Is the Kia EV9 the sweet spot for family EVs?

The Hyundai Group is leading the non-Tesla EV charge, with an aggressive rollout of vehicles built on them the group’s E-GMP platform through the brands Hyundai, Kia and Genesis and the Kia EV9 represents the Korean automaker’s attempt to stake a claim in the meat-and-potatoes three-row SUV market.

The EV9’s impressive technology, specs, and reasonable starting price make it a contender to help break EV sales out of the green car niche and into the driveways of mainstream customers who currently own the very similar gas-powered Telluride from the buy up the brand just as quickly. because the factory in West Point, Georgia can produce it. The EV9 is currently produced in Gwangmyeong, South Korea, but production at West Point will start this summer.

The EV9 looks especially attractive compared to the pricey, rough-riding Rivian R1S recently tested. The rear-wheel drive “Light” trim level of the EV9 with 258 Nm and 215 hp comes with a 76.1 kilowatt-hour battery pack, good for a driving range of 370 kilometers.

My preferred configuration would probably be the Light Long Range, which features a 99.8 kWh battery pack that has a range of 304 miles per charge. Including the optional tow bar I would want, the total would be $61,270.

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That’s admittedly a slow configuration, with 0 to 60 mph in 8.8 seconds, which is fine, but seems slow in a world of lightning-fast EVs like our range-topping EV9 GT-Line. It accelerates to 100 km/h in just 5.0 seconds, thanks to its 379 hp and 516 Nm. powertrain with two motors and four-wheel drive.

The Ocean Blue GT-Line EV9 test vehicle was beautiful, but the $78,430 profit undermines the EV9’s value argument and it only goes 275 miles on the Long Range battery pack. Furthermore, the 21-inch wheels look good, but they noticeably deteriorate the handling compared to the Light’s standard 19-inch wheels. It’s still better than the Rivian R1S, but the EV9’s handling suffers from the 21-inch wheels.

This problem is especially apparent at sharp bumps such as bridge expansion joints. If you hit that while changing lanes, the GT-Line goes into a very un-GT-like wobble that is disturbing. This problem is especially noticeable when using the EV9’s adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist systems, as their response to such bumps is abrupt and aggravates the problem.

I stopped using these systems for highway driving because they significantly degraded the driving experience. I would have been happier with the extra tire sidewall provided by the Light’s 19-inch wheels and the longer driving range between charges.

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As a family car, the EV9 has little luggage space behind the third row compared to minivans. KIA

This became a problem because I discovered the uselessness of the EV9’s included 120-volt AC portable charger, as described in a separate article, as a result of my experience expecting to be able to add a meaningful amount of driving range by driving at night to recharge with my mother. home, where there is no Level 2 240 volt charger like my ChargePoint at home.

I enjoyed the fact that the EV9 pretty much lives up to its performance claims, with normal 70mph on the highway and 60mph on two lanes in the countryside delivering almost exactly the claimed driving range. The same applied to the charging speed, which came in at 209 kW on a 350 kW Electrify America 350 kW DC fast charger, essentially equal to the claimed maximum charging speed of 210 kW.

What doesn’t meet the claimed performance is the climate control system. EV manufacturers commonly reduce the performance of their heaters to maintain range in cold weather, and I found that even in not particularly cold weather, the EV9’s temperature had to be set to 80 degrees to keep the interior comfortable. This could be a result of generally keeping it in Eco driving mode.

In any case, there is a scroll wheel that provides physical volume control on the dashboard. KIA

This is one of the many quirks that EV drivers will learn as we transition the fleet to EV power, as we learn to juggle factors like battery size (and the resulting mass), wheel size (and the resulting impact on EV range and driving comfort) and other details. As a flagship trim, the GT-Line will obviously go to a small portion of the EV9 buying public. The rest will certainly be happier and better served by their lower-equipped models, even if they are a little slower and may not look as zoomy.

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