Does electric power work in a big seven-seat family SUV?

It’s not just sedans, hatchbacks and medium-sized SUVs that are electric-powered any more. As the list of available EVs in Australia continues to grow, they are now also reaching into new segments.

And for those of us who want a large (and I mean large) SUV with enough room for seven on board, Australians now have the 2024 Kia EV9.

This three-row fully-electric family hauler joins other seven-seat EVs like the Mercedes-Benz EQB and EQS, but one isn’t a full-sized option, and the other kicks off at close to $200,000.

To put the EV to the test, I unleashed the brute force of my family (and in-laws) upon it. Heaven help me.

There are three different models in the 2024 EV9 range to choose from, and we’ve got the entry-level option here. I’m not going to call it cheap, because you’re still looking at a $100,000-plus vehicle by the time you’ve got it on the road. But still, it’s a far sight cheaper than the other models in the range.

This model comes with a smaller battery and rear-wheel drive only, and doesn’t get the same level of features and technology. But if you want to really know if a car is fundamentally good, then you’ll often find the most honest answer in the base specification.

At least, there are many elements of the EV9 that cool the burn of dropping six figures on an entry-level model.

Good stuff included here is a 12.3-inch infotainment display, 12.3-inch digital driver’s display, synthetic leather seats with electric adjustment, heating and cooling up front, three-zone climate control, LED headlights and tail-lights, 19-inch alloy wheels and fast-charging 800V electric architecture.

This is the only rear-wheel-drive model, with a 160kW/350Nm electric motor being fed by a smaller 76.1kWh battery. That’s quite a big battery for most cars, weighing in at 463.3kg on its own. However, Earth and GT-Line get a larger 99.8kWh battery pack that weighs 566.5kg.

So as you’d guess, the EV9 is no featherweight. At 2312kg of tare weight, there is a 648kg payload and 2960kg GVM.

What do you miss out on? Parking collision avoidance assistance in all directions (forward, reverse and side-on) is missing here, along with a 360-degree camera system, matrix LED headlights, sunshade blinds, interior ambient lighting and an upgraded sound system that can be found in the more expensive Earth and GT-Line grades. To see all of the details in a spec-by-spec breakdown, check out this story.

Space is the major appeal of the EV9, which is a big rig no matter which way you look at it. And being the first electric large SUV in Australia, I find it pleasing to report that the EV9 is quite a competent and comfortable family hauler from tip to tail.

There are plenty of good details here for family buyers, as well. Along with having five top-tether points in the rear, there are also four ISOFIX points in the rear and plenty of storage for all of your stuff.

Up front, you’ve got a floating-style centre console that has two cupholders and a lidded storage bin, but we noted that the plastics around the cupholder area feel quite scratchy and smooth, and might not look good for a long time in such a high-trafficked area.

You can fit your bulkier stuff (like handbags) further down in front, and you’ll find your twin USB-C and 12V power outlets here as well.

The design is pared-back but effective, and is helped by the fact that we have physical controls for things like climate, volume and other things for easy everyday access. But it’s still not a dated-looking button-fest, so I appreciate Kia’s efforts here to combine the aesthetics with the practicalities.

However, it has to be said that there are a lot of basic and hard plastics in this interior for a vehicle with a six-figure price of admission. Yes, it’s an electric car, and electric cars are more expensive than others. But $100,000 gets you a lot of nice interior elements in other places.

One of the second-row seats can be slung forward to access the third row, even with a child seat fitted. It’s similar to what you get in a Nissan Pathfinder and is a great addition for family flexibility. Unfortunately, the EV9 gets this on the road-side in the Australian market, owing to the left-hand-drive origins of the vehicle.

Once you sling yourself into the third row, you’ll find an impressive amount of space on offer. Even with someone reasonably tall (180cm or so) in the second row, you have enough room in this third row to be quite comfortable in terms of space and the seating position. There’s even room for your feet to go flat onto the ground, which can feel like a luxury in the rear. There are also air vents, power outlets and cupholders back here, so nobody is getting short-changed.

