- 3 months ago
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, 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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