00:00This is the Kia EV9, 2024 models, three-row style SUV, all-electric. It looks
00:07like a concept car, but here it is. You could buy it right now. I get to test
00:10drive it. I'm really excited about that, so let's jump in. I've got the Kia EV9 for
00:19just about a week, so I'm gonna spend the weekend getting used to all the bells
00:22and whistles that come with this EV. Oh look, shoot! Before performing an efficiency
00:27test while driving to Sandy Hook in New Jersey, is it worth buying as your next car?
00:31I've been driving the Kia EV9 over the weekend, and I think the first thing that
00:36really stand out is just the design. It's that futuristic concept. You actually see
00:41it. It turns heads. It's different. You have those angular cutouts, aerodynamic
00:46design, and the color. It really pops. You have this almost blue, very shimmery tone,
00:52and that kind of goes with the futuristic look of the design. The starting MSRP for
00:56the 2024 EV9 is $55,000. However, the model I'm driving is the GT-Line
01:02all-wheel drive and will run that price up to $74,000. Now for that, you've got second-row
01:07captain's chairs like the passenger and driver seats, dual sunroofs, blind spot
01:12monitors, and more drive-assist features, including a head-up display in the
01:17windshield. For its price range, you get some really cool features that are usually
01:22found in luxury cars. For example, the heads-up display. You have the 360-degree
01:28parking system with the cameras. You have all the driver-assist modes and a really
01:34nice sound system as well. The driver is really smooth. For a big-size SUV, it's
01:40pretty responsive. The regenerative braking system, it was kind of tight at the
01:45beginning when I first started driving down New York. So every time you let go, you
01:48feel like it's slowing down already. It's kind of jarring, especially when the
01:52regen brakes are a little bit abrupt. While I was driving it, I mostly had it on
01:57Eco mode. That's going to save a lot of your power, so it's going to give you a
02:01longer range. But I noticed that if I switch to something like Sports mode,
02:05that's when you get a lot more power, more responsiveness, not only in the brakes,
02:09but also in the acceleration. So you tap it lightly and you feel it. So as far as sound
02:15goes, it's pretty quiet. Obviously it's an EV, but much like other EVs, Teslas, they
02:21have that sort of like hum to it. So as I'm driving, you'll hear it. That's probably
02:25the only thing. It's not as loud as some other EVs I tested like the Ioniq 6, so
02:30it's a little bit more subdued, but it is still noticeable. 331. That's something I'm not
02:37going to miss the gas prices. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Uh oh. Look at that. 20%. I have a range of 58 miles,
02:45so obviously it tells you that and shows you where you could actually find the
02:50nearest charging station. So let's do this. Yeah, there you go. Okay. Keep your eyes
02:54peeled for EV charging station because it should be somewhere here. Left here. I need EV chargers.
03:04Where are your EV chargers? EV chargers. Okay. There's EV geocharging station. Yeah. Start.
03:13It's totally not in this class. Okay. So let's go back. I don't notice this on CarPlay, but when I use
03:20Android Auto and use navigation with Google Maps, I could get the turn-by-turn directions in the
03:25heads-up display, which is nice because obviously I don't want to look down to the console here to
03:30find out where I'm going. But with CarPlay, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be compatible
03:34with it. So I don't see any of that. Oh, the promised land. EV go. There we go. We made it. 20% left.
03:45Okay. So this is going to be interesting. I'm going to back up. I'm going to use the backup camera
03:52here, which using the backup cameras kind of guides you, which is great. You could see
03:58if I'm going to hit something, which it looks like I will. So I'm going to move forward, line it up
04:04and you could see just like that. Get it nice and straight. It's telling me go this way, this way.
04:15I'm here at the charging station. So now I got to pay to charge the EV9. So I'm using this app
04:24called ChargePoint. I signed up. The nice thing about the app, it actually shows you what are the
04:28rates. So for example, today it is Tuesday or in the middle afternoon, two o'clock. So we're going to
04:33get a charge rate of 64 cents per kilowatt hour. That's the highest versus in the morning from 8am to
04:4112pm. It looks like it's less at 59 cents. And then the cheapest is going to be usually from
04:46midnight till seven o'clock. That's pretty much universal from what I've been seeing so far.
