Kia EV9 2024 review: Earth long-term | Part 1

Congratulations Kia, you win at cars. Because frankly, your EV9 is possibly the best car made since it all started in 1886.

Well, that’s my opinion. It’s could be the best car I’ve driven in the almost 15 years I’ve been testing vehicles. And it’s not like I’ve made a rash, uninformed decision.

I’ve been living with this big electric SUV every day for a month with my family. But there are still another two months to go in this long term test of the Kia EV9 Earth. 

So, after one month as our family car, this EV9 has been through everything. The hottest part of summer as well as school holidays and birthdays.

It's also doubled as an office with its own power supply and I’ve woken up in it with half a Vegemite sandwich stuck to the side of my face. I can barely fault the thing.

Not everybody likes the EV9 as much as I do, however. The bloke in the Toyota LandCruiser 200 Series parked next to me in the shopping centre car park put his window down and said, “S*!t EVs” as he drove out of his car space.

That’s disappointing. Mainly because I was holding my two-year old daughter at the time but also because it wasn’t even witty. I’m happy to accept insults as long as they’re funny.

Anyway I stopped short of telling him the EV9 has more power and torque than his V8. 

Really, the only bad thing about the EV9 has been other people. From those like the EV denier above to the EV early adopters who you have to charm or duel with over the only available charger at the shopping centre.

We’ll get to charging and range in a moment, but let me introduce our EV9 more thoroughly, starting with the price.

Really, the only bad thing about the EV9 has been other people. (image: Richard Berry)

The Kia EV9 is a large seven-seat fully-electric SUV and there are three grades in its line-up.

Our grade is the Earth which sits in the middle of the range with a list price of $106,500, a figure that's made some friends and family raise their eyebrows.

More than $100K for a Kia does sound pricey but I think it's almost worth it considering what the money gets you.

We’ve had the third row folded flat most of the time and that gives the boot 828 litres of space. (image: Richard Berry)

Coming standard on the Earth are LED headlights and tail-lights, roof rails, 19-inch wheels, a power tailgate and a proximity key.

Inside there are seven seats (the front pair heated, ventilated and power adjustable), dual 12.3-inch displays for media and driver’s instrument cluster, sat nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, an eight-speaker sound system, digital radio, three-zone climate control, a wireless phone charger and LED ambient lighting.

That’s a lot of standard equipment, but the main reason the price is so high is EV batteries are costly and the EV9 has a big one at 99.8kWh (the entry-grade EV9's is 76.1kWh).

Coming standard on the Earth are 19-inch wheels. (image: Richard Berry)

But that will give you a range of 512km which is the longest range in the EV9 line-up, too.

The EV9 gets its all-wheel drive from a motor at the front axle and a second one at the rear. Together these motors make a very nice 283kW and 700Nm, which is enough to throw this 2.6-tonne brick from 0-100km/h in 6.0 seconds.

And the EV9 is a brick but a futuristic and unique one. And that’s such an appealing part of this SUV in that it looks like no other car on the road with its unapologetically beautiful ugly modern design.

The interior of the EV9 is a refreshingly different look and feel to many cars, too. (image: Richard Berry)

I like its flat, smooth face, the tall roofline and sudden drop offs at every edge. I even like the wheels. 

The EV9 is the first Kia I’ve driven that's made people stop and stare. But not in a Ferrari envy/love way, it’s more in the way that a medieval farmer in 1654 would stand up in their field and look at somebody from the future walking past in jeans and a t-shirt. 

The interior of the EV9 is a refreshingly different look and feel to many cars, too, with its sculptured surfaces, synaptic buttons that 'don’t exist' in the dashboard and square shaped steering wheel.

The Kia EV9 is a large seven-seat fully-electric SUV and there are three grades in its line-up. (image: Richard Berry)

There are the details in the surfaces, too, the design of the trims and the different textures from hard to soft and almost woollen-like materials that make the EV9 Earth’s cabin beautiful and intriguing.

