, all sorts of detection.

07:30 You have rear cross-traffic alert,

07:32 front cross-traffic alert, blind spot monitoring.

07:35 You have these cameras that come on

07:36 every time you change a lane.

07:37 I think these are a fantastic innovation.

07:39 You've got these digital mirrors just there.

07:41 You have a digital rear view camera as well.

07:44 Front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera

07:47 in addition to radar cruise control

07:49 and a lane keeping assistant

07:50 that I'll run you through later on.

07:52 But this is what the camera looks like.

07:54 So quality of that is fantastic.

07:56 You can clearly see what's on the suitcase there

07:58 and that's your 360 view.

07:59 It's a little bit warped around the edges,

08:01 but that view out the back is great.

08:02 You can then switch to a 3D view as well.

08:07 And then you can look out the front there

08:09 and the back as well.

08:10 This is what the horn sounds like.

08:11 (horn honking)

08:13 Now moving on to practicality

08:15 and we'll start off with the connectivity.

08:16 So down here you've got USB-C ports and a 12-volt outlet.

08:21 But I love this setup.

08:22 So behind there is your 12-volt outlet.

08:24 It's got this clever little door on it.

08:26 Then what you can also do is this is your port

08:29 for smartphone mirroring,

08:30 but you can switch between mirroring and USB

08:33 or just charging just by pushing that.

08:35 So really cool setup and I like that

08:37 there's a bit of innovation behind this stuff.

08:39 In terms of storing your phone,

08:41 it can sort of live anywhere.

08:42 There is so much storage here.

08:44 You've got a wireless phone charger just there as well.

08:47 In terms of bottle storage,

08:48 so this is a regular size bottle.

08:52 Fits into here without any dramas.

08:54 The interesting thing is two different size

08:56 bottle holders just there.

08:57 We'll see if the big one actually fits in there.

08:58 Nice big one fits in too.

09:00 You can retract these, so you just fold that away.

09:02 So it gives you additional storage if you need it.

09:04 Then you just pop them back when you want to

09:06 and there's a cubby door on that

09:07 so you can't see it from the outside either.

09:09 You have bottle storage inside the doors.

09:11 Not for a big bottle though, I don't think.

09:13 It fits in there, you just have to push it in a little bit.

09:17 In terms of the rest of your storage,

09:18 so tiny little glove box up here, which is quite strange,

09:21 but then you have stacks of storage down the bottom there.

09:24 Actually, almost forgot there is a fingerprint scanner

09:26 here as well for saving your driver profiles.

09:29 And then finally a glove box,

09:31 which is like a bucket style arrangement,

09:32 which is nice and decent there as well.

09:34 So comfort, you've got dual zone automatic climate control

09:39 up the front here.

09:40 You have heated and cooled seats for the front row

09:42 and the second row, heated steering wheel,

09:44 massage on the seat as well, seat memory.

09:48 This seat has so many adjustments.

09:50 So you can go forwards, backwards,

09:52 backrest can go forwards, backwards.

09:54 You can adjust your lumbar, you can adjust your side support,

09:56 you can adjust this front section,

09:58 but most impressively, give this a couple of taps

10:01 and what it'll do is convert this

10:04 into kind of like a lounge set up while you're charging.

10:07 So it brings you forward and then kicks you back

10:12 and puts a little leg rest out as well.

10:14 So you can just have a bit of a sleep

10:16 while your car is charging.

10:17 Then once you're done, you just press your buttons again

10:19 and it will then take you back to where you started.

10:21 So pretty cool set up here on the top spec EV9.

10:26 Your steering is electrically adjustable.

10:28 So up, down, in, out.

10:30 Now our reach test.

10:32 Gotta tell you, it's not great.

10:34 So I was driving here this morning

10:36 and had issues with this visibility stuff,

10:38 but even just reaching some of these critical controls

10:40 like the volume or any of these buttons,

10:42 you have to really lean forward.

10:43 And if you're using any apps on the screen here,

10:45 you have to go all the way in to reach stuff.

