**The Kia EV9: A Comprehensive Review**

We've spent over 14 and a half hours on a 240-volt level two charger to replenish the battery from empty, and we're excited to share our findings with you. As expected, we'll also be putting the EV-9 through our exclusive 70 mph Highway range test, which will provide valuable insights into its performance and capabilities.

**Handling and Performance**

While the EV-9's blocky exterior style may not be for everyone, its handling is surprisingly decent for a vehicle of its size. Weighing in at 5,715 pounds, the EV-9 is significantly heavier than its Telluride counterpart, which might impact its performance on the road. However, we're eager to put it through our driving evaluations, particularly our emergency handling test, to see how it responds to sudden maneuvers.

**Interior Design and Features**

The interior of the EV-9 boasts a unique design, with a giant screen dominating the dashboard. This dual 12.3-inch display serves as both the gauge cluster for the driver and the central hub for all other controls. We appreciate the touch-sensitive capacitive controls, which provide a tactile feedback when pressed, but we can't help feeling that it's still not quite the same as having dedicated hard buttons.

One feature that sets the EV-9 apart is its "big tiles" design, where defined sections allow for easy navigation and adjustment of settings. However, this system can sometimes be finicky, particularly when using the touch screen with wet or gloved hands. Additionally, some functions are still accessed through the infotainment screen, which can block your view when adjusting settings.

**Storage and Convenience**

The EV-9's interior also features a large bin in the floor for storing small items like bags, wallets, or phones. However, this space is somewhat loose and exposed, leaving it vulnerable to spills or other accidents. The only other storage option aside from the glove box is a tiny compartment under the center armrest, which may not be enough for some users' needs.

**Comfort and Practicality**

One of the most important aspects of any vehicle is comfort, particularly in the driver's seat. We're pleased to report that the EV-9's seats are quite supportive, with good cushioning and bolstering on both sides. The head restraints are also a nice touch, providing a soft and comfortable surface for resting your head against.

The second-row seat is perhaps the most impressive aspect of the EV-9's interior design. With plenty of legroom in its standard position, it's downright gigantic – making it an ideal choice for families or passengers who need extra space. Additionally, the seat can be slid forward to provide more room for the third-row occupant.

The Kia EV-9 also introduces a convenient one-button touch system that allows you to flip the second-row seat forward, creating a spacious and accessible area for kids to enter the vehicle easily. This feature is a welcome addition to the EV-9's already impressive list of amenities.

**Conclusion**

As we conclude our review of the Kia EV-9, it's clear that this electric vehicle has a lot to offer. From its comfortable seating and generous storage options to its advanced infotainment system and convenient features like the second-row seat flipper, the EV-9 is well worth considering for those in the market for an eco-friendly ride.

