Kia EV9

For the Malaysian car market, the Kia EV9 features a dual-tone black and brown artificial leather upholstery, with the cabin having a ‘three-stage sustainable design strategy’. This cabin uses numerous recycled and sustainable materials, such as bioplastics, post-consumer material plastic, bio PU, recycled PET fabric and bio paint. The long wheelbase and flat floor due to the E-GMP born-electric platform create a lot of room for all three rows, though with all of them up, the boot space is limited to just 52 litres. 

The cabin layout of the Kia EV9 has a wraparound theme, which looks much like the cockpit of a yacht. The two-spoke multi-functional steering wheel, which has flattened surfaces at both up and down, has a wide full-TFT dual-screen cockpit, which is naked ‘Ki’. This cockpit comprises dual 12.3-inch full-TFT screens – one each for the instrument console and touchscreen infotainment system. This cockpit also has a head-up display behind the driver’s cockpit.

The sleek-looking central layer of the dashboard in the Kia EV9 has touch-sensitive controls for the three-zone automatic climate control while having a scooped design for the middle layer below it. The wraparound corners of the dashboard, along with the lower centre console, accommodate AC vents, with the cabin of the EV9 further getting features like a panoramic sunroof, 14-speaker Meridian sound system, wireless charger, powered and ventilated front seats, digital review mirror, surround view monitor, two 12V power outlets, vehicle-to-load system.

The Kia EV9 comes with two seating configurations – a 2+3+2 layout with a flat bench in the second row and a 2+2+2 layout with captain seats in the middle row. The 6-seater version has powered, premium relaxation captain seats with Ottomans, while the 7-seater version has a 60:40 split theme for the second-row bench. 

Considering that the Kia EV9 won the Gold Award at the iFDesign Awards, it is off to a good start with the acceptance of its design, which is very futuristic without going too overboard. The EV-specific design of the Kia EV9 blends well with the brand's traditional design ethos, which makes it fall in line with other Kia offerings in terms of exterior appearance.

At the front, the Kia EV9 attracts with its signature ‘digital tiger face’, which is gradually becoming a common identity among all the all-electric offerings from Kia. With a cleaner surface, this front closed grille of the Kia EV9 has a digital pattern lighting on the sides, beside which this vehicle gets vertically-aligned sweptback all-LED headlamps with zig-zag daytime running LEDs on their outer sides. The EV9 also has gloss black rounded rectangular housing in the middle of the front bumper that adds some aggression to the front profile.

When looked at from the side, the Kia EV9 shows off its MPV-like proportions, which, though, look smart with the upright stance at the front, flush-type door handles, functional roof rails and flared hexagonal wheel arches with gloss black cladding. The Kia EV9 has large 21-inch alloy aero machined alloy wheels, which further enhance its coolness quotient and overall stance. The large side window panels with angular A and D pillars make the EV9 look sharp and large. 

At the back, the Kia EV9 impresses with minimalist futurism in its design, with the clean-looking boot lid having a sharp crease in the middle and a bulge below it, along with Christmas tree-themed LED tail lamps on the outer edges. Flowing from the top edges, these tail lamps stretch down to the middle of the boot lid edges, while also having small extensions below the lower edges of the rear windscreen.

The Kia EV9 comes with a soft-tuned suspension setup comprising Macpherson struts at the front and a five-link multi-link combination at the rear, which gets a self-levelling damper system for adjustments of ride height as and when needed. This suspension setup is further complemented by the drive modes on offer – Eco, Normal, Sport and Snow. 

The standard GT-Line variant of the Kia EV9 is offered as an all-wheel drive vehicle with a dual-motor setup. With one motor each on both front and rear axles, the dual-motor setup claims a combined maximum power output of 385 PS and a combined maximum torque output of 700 Nm. With this dual-motor setup, the EV9 can attain a top speed of 200 kmph and do the 0-100 kmph run in 5.3 seconds.

Both the six and seven-seater versions of the Kia EV9 have a floor-mounted 99.8kWh lithium-ion battery pack, which delivers a maximum driving range of 505 km (WLTP-claimed). While this battery can be charged from 0 to 100 per cent in 10.5 hours using an 11kW AC charger, the 10-80% SoC can be achieved in 24 minutes using a 350kW DC charger. 

There are several safety features on board in the new Kia EV9, such as seven airbags, parking collision avoidance assist, high beam assist, rear cross-traffic collision avoidance assist, blind spot collision avoidance assist, forward collision avoidance assist, driver attention warning, blind spot view monitor, lane keeping assist, lane following assist, smart cruise control with stop and go, tyre pressure monitoring system, auto brake hold, remote smart parking assist, safe exit assist, 360-degree parking camera, front and rear parking sensors, ABS with EBD, hill hold assist, hill descent control, traction control, vehicle stability control and tyre pressure monitoring system. 

The Kia EV( is every bit of a thoroughly modern vehicle with a futuristic design in and out, a plethora of features, impressive and refined driving appeal, and great comfort on the inside, and no wonder why it was granted the ‘World Car of the Year 2024’ award.