10:48 And I just don't know that this has been designed

10:50 all that well.

10:51 They really need a set up like that BMW curved display

10:53 that comes out a little bit there towards the driver

10:55 so you can actually access all of those controls safely.

10:58 Now, second row of the EV9, what's it like?

11:02 So knee room is great.

11:03 Toe room is pretty good.

11:05 Headroom is great as well.

11:07 It's actually a load of space back here, which is good.

11:10 So if you've got kids, they're gonna find it comfortable.

11:12 If you've got adults, you're gonna have no dramas at all.

11:15 You can adjust the second row forwards and backwards

11:18 to give yourself more room in the third row if you need to.

11:21 Back here, you're also gonna find things like heating

11:23 and cooling for the two outboard seats, USB-C ports.

11:27 You've got two cup holders, plus a giant hole under here,

11:30 which explains why there wasn't a great deal

11:31 of glove box space.

11:33 Mat pockets, you've got center armrest here

11:35 with two cup holders as well.

11:37 Privacy blinds, controls here for your blower,

11:42 which is great.

11:43 You've got a blind here for the sunroof.

11:45 So you've got a sunroof there and a glass roof just here.

11:49 And then, most importantly,

11:51 does the window go all the way down?

11:53 So it's auto up and down.

11:54 Boom, look at that, goes all the way down, very nice.

11:56 Now, we did have a look at this car recently in a showroom

12:01 and I jumped into the third row

12:02 and there wasn't a huge amount of room back there.

12:05 So as an adult space, it's not fantastic

12:08 and you really do have to shift this second row

12:10 out of the way if you do wanna fit an adult in there.

12:12 So it is okay for short trips,

12:14 but it is certainly more a kid's space than an adult space.

12:17 But you do get vents in the back there

12:20 along with USB charging as well in case you need it.

12:23 Speaking of kids, ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats.

12:26 You've also got top tether points

12:27 and then ISOFIX in your third row as well.

12:30 Okay, let's talk cargo space.

12:32 So you've got a powered tailgate,

12:35 lock that open.

12:37 So behind the third row,

12:40 even though there isn't a great deal of room there

12:41 for adults, you do have a stack of storage space here

12:44 and you can see they've prioritised storage

12:46 behind the third row over space in the third row.

12:48 But it means you have a little over 300 litres to work with.

12:51 There is no spare tyre, so you have a tyre repair kit

12:54 and then storage for your cargo blind under here as well.

12:57 You have a 12-volt outlet off to the side,

12:59 manual release there for the boot.

13:01 You've got a 250-volt outlet over here, 16 amps.

13:04 You can either use this or the V2L socket

13:06 out of the side of the vehicle.

13:08 You also have releases there for the second row as well.

13:10 I'll show you what it looks like with our bags in there.

13:13 So laptop bag there and then suitcase in there.

13:17 All fits in very nicely without any dramas.

13:20 Then what you can do is drop that third row out of the way.

13:23 Once that's gone, you have a little over 800 litres

13:28 of cargo space, but if you want the ultimate,

13:30 you can drop your second row.

13:32 That expands the space to over 2,000 litres.

13:35 It's like a minivan.

13:36 You've also got storage under the front bonnet as well,

13:40 or the bonnet, you don't have a back bonnet, do you?

13:43 You've also got storage over there

13:44 if you just wanna put your cable in

13:47 and a couple of other odds and ends.

13:48 Now, before we go for a drive,

13:49 let's talk about charging and battery.

13:51 So depending on which grade you go for,

13:53 battery sizes vary.

13:54 You've got one that's around the 70 kilowatt hour mark

13:56 and then one that's around the 90 kilowatt hour mark.

13:59 You basically access the charging port behind here,

14:01 just like the EV6 that's on an electric sort of hood.

14:04 You've got AC charging and DC charging.

14:07 DC charging is at 800 volts and up to 350 kilowatts,

14:10 although it will probably average

14:12 around the 200 kilowatt mark, just like the EV6 does.

14:15 And that's great for a vehicle like this

14:16 because you've got a big battery.