04:55And it was just simple like that. It shows us remaining time, 34 minutes, like a phone. The last,
05:01like after 50%, it just takes forever. It takes a longer time for it to charge. It's best to always
05:07charge your EV when it's a pretty low battery. But if you're around 20%, you charge it for 30 minutes,
05:13you can get a huge gain. Whereas if I charge it at around 60% and for the same amount of period,
05:19I imagine it probably still won't get past 80%. So here's the main dashboard of the EV9. And once you
05:26pair your phone, you got to go through the Bluetooth settings, pair your phone. Once you do that,
05:31it'll automatically know if it's an iPhone or Android. And then for an Android right now,
05:35I have connected with the Pixel 8 Pro. So I just tap on Android Auto. And basically,
05:40it gives me nearly everything that's on my Android phone here in the dashboard. So you have apps,
05:47most of your apps, you can customize the apps on your phone. Obviously, they want to make sure that
05:52you're not distracted. So as far as texting, it'll be disabled as you're moving. And I like how you have
05:57this two panel interface where you have, you know, one side, for example, navigation and the other side,
06:03the other app. The other thing I like about the EV9 is that there's a lot of customization.
06:07So as far as the interior space, the lights, you could change all that up. So here, if I go to vehicle,
06:13I go to lights, at night, there's the light patterns. They have a really nice effect. The cool
06:22thing is that you could select the different patterns that you like. So if you want something
06:25that has a different type of design, you could do that. It's the small touches that make this car
06:32really personable. It's done charging at 80%. It's showing us 289 miles range. So now what we're
06:40going to do here is we're going to drive down to the beach, see how far it gets, and also what the
06:44percentage is once we arrive there.
06:49So while I'm driving here, I want to show you guys lane assist. It's one of the features here with EV9.
06:54So when you have it enabled, they'll actually be able to detect the lane you're in and keep you in
06:59that lane. So technically it's going to move the steering wheel. Even if the road starts to bend,
07:05it will actually start moving, rotating. I kind of like it, but I could see how some people who are
07:10not used to it, especially first timers, it can feel a little bit jarring because sometimes there are
07:16moments where you feel the steering wheel kind of moving abruptly. So you have this tendency of actually
07:22trying to take control back of the wheel. Let's see here. Here's another really cool feature here.
07:29You have the lane change cameras. So as you're switching lanes, it'll show you a preview of your
07:36blind spot. That's a feature you're not going to see in many cars. I could still rely on the side
07:42mirror here for that, but you have the convenience of seeing your blind spot directly in the dash.
07:48Now we're hitting congestion here and a feature that I think is useful with EVs, especially the EV9 here,
07:54is dynamic cruise control with lane assist. So right now, as you can see, the car is accelerating
08:01and also applying a brake. So I set the cruise control for 29 miles per hour. There's a distance
08:06I could set to between the next car in front of me. I have it at three. So it's a little bit farther away
08:11versus one, which would be very close to the car. So the nice thing about this assist feature is that
08:17it'll do everything for you. Not only move the steering wheel, it'll apply the brake and also
08:22the acceleration. It's good, but again, it's more of an assistance. It's not full automation because
08:29it lacks our perception. Because I could tell already in the front way down there, it's already,
08:34okay, so here's, for example, what's it going to do? What's it going to do? Good. If you saw the screen
08:39here, it knew that a vehicle on the right lane was coming into my lane and applied the brake. So that's
08:45really good safety feature right there. Okay. Now that we're good, the other thing I want to point out
08:52is the heads up display. In the windshield, I can see pretty much what I see down here in the console.
08:59So it has my speed limit. It tells me also what the speed limit is of the road I'm in, the driver
09:06assist features on, and even the navigation, which is great. So I don't have to move my eyes, you know,
09:12towards the middle here where I have the main navigation system. I could just lean on that for
09:17everything and it's not as distracting. We're 17 miles in after 30 minutes. And given the stop and go
09:23nature of the traffic and the congestion, and we also have the air conditioner running,
09:28it's only dropped 5%. So that's pretty impressive in my book.
09:43So we're about to head into Sandy Hook Beach. It's the northernmost beach in New Jersey.
09:50Okay. We finally arrived at our destination here at Sandy Hook. And with the EV9, we traveled 32.3 miles
10:06and we're down to 71%. So 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. And as we test out more EVs on the same route, I'll be interested to
10:20see the different efficiencies and how they compare to the EV9. I don't think there's a better EV that
10:26packs as much utility as the EV9. There's plenty of safety, comfort, and assistant features. Plus,
10:32it's certain to draw attention with its slick design that's unlike anything else on the road.
10:37I know it's pricey, but worth it if you have the money to spend.
10:42And that's it with the Kia EV9. I definitely enjoyed driving this. A lot of cool features,
10:47a lot of cool tech inside from the way it looks, the way it drives, and I gotta stress those safety
10:53features. Definitely make it a satisfying experience. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments
10:58below. Don't forget to follow us on social at Tom's Guide. I'm John V, and I'll see you in my next video.
11:07I'm John V, and I'm John V, and I'll see you in the next video.
11:12I'm John V, and I'll see you in the next video.
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