It’s almost the opposite to most Teslas which have such minimalist cabins they’re devoid of personality. At the same time the cockpit isn’t so alien that it feels hard to use. It’s a normal driving setting.

Looks are important, but for a family car the big win with the EV9 is its practicality. The big, boxy shape means there’s a massive amount of room inside, but the way the space is designed is clever for storage.

Looks are important, but for a family car the big win with the EV9 is its practicality. (image: Richard Berry)

There’s the large storage tray up on the floor between the driver and front passenger, large enough for a shopping bag. Above that is the floating centre console with wireless phone charging, cupholders and covered storage. There are four cupholders in the second row and another four in the third, along giant door pockets.

With those third row seats in place there’s still 333 litres (VDA) in the cargo area behind them. We’ve had the third row folded flat most of the time and that gives the boot 828 litres of space. More than enough for our pram and a week’s worth of grocery shopping, with room to spare. 

Our life seems to also orbit around charging devices, so the EV9’s many power outlets have been getting a workout.

With those third row seats in place there’s still 333 litres (VDA) in the cargo area behind them. (image: Richard Berry)

There are six USB-C ports on board (two in each row). There are two 12V outlets, plus a V2L (Vehicle to Load) interior socket in the boot which I used to plug in our household vacuum cleaner to get rid of the mess left by my tiny humans after a month of messy usage.

And there’s been a lot of usage with many kays passing under the wheels - about 1000 this past month. But it’s been one of the easiest SUVs to live with from the wide-opening doors and flat floors (that make it easy to get in and out of) to how easy it is to drive.

Steering is light and direct, the ride comfort and body control is outstanding while visibility through the windows and cameras makes something this large easy to park.

I maintain the EV9 is outstanding in every way from how it drives and its practicality to the way it looks. (image: Richard Berry)

And the acceleration is instant which is great for busy stop-sign intersections that need you to move quickly when there’s a gap.

On the motorway the EV9 feels solid and safe in the wind and among the semi-trailers, and again that quick acceleration at any speed means overtaking is safe and effortless.

At 5.01m end-to-end the EV9 is longer than a Toyota LandCruiser and just as wide at 1.98m across, but it’s never felt difficult to pilot even in our daily driving which is mainly confined to the burbs less than 10km from Sydney.

At the same time the cockpit isn’t so alien that it feels hard to use. It’s a normal driving setting. (image: Richard Berry)

If only there were more places to charge. Well, more chargers, really. That’s been to most challenging part of living with the EV9, finding an available charger, 

Our tiny street alone, with 30 houses has four EVs in it, and we live in a suburb with hundreds of electric cars. But our big shopping centre has two fast chargers and sometimes one of them is broken. 

You can charge the EV9 through a regular powerpoint at home but you’d need to leave the EV9 on for days to fill its big battery up.

There are six USB-C ports on board (two in each row). (image: Richard Berry)

The shopping centres’s 50kW fast chargers will take the battery from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in about an hour and 20 minutes. Just long enough to do all the shopping.

It means you have to think ahead if you’re going away on the weekend and make sure the car has enough charge.

So, we’ve found there’s a lot of diplomacy needed with other EV drivers as we all attempt to charge our cars. Most have been accommodating. It’s a new technology and there's a community spirit and pioneering feeling of comradery for the most part. But there are others who don’t feel this way.

The shopping centres’s 50kW fast chargers will take the battery from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in about an hour and 20 minutes. (image: Richard Berry)

Despite these new challenges I maintain the EV9 is outstanding in every way from how it drives and its practicality to the way it looks. And yes, I maintain it could be the best car I’ve ever tested, in terms of its intended purpose. Still there are another two months to go and anything can happen.

Acquired: [February, 2024]

Distance travelled this month: 959km

Odometer: 1928km

Average energy consumption this month: 24.1kWh/100km

More than $100K for a Kia does sound pricey but I think it's almost worth it considering what the money gets you. (image: Richard Berry)