Check back with us at Consumer Reports for our full road test results and comprehensive evaluation of the Kia EV-9.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the early review of the 2024 Kia ev9 SUV so the Kia ev9 is an allnew first generation electric three row SUV we bought the wind trim it's also the least expensive version that you can get with all-wheel drive the wind trim is the one that we feel most people are going to buy and also speaking the Kia they expect that that's going to be the most popular version overall our ev9 wind with the long range battery it came with dual sunroofs heated and ventilated power adjustable front seats heated steering wheel Wireless Android auto and apple carplay capability and hands-free power operated rear liftgate we only have one option on it carpeted floor mats for $225 and the total cost including the $1,495 destination charge was $65,625 width height the numbers are almost identical between the two SUVs but the key difference is in wheelbase the key ev9 is 8 in longer and that translates into a lot more interior room particularly in the second row but all that aside it's an EV and the things you're going to want to know charging speed battery size and driving range R SUV comes with a 99.8 KW lithium ion battery which drives two Motors that gives it all-wheel drive and those two Motors combined to make 379 horsepower so it can accept 350 KW DC fast charging that is if the public DC fast charger is working according to the EPA the ev9 wind is rated at 280 Mi of range it'll take 14 and a half hours on a 240 volt level two charger to replenish the battery from empty and of course like every EV we test we're going to be putting the ev9 through our exclusive 70 mph Highway range test and those findings will be part of our final road tests on consumerreports.org so far as we're putting on our 2,000 break-in miles we found that it has pretty decent handling for a 3ow SUV but you're always aware of its weight it's 5,715 lb that's 1,400 lb heavier than the tellure ride it'll be interesting to see how it performs in our driving evaluations particular our emergency handling test so while the EV 9's blocky exterior style is unique the interior has its own special touches as well like every new vehicle almost it's dominated by a giant screen in reality it's two 12.3 in screens buttered up next to each other there's the gauge cluster for the driver but everything else climate controls media mapping Etc are all handled by the center screen it's got some big tiles here you could slide back and forth and make choices gone to the days of all the little icons all over the screen now you have defined sections underneath that you have touch sensitive controls or capacitive touch they give a little bit of feedback when you press it but still it's not the same as a real hard button it also gets a little bit annoying when you're using the touchcreen because once you rest your hand here you might end up changing the screen to something else or typing something in and you rest your hand all of a sudden you activate media or you're typing your hand put your hand here and you're going to activate the map so really not great however it does get a little better beneath that because there are some hard controls for example audio volume temperature controls fan speed the different mode for example for your air flow while having physical buttons for the climate control are nice most of the functions are actually handled through the infotainment screen and that's a problem because they're totally blocked by your hand when it's on the steering wheel or the steering wheel Rim itself you have to press a little plus button for it to shoot out where you you could do some adjustments such as selecting the rear or the front auto driver only Etc but still defroster rear defroster recirculate air conditioning it's all in this area that's blocked from your vision and makes it much more difficult to operate while you're driving dropping down is the other kind of annoying thing about the interior is that the gear selector is here kind of hidden on the steering wheel it's also where the start button is instead of being on the dash or just being an EV where you get it and go the start button's hidden over here and you then use the twist knob to select drive your reverse neutral and park better than some of the other weird ones that are out there but it still is awkwardly placed so a couple other controls the heated steering wheel and the heated and ventilated seat buttons are now on the door and no longer on the dash or center console that's uh gotten a little bit of griping from some of our testers mainly because it's new it's just very different for Hyundai and Kia so kind of in your everyday use things there's this giant bin down here where you can throw a bag a wallet phone whatever you want but it is kind of loose and open and exposed unfortunately the only real hovered area for storage aside from the glove box is this tiny little space that's under the center armrest so look the key thing with any vehicle is you're always going to be sitting in the driver's seat at the minimum so you want something comfortable so far I found them to be pretty supportive good bottom cushion good bolstering on the side I particularly like these head restraints they're kind of like an office chair with the mesh there but unlike most Vehicles which have a very heavy hard thick pad back there for head restraint these are a little soft so they make it kind of comfortable to rest your head against instead of making it like you know you're sleeping on a rock hard pillow at a cheap hotel so the second row seat is downright gigantic in a regular push back position there's a ton of leg room I had three kids backpacks winter coats all the comments were this seat is huge you can also slide it forward if you need to so that you can give more room to the third row occupant plus probably the best thing is that Kia and Hyundai have started adopting this one button Touch system to flip the seat forward so a kid can come up and press this bottom button the seat flips up and they can get right into the third row seat so that's our early review of the Kia ev9 check back for our full road test results at consumerreports.orgthis is the early review of the 2024 Kia ev9 SUV so the Kia ev9 is an allnew first generation electric three row SUV we bought the wind trim it's also the least expensive version that you can get with all-wheel drive the wind trim is the one that we feel most people are going to buy and also speaking the Kia they expect that that's going to be the most popular version overall our ev9 wind with the long range battery it came with dual sunroofs heated and ventilated power adjustable front seats heated steering wheel Wireless Android auto and apple carplay capability and hands-free power operated rear liftgate we only have one option on it carpeted floor mats for $225 and the total cost including the $1,495 destination charge was $65,625 width height the numbers are almost identical between the two SUVs but the key difference is in wheelbase the key ev9 is 8 in longer and that translates into a lot more interior room particularly in the second row but all that aside it's an EV and the things you're going to want to know charging speed battery size and driving range R SUV comes with a 99.8 KW lithium ion battery which drives two Motors that gives it all-wheel drive and those two Motors combined to make 379 horsepower so it can accept 350 KW DC fast charging that is if the public DC fast charger is working according to the EPA the ev9 wind is rated at 280 Mi of range it'll take 14 and a half hours on a 240 volt level two charger to replenish the battery from empty and of course like every EV we test we're going to be putting the ev9 through our exclusive 70 mph Highway range test and those findings will be part of our final road tests on consumerreports.org so far as we're putting on our 2,000 break-in miles we found that it has pretty decent handling for a 3ow SUV but you're always aware of its weight it's 5,715 lb that's 1,400 lb heavier than the tellure ride it'll be interesting to see how it performs in our driving evaluations particular our emergency handling test so while the EV 9's blocky exterior style is unique the interior has its own special touches as well like every new vehicle almost it's dominated by a giant screen in reality it's two 12.3 in screens buttered up next to each other there's the gauge cluster for the driver but everything else climate controls media mapping Etc are all handled by the center screen it's got some big tiles here you could slide back and forth and make choices gone to the days of all the little icons all over the screen now you have defined sections underneath that you have touch sensitive controls or capacitