The Kia EV9 electric car is Kia's newest, most generation-defining electric car! Now that I have had the chance to properly test drive one for a week — specifically the Kia EV9 GT-Line AWD trim — I can better tell you it’s unlike any other SUV I’ve driven or seen before, made much better by all the tech it’s packing to make my driving safer and more relaxing. With its angular cuts, flashy looking LED projector lights, and stylish rims, it screams concept everywhere you look — something that rarely translates to a production model.
In this review, I go through the main Kia EV9 features and functions while taking it on an efficiency test to better gauge its electric vehicle performance. Is this one if the best electric cars?
In this review, I go through the main Kia EV9 features and functions while taking it on an efficiency test to better gauge its electric vehicle performance. Is this one if the best electric cars?
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TechTranscript
00:00This is the Kia EV9, 2,204 miles, three-row style SUV, all electric.
00:07It looks like a concept car, but here it is.
00:09You could buy it right now.
00:10I get to test drive it.
00:11I'm real excited about that.
00:13So let's jump in.
00:14I've got the Kia EV9 for just about a week, so I'm going to spend the weekend getting
00:21used to all the bells and whistles that come with this EV.
00:24Oh, look, shoot!
00:26I've been driving the Kia EV9 over the weekend, and I think the first thing that really stand
00:37out is just the design.
00:38It's that futuristic concept.
00:40You actually see it.
00:41It turns heads.
00:42It's different.
00:43You have those angular cutouts, aerodynamic design, and the color, it really pops.
00:48You have this almost blue, very shimmery tone, and that kind of goes with the futuristic
00:53look of the design.
00:55The starting MSRP for the 2,024 EV9 is $55,000.
00:59However, the model I'm driving is the GT-Line all-wheel drive and will run that price up
01:04to $74,000.
01:05Now, for that, you've got second-row captain's chairs like the passenger and driver seats,
01:10dual sunroofs, blind spot monitors, and more drive-assist features, including a head-up
01:16display in the windshield.
01:18For its price range, you get some really cool features that are usually found in luxury
01:24cars.
01:25For example, the heads-up display, you have the 360-degree parking system with the cameras,
01:30you have all the driver-assist modes, and a really nice sound system as well.
01:37The driving is really smooth.
01:38For a big-size SUV, it's pretty responsive.
01:42The regenerative braking system, it was kind of tight at the beginning when I first started
01:46driving that in New York, so every time you let go, you feel like it's slowing down already.
01:50It's kind of jarring, especially when the regen brakes are a little bit abrupt.
01:55While I was driving it, I mostly had it on eco mode.
01:58That's going to save a lot of your power, so it's going to give you longer range, but
02:03I noticed that if I switched to something like sports mode, that's when you get a lot
02:06more power, more responsiveness, not only in the brakes, but also in the acceleration.
02:11So you tap it lightly, and you feel it.
02:15So as far as sound goes, it's pretty quiet.
02:17Obviously, it's an EV, but much like other EVs, Teslas, they have that sort of hum to
02:22it.
02:23So as I'm driving, you'll hear it.
02:25That's probably the only thing.
02:26It's not as loud as some other EVs I tested, like the IONIQ 6, so it's a little bit more
02:31subdued, but it is still noticeable.
02:33331.
02:34That's something I'm not going to miss.
02:37The gas prices.
02:38Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
02:39Uh-oh.
02:40Look at that.
02:4120%.
02:42I have a range of 58 miles.
02:45So obviously, it tells you that and shows you where you could actually find the nearest
02:50charging station.
02:51So let's do this.
02:52Yeah, there you go.
02:53Okay.
02:54Keep your eyes peeled for an EV charging station, because it should be somewhere here.
03:01Left here.
03:02What?
03:03I need EV chargers.
03:05Where are your EV chargers?
03:06S***.
03:07EV chargers.
03:08Okay.
03:09There's EV geocharging stations.
03:10Yeah.
03:11Start.
03:12It's totally not in this box.
03:13It's totally not in this box.
03:15Okay.
03:16So let's go back.
03:17I don't notice this on CarPlay, but when I use Android Auto and use navigation with Google
03:22Maps, I could get the turn-by-turn directions in the heads-up display, which is nice, because
03:27obviously, I don't want to look down to the console here to find out where I'm going.
03:32But with CarPlay, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be compatible with it, so I don't
03:36see any of that.
03:37Oh.
03:38The promised land.
03:39EV go.
03:40There we go.
03:41We made it.
03:4220% left.
03:43Okay.
03:44So this is going to be interesting.
03:45I'm going to back up.
03:46I'm going to use the backup camera here, which, using the backup cameras, kind of guides you,
03:52which is great.
03:53You could see if I'm going to hit something, which it looks like I will, so I'm going to
03:58move forward, line it up, and you could see, just like that, get it nice and straight.
04:10It's telling me, go this way, this way.
04:19I'm here at the charging station, so now I've got to pay to charge the EV9, so I'm using
04:23this app called ChargePoint.
04:25I signed up.
04:26The nice thing about the app, it actually shows you what are the rates.
04:29So for example, today, it is Tuesday, we're in the middle of the afternoon, 2 o'clock,
04:33so we're going to get a charge rate of 64 cents per kilowatt hour.
04:38That's the highest versus in the morning.
04:40From 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., it looks like it's less at 59 cents, and then the cheapest is
04:45going to be usually from midnight till 7 o'clock.
04:47That's pretty much universal from what I've been seeing so far, and it was just simple
04:56like that.
04:57It shows us remaining time, 34 minutes, like a phone.
05:01The last, like, after 50%, it just takes forever, it takes a longer time for it to charge.
05:06It's best to always charge your EV when it's a pretty low battery, but if you're around
05:1120%, you charge it for 30 minutes, you can get a huge gain, whereas if I charge it at
05:16around 60% and for the same amount of period, I'd imagine it probably still won't get past
05:2180%.
05:23So here's the main dashboard of the EV9, and once you pair your phone, you've got to go
05:28through the Bluetooth settings, pair your phone.
05:31Once you do that, it'll automatically know if it's an iPhone or Android, and then for
05:34an Android, right now I have it connected with the Pixel 8 Pro, so I just tap on Android
05:38Auto, and basically, it gives me nearly everything that's on my Android phone here in the dashboard.
05:45So you have apps, most of your apps, you can customize the apps on your phone.
05:50Obviously, they want to make sure that you're not distracted, so as far as texting, it'll
05:55be disabled as you're moving, and I like how you have this two-panel interface where you
06:00have, you know, one side, for example, navigation, and the other side, the other app.
06:04The other thing I like about the EV9 is that there's a lot of customization.
06:08So as far as the interior space, the lights, you could change all that up.
06:12So here, if I go to Vehicle, I go to Lights, at night, there's the light patterns.
06:20They have a really nice effect.
06:22The cool thing is that you could select the different patterns that you like.
06:24So if you want something that has a different type of design, you could do that.
06:30So these small touches that make this car really personable.
06:33It's done charging at 80%.
06:36It's showing us 289 miles range.
06:39So now what we're going to do here is we're going to drive down to the beach, see how
06:43far it gets, and also what the percentage is once we arrive there.
06:49So while I'm driving here, I want to show you guys Lane Assist.
06:52It's one of the features here with EV9.
06:54So when you have it enabled, it'll actually be able to detect the lane you're in and keep
06:59you in that lane.
07:00So technically, it's going to move the steering wheel.
07:03Even if the road starts to bend, it'll actually start moving, rotating.
07:07I kind of like it, but I could see how some people who are not used to it, especially
07:11first timers, it can feel a little bit jarring because sometimes there are moments where
07:17you feel the steering wheel kind of moving abruptly.
07:20So you have this tendency of actually trying to take control back of the wheel.
07:25Let's see here.
07:28There's another really cool feature here.
07:29You have the lane change cameras.
07:32So as you're switching lanes, it'll show you a preview of your blind spot.
07:38That's a feature you're not going to see in many cars.
07:40I could still rely on the side mirror here for that, but you have the convenience of
07:45seeing your blind spot directly in the dash.
07:49Now we're hitting congestion here, and a feature that I think is useful with EVs, especially
07:54the EV9 here, is Dynamic Cruise Control with Lane Assist.
07:58So right now, as you can see, the car is accelerating and also applying a brake.
08:02So I set the cruise control for 29 miles per hour.
08:06There's a distance I could set to between the next car in front of me.
08:09I have it at three.
08:10So it's a little bit farther away versus one, which would be very close to the car.
08:14So the nice thing about this assist feature is that it'll do everything for you.
08:19Not only move the steering wheel, it'll apply the brake and also the acceleration.
08:24It's good, but again, it's more of an assistant.
08:27It's not full automation because it lacks our perception, because I could tell already
08:32in the front, way down there, it's already, okay, so here's a perfect example.
08:36What's it going to do?
08:37What's it going to do?
08:38Good.
08:39If you saw the screen here, it knew that a vehicle on the right lane was coming into
08:43my lane and applied the brake.
08:45So that's a really good safety feature right there.
08:49Okay.
08:50Now that we're good, the other thing I want to point out is the heads-up display.
08:54In the windshield, I could see pretty much what I see down here in the console.
08:59So it has my speed limit, tells me also what speed limit is of the road I'm in, the driver
09:06assist features on, and even the navigation, which is great.
09:10So I don't have to move my eyes towards the middle here where I have the main navigation
09:15system.
09:16I could just lean on that for everything and it's not as distracting.
09:20We're 17 miles in after 30 minutes and given the stop and go nature of the traffic and
09:24the congestion, and we also have the air conditioner running, it's only dropped by percent.
09:30So that's pretty impressive in my book.
09:44So we're about to head into Sandy Hook Beach.
09:47It's the northernmost beach in New Jersey.
09:57Okay.
09:59We finally arrived at our destination here at Sandy Hook.
10:03And with the EV9, we traveled 32.3 miles and we're down to 71%.
10:09So that's 9% down since we first started, kind of equates to roughly around 3.5 miles
10:15per 1%, which isn't too bad.
10:17And as we test out more EVs on the same route, I'll be interested to see the different efficiencies
10:21and how they compare to the EV9.
10:24I don't think there's a better EV that packs as much utility as the EV9.
10:29There's plenty of safety, comfort, and assistant features.
10:32Plus it's certain to draw attention with its slick design that's unlike anything else on
10:36the road.
10:37I know it's pricey, but worth it if you have the money to spend.
10:43And that's it with the Kia EV9.
10:45I definitely enjoyed driving this.
10:46A lot of cool features, a lot of cool tech inside from the way it looks, the way it drives.
10:51And I got to stress those safety features definitely make it a satisfying experience.
10:56What do you guys think?
10:57Let me know in the comments below.
10:59Don't forget to follow us on social at Tom's Guide.
11:02I'm John B. and I'll see you in my next video.