14:18 You wanna fill it as quickly as you can,

14:19 and this is gonna allow you to do that.

14:21 It also has vehicle to load.

14:22 So using this top AC socket,

14:24 you can actually power appliances.

14:26 Comes in handy if you're gonna go camping

14:28 and that sort of stuff.

14:28 This has mild off-road ability.

14:30 So if you do wanna go camping with the kids,

14:32 you can run a fridge or charge an iPad

14:34 or do something else to keep them entertained

14:36 while you're at it.

14:37 (car engine roaring)

14:40 Okay, so we have just hit the road in the EV9.

14:43 Hear that noise?

14:45 That is the most annoying feature ever created

14:49 by a car manufacturer.

14:50 Actually, this has a couple of them.

14:52 First is this driver distraction monitor

14:54 that constantly goes off,

14:55 even if you are not distracted.

14:57 And then you've got this other beeping and buzzing

14:59 that's just constantly going off

15:01 'cause it thinks you're exceeding the speed limit,

15:03 even though you're not exceeding the speed limit.

15:05 So every single time you get in the car,

15:07 you have to come in and go to settings,

15:10 push and hold okay,

15:12 then come over to this screen,

15:14 go to speed limit, switch that off,

15:17 and then go back again and go to driver attention warning,

15:21 switch that off as well.

15:23 And then finally, you are in a no distraction zone.

15:27 I just think features like this,

15:30 they should be optional,

15:31 as in don't have them switch on

15:33 every time you start the car.

15:34 I don't know if it's a Kia only thing,

15:35 but it is so annoying.

15:37 And I think to be honest,

15:38 it would actually prevent me from owning a car like this,

15:41 unless I could figure out how to switch it off

15:42 because that wouldn't last a week

15:45 without really getting to me.

15:46 So anyway, brief rant aside,

15:49 there's just something that's really frustrating me.

15:51 And if you are a Kia owner,

15:53 let me know if that is an annoying thing,

15:54 or if it's just me.

15:56 Anyway, so that aside,

15:58 what's all this about?

16:00 What's it like?

16:01 So this particular spec,

16:02 the top spec GT line,

16:04 so it's a dual motor setup.

16:05 So you have a motor on the front axle,

16:07 motor on the rear axle,

16:08 and we also get a higher performance tune here in Australia.

16:12 So we get higher output torque rating.

16:14 So it's different in other parts of the world.

16:17 So combined, it's just over 300 kilowatts of power

16:19 and 700 Newton meters of torque.

16:22 And that's a portion, 141 kilowatts of power

16:24 to both the front and the rear axles

16:26 with 350 Newton meters of torque.

16:29 And that actually means that this thing

16:30 has a fair bit of punch.

16:32 So give yourself a kick of a throttle

16:35 and it really does sort of pin you back in the seat nicely.

16:37 So it's got plenty of go.

16:38 And just from a mobility point of view,

16:41 it is a really well put together drive train

16:43 because it is ready to rumble.

16:46 Another point of frustration I've got as well,

16:47 and I've noticed this with a number of other brands,

16:49 is that if you do want to opt for single pedal driving,

16:51 so this has a number of regen levels plus an auto mode.

16:55 So level one is obviously not much, level zero is nothing.

16:58 And then you can go all the way through

17:00 to what they call the I-pedal,

17:01 which is their single pedal driving.

17:03 And it brings the car to a full stop.

17:05 It's quite a decent setup and quite happy with how it works,

17:08 but you need to activate that

17:10 every single time you drive the car.

17:11 So just another sort of weird thing

17:14 that I don't know exactly why they do it.

17:16 In terms of economy, this is a big vehicle.

17:18 It's not far under three tons.

17:21 You add a few passengers in

17:22 and you're getting to that sort of three ton mark.

17:24 And that means that it does use a fair bit of juice

17:26 when it's running.

17:27 So it's around 23 kilowatt hours per 100 K.

17:30 So that is sort of getting up there.

17:32 And when you consider what this vehicle needs to do,

17:34 it needs to be able to transport seven people.