Further cementing the EV9’s big-rig credentials, the boot space stays solid at 333L when the third row is deployed. This grows to 828L and 2318L as you drop the seats down, so you’ll likely never run out of load space in the EV9. Other features here are a 12V outlet, 240V outlet, buttons to drop down the second row remotely, and a button to operate the electric tailgate.

Those in search of even more storage will find a 90-litre compartment under the bonnet. Because of its height, and inset position, it’s not as easy to access as the boot, but is handy for stowing take-along items that you might only need occasionally.

As good as the third row is, it’s in the middle seats where you really get a sense of how big this EV9 is. With my driving position set up in front, I was left with an abundant amount of leftover leg room, which allows you to apportion more space to the rear as you need it. But there is also a lot of height in the cabin, which gives good head room but also lends a big sense of airiness to the cabin. Claustrophobes would love it in here, and it would have to be one of the most spacious large SUVs out there.

It’s good for width as well, to the point that I could fit in the middle seat between two ISOFIX baby seats. This might not sound like much to non-parents, but it got me quite excited.

One can access plenty of storage at the rear of the centre console, plus two cupholders and some power outlets on the seats. Air vents and controls are mounted in the ceiling, which works well for distributing air democratically.

Infotainment in the EV9 is handled by a 12.3-inch infotainment display, which is common across the range. So, this base model scores good points in that regard. It includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and we found the system to work well during our time with it.

Smartphone mirroring is wired only, but that’s no great loss in my opinion. A wired connection is significantly more reliable than wireless, I have found in recent times.

This system does tick the boxes of digital radio, AM/FM and native navigation, and the operating system is a good one. Given the size of the EV9, a Passenger Talk function uses microphones in the front of the cabin to relay messages to the rear, meaning Mum and Dad need not yell to get a message to the rearmost seats.

Only the top-spec GT-Line gets an upgraded Meridian 14-speaker sound system, and we are slumming it here (relatively speaking) with only eight speakers.

The EV9 also gets the Kia Connect app system, which gives access to remote functions like climate control pre-cooling/heating, locking and unlocking the doors, window controls, and location tracking. There’s also the provision for over-the-air updates here.

Against the more rigorous, recently introduced 2023 ANCAP crash test standards, the Kia EV9 came away with five stars.

This includes 84 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant protection, 76 per cent for vulnerable road user protection, and a safety assistance score of 85 per cent.

On top of the complimentary ANCAP rating, the EV9 Air is well (but not utterly) stacked with safety equipment.

Autonomous emergency braking includes pedestrian, cyclist and junction detection, as well as oncoming lane-change detection. There is also lane-keep assistance, lane-follow assistance, blind-spot warning, rear-cross traffic alert and avoidance, safe exit warning and assistance, and driver attention warning.

However, this spec misses out on parking collision avoidance assist, which is a kind of low-speed autonomous braking system for when you’re manoeuvring at a crawl. It also misses out on the blind-spot view monitor ability, and 360-degree camera system found in the higher-grade models.

There are also automatic headlights and rain-sensing wipers, parking sensors front and rear, tyre pressure monitoring, and adaptive cruise control with intelligent speed limit assistance (which updates via traffic sign recognition).

The traffic sign recognition system has been improved upon, in comparison to other vehicles that have recently been released from Hyundai and Kia. While it can still be annoying and is often inaccurate, it can be muted. If you employ one of your shortcut buttons, you can do it in four presses (which includes going back to your navigation or smartphone mirroring).

As you get with most electric cars, the service costs of the EV9 are low when compared directly to internal combustion vehicles of a similar size. Three years only costs $706, which works out to be $235 per year. $1997 over seven years works out to be $285 per year – quite cheap for such a long period of time – and goes some of the way to recoup the expensive initial purchase price of the EV9.