17:36 It's got a two and a half ton brake towing capacity.

17:38 So you do have a number of sort of big requirements for this

17:41 and it is a big vehicle with a big battery.

17:43 And that means that it carries a fair bit of weight

17:45 while it's doing all of that.

17:46 What are we achieving?

17:47 Well, this number is kind of pointless

17:50 because we had to sort of shift the way

17:52 that we were filming today

17:53 and it's sitting at 31.5 kilowatt hours per 100 Ks.

17:58 So it's not really an entirely accurate figure

18:00 because we would have used less

18:03 if we weren't driving the way we were

18:04 at the start of the day.

18:06 Okay, time to attack our sine waves.

18:09 These are pretty soft rides.

18:10 So I'll be curious to see what this is like.

18:12 We do this at 130 Ks an hour,

18:15 which is maximum speed limit in Australia.

18:17 Gives us a good indication of what body control's like.

18:20 Yeah, look, it is floaty, but it's not the end of the world.

18:28 And there are a couple of caveats here.

18:30 So this was tuned here in Australia.

18:32 So there was an Australian ride and handling tune

18:35 put together for this.

18:36 Ultimately, you do have a number of limitations to work with.

18:38 So you've got those big wheels,

18:40 you've got the need for seven seats,

18:41 it needs to be comfortable, needs to handle.

18:44 It's on a 3.1 metre wheelbase.

18:46 These are all massive engineering challenges.

18:49 And what it's done there on the sine waves

18:51 is actually not too bad

18:52 when you consider the size of the vehicle

18:54 and all of those characteristics it needs to meet.

18:56 Okay, bumpy road time.

18:58 This is shocker of a road

19:00 with cobblestones and corrugations.

19:02 Do this at 90 Ks an hour.

19:05 Test that Australian ride and handling tune.

19:07 So they use frequency selective damping

19:09 similar to what they have in the EV6,

19:11 but this has a lifter on the rear as well.

19:15 Okay, this is what it's like over a condensed sine wave.

19:17 That feels really good.

19:20 So yeah, look, the ride is great.

19:23 It has that soft edge to it.

19:25 So it means that if you are driving around the city,

19:27 which I think most people are going to be doing,

19:28 it is gonna be super comfy.

19:30 It is slightly on the firmer side thanks to those wheels,

19:32 but I think if you work your way down

19:34 the spec grades of EV9,

19:36 you'll find that it will become more comfortable,

19:38 the sort of smaller you go with the wheels.

19:40 And look, you're not gonna be doing any massive off-roading,

19:42 but you do have a ground clearance of 225 millimetres.

19:44 So it's enough to go to a campsite or something like that.

19:46 And this being all wheel drive,

19:47 it'll be a decent sort of thing to take you there as well.

19:50 Now in terms of drive modes,

19:51 you've got some terrain modes for off-road driving.

19:53 So snow, mud and sand.

19:55 Then next to that, you've got drive modes,

19:57 eco, normal, sport and my drive.

19:59 So let's go for a drive around the track

20:01 and see what it's like when the speed picks up.

20:03 Obviously most people aren't gonna be driving like this,

20:05 but we test all of our cars back to back like this.

20:07 So the throttle is instantly sharper.

20:11 Let's see what the brakes are like.

20:13 Yeah, brake pedal feels good.

20:16 We come into our first corner here.

20:17 Look, it's got a decent amount of body roll,

20:21 but it's sort of keeping fairly in check.

20:24 It is surprising for such a big car

20:27 how nimble it is around here.

20:29 It's really hard with these mirrors as well

20:31 to judge your positioning on the road.

20:34 Yeah, you can certainly feel that weight.

20:37 When you're coming through some of these corners

20:39 with a bit of pace, it has that body roll.

20:41 And then if you do hit a bump mid corner,

20:45 it really just sort of starts floating

20:47 and then it causes a moment there

20:49 with stability control as well.

20:52 It's good on the brakes over the tram tracks,

20:53 which is good.

20:54 The steering feels great.