It’s not the same story for insurance, however. A relatively expensive purchase price means insurance is $2667 per year for an EV9 Air, according to an online quote generator. This is based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The efficiency of the EV9 is something of a double-edged sword. On one hand (and against a reasonably big claim of 19.5 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometres), we saw a figure that sat regularly around the 22kWh/100km mark when pumping along the highway and when loaded up with occupants.

On the other hand, we saw as little as 15kWh/100km from the EV9 driving solo around the suburbs with an efficient driving style. Not hypermiling, by the way, I was keeping up with traffic. But I was using regenerative braking whenever I could, and looking ahead to predict traffic flow as much as possible.

But if you’re using around 18kWh/100km, it is feasible to see around 400km between recharges. However, this doesn’t leave much capacity in reserve.

Being the only rear-wheel-drive model in the range, the EV9 Air misses out on that giddiness-inducing performance that is available from the twin-motor models higher up in the range.

However, it has to be said that the base model feels good to drive. The instant torque feels quite proficient at getting this 2.3-tonne beast moving, and is plenty for around-town slicing and dicing. Even up to highway speeds, blighted as it might be by inertia, the EV9 is solid enough in terms of performance.

It puts down the power quite smartly, as well. Compared to Kia’s petrol V6 engines in cars like the Sorento and Carnival, which often spin up the front wheels with wanton glee, this rear-wheel-drive model is much more composed under a heavy right foot.

For reference, a 0–100km/h time of 8.2 seconds is decent, but you can feel that the first half of that is much quicker than the second half.

The turning circle of the EV9 – 12.4 metres – is symptomatic of the big body (5010mm) and long wheelbase (3100mm). This figure doesn’t change between rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive variants, but does take some getting used to for those not familiar with larger vehicles.

At least the visibility is good with the boxy shape and loads of glass to look through.

Ride quality isn’t really pillowy like you might hope it to be, and there are certainly cars at this kind of price point that ride better. It feels a little firm at times, and slightly crashy over the front wheels on speed humps and larger suspension cycles.

This would be owing to weight of the vehicle overall, and the Nexen 19-inch wheels. Our launch review noted that different tyres on larger-diameter wheels (going against convention) ride better than the Air variant.

Overall, the ride isn’t bad. But at $100,000, I feel like I can be a little nitpicky.

The driving mode button on the steering wheel is interesting, but perhaps redundant for everyday useage. We found ourselves defaulting quite happily to the regular driving mode, and only adjusting our regenerative braking (via the paddle shifters) to suit our needs. The big column-mounted gear shifter vibrates when you choose reverse, and perhaps takes a little getting used to when doing three-pointers under pressure.

The EV9 is an impressive vehicle in many ways. It’s consummately easy to live with, and can accommodate a larger brood with ease. Once you’ve had the huge amounts of space available in a car like this, it is difficult to go back to even something Sorento-sized. There are some nice pieces of detail inside as well that really help seal the deal.

However, it all comes at a high price. You’re spending more than $20,000 over a top-spec Kia Carnival Platinum, for example. A vehicle that is peerless as a viciously effective family car. Beyond that point, there is no shortage of other options with conventional internal combustion engines to choose from that undercut this EV9 quite dramatically.

But, I still can’t help but like this car. It’s well executed and cohesive overall, offering a character in the exterior, interior and driving experience that gets under your skin. So if you’re happy to pony up the money, you’ll likely be satisfied.

Currently, Kia Australia is looking at three- or four-month wait times for the EV9, but more detailed information would come from your local dealer if you give them a phone call.

In terms of a sweet spot in the range, this Air specification does stack up well while having the least amount of sting in the asking price. However, those who have a deeper budget could prefer the increased performance and battery size of the Earth and GT-Line specs.

There aren’t many large electric SUVs that can compete with the EV9, but most competition comes from other conventionally powered vehicles. The Hyundai Palisade is a close fit, as are the Kia Carnival and Nissan Pathfinder. We’d recommend a test drive of all before making up your mind.

If you want to stay updated with everything that’s happened to this car since our review, you’ll find all the latest news here.