20:55 Okay, let's see what this feels like up the back here.

20:59 This thing is an enormous car

21:01 and it is actually doing a pretty good job

21:03 of moving itself about here.

21:05 So I'll move that back straight.

21:07 Yeah, that is hauling along really nicely.

21:11 Yeah, cool.

21:12 Look, it's not a sports car,

21:14 but it is doing a commendable job

21:16 for such a big vehicle to be thrown around here.

21:18 Now let's talk visibility.

21:30 I'm really not a fan of these sort of digital mirrors.

21:34 I don't know if it's just

21:35 'cause I haven't used them enough.

21:36 I haven't lived with a car like this for a longer period,

21:38 but I just find them really hard to use simply

21:41 because of perspective.

21:42 So when you are looking at it,

21:44 if you move your head,

21:45 you're not really given additional perspective.

21:47 Whereas when there is a wing mirror on the side there,

21:49 you can move your head around to get the perspective

21:51 down the side of the vehicle.

21:52 So to me, they're not a great solution,

21:54 but it's the latest trend and all that sort of stuff.

21:57 But the good news is you don't have to have it

21:58 if you buy an EV9.

21:59 You can get a lower model without that equipped.

22:02 Visibility out the back is okay,

22:04 but if you do have that third row up,

22:05 you really are quite compromised there.

22:07 Thankfully, this has a digital mirror,

22:08 so you just flick that on

22:10 and then it doesn't matter how many people

22:11 you've got in the car.

22:12 That solves all your problems.

22:13 It's worth pointing out as well,

22:14 this has a pretty decent turning circle.

22:17 So if you are sort of trying to do tight U-turns and stuff,

22:20 you've got a big wheel base, big turning circle.

22:22 It can be pretty cumbersome to maneuver,

22:24 but yeah, it is what it is.

22:26 It is a big vehicle like that,

22:28 but it is worth just keeping in mind.

22:29 You don't have great cameras and all that sort of stuff,

22:31 but it can be just a little bit tricky to maneuver.

22:33 Now let's talk about autonomy.

22:35 And I drove the car here this morning on the freeway

22:38 and pretty impressed with how this works.

22:40 So let's test it out on our track here.

22:42 So what we do is we get up to 70 Ks an hour

22:45 and engage the radar cruise control.

22:49 And that then gives us this cool screen

22:52 that's appearing on the head up display for me.

22:55 Shows the lines on the road

22:57 as the road is coming around this curvature.

23:00 And it comes up with a green steering wheel

23:01 to tell me that it is locked into this lane.

23:04 So now first lane here, it's doing a great job.

23:06 It's holding us dead center there.

23:09 Okay, we'll jump into the next lane over.

23:13 Okay, there it is there.

23:17 That's locked in.

23:18 Excellent, yet again, keeping us dead center in that lane.

23:23 That's cool.

23:23 All right, jump up to our outermost lane.

23:26 This is where most of the cars struggle.

23:28 And typically if they do well here,

23:30 they do well on the road as well.

23:31 So that's locked in.

23:32 I'm just gonna let go of the wheel.

23:34 It's not willing to apply enough torque

23:37 to keep us up there.

23:38 I'll just give that one more shot.

23:40 It's coming up green saying it's locked in,

23:42 but then when I start sort of releasing the wheel,

23:46 it just refuses to do that.

23:49 There we go.

23:50 No, no bingo.

23:51 There is another feature as well.

23:52 If you are driving on a motorway,

23:54 you can just hit the indicator

23:55 and it will change lanes for you.

23:57 It doesn't work here.

23:58 Well, it appears to not work here

24:00 'cause there's a curve on the bolt,

24:01 but I did test it out this morning.

24:03 It actually worked really well.

24:04 So that's another sort of cool feature

24:06 to keep you sort of safe while you're out on the road.

24:09 Actually, just remembered this.

24:10 When I was driving here this morning,

24:12 I was using radar cruise control

24:13 and when it was locked onto a target in front of me,

24:16 it kept pulsing the vehicle back and forth constantly.

24:19 It was really unsmooth.

24:20 So I don't know if there's a software calibration

24:23 they need to make there,

24:23 but yeah, that was just really frustrating.

24:27 So time to do some performance testing.

24:29 I wanna tell you about Help Me Car Expert first,

24:32 inspired by our friends at CarWow.

24:35 We are a big company, well, big for an online thing,

24:39 60 employees, over 60 full-time employees,

24:42 and we work with a number of vetted dealers

24:44 to get you the best deal.

24:45 We also offer free advice as well

24:46 if you are buying a new car.

24:48 All you have to do is Google Help Me Car Expert.

24:50 It'll take you to a page with all of the details.

24:53 Now some performance testing.

24:55 So Kia claims a zero to 100 time

24:58 of a little over five seconds.

25:00 So what we're gonna do is go from zero

25:02 all the way through to 120

25:03 and see what zero to 100 is like,

25:05 and also 80 to 120.

25:06 So here we go.

25:08 Quite hot outside today,

25:09 so I'm interested to see how this performs in sport mode.

25:13 Nice, that is great off the line there.

25:23 Okay, 100,

25:25 120.

25:28 All right, we'll come to a stop

25:30 and have a look at our numbers.

25:32 Felt really nice and solid off the line there.

25:34 Okay, so zero to 100, 5.2 seconds, almost dead,

25:39 and 80 to 120 of 3.64 seconds, so that's not too bad.

25:44 What we'll do now is head back

25:46 and do a stop from 100 Ks an hour.

25:48 I'm interested to see how long this is gonna take.

25:51 Okay, I'll get this up to 100,

25:53 and then jam down the anchors.

25:57 All right, here we go.

25:59 (engine revving)

26:02 Oh, okay.

26:03 So felt really good from sea to the bum.

26:07 So 100 to zero, 2.78 seconds, 37.3 metres.

26:12 That is ridiculously good.

26:13 Wow, was not expecting that.

26:15 This is an enormous vehicle.

26:16 To stop that quickly is, yeah, it's not a bad effort.

26:19 And now our reverse acceleration test.

26:22 Let's see how we go.

26:23 (laughs)

26:26 Almost snaps your neck off.

26:28 44 kilometres an hour, not too bad.

26:31 Okay, so Kia EV9, what do we reckon?

26:38 So I'll give you two answers.

26:40 One, in the scope of EVs,

26:42 if EVs were the only thing out there

26:43 and we were comparing this to every other EV on the market,

26:46 this thing is unreal.

26:47 If you compare it to all the other seven seat EVs,

26:49 none of them have the vibe that this has.

26:52 It looks cool, the inside is jam-packed with features,

26:55 and for 120 grand, you are getting so much technology

26:58 in there, all that's standard.

27:00 There are some annoying features,

27:01 like the safety stuff you have to switch off every time.

27:04 So that is worth keeping in mind.

27:05 But if you look outside of that,

27:06 it is the ultimate family SUV that is an EV.

27:09 But if you take EV out of the equation,

27:13 it is a lot of money.

27:13 120 grand will buy you a Sorento plus another car.

27:17 It'll buy you a lot of big SUVs as well

27:19 that'll do towing and all the extra stuff

27:21 that an EV can't really do at this stage.

27:23 So you have to really want an EV for this to make sense.

27:26 And if you do want an EV that is seven seats,

27:28 this is the best one that you can buy out there.

27:31 But if you are just after a big family car,

27:33 it is a big step up in price.

27:35 And I just don't know that people are ready

27:36 to jump there just yet.

27:38 So let me know, have you ordered one?

27:40 Let me know in the comment section below,

27:41 which spec did you go for and which color did you go for?

27:43 If you went for the top spec, have you got it in this color?

27:45 If so, it looks bloody awesome in person

27:47 and I think you're gonna like it.

27:48 If you did enjoy this video,

27:49 please make sure you like it

27:50 and you share it with your mates.

27:52 and if you haven't done so already,

27:53 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.

27:55 But until next time, take it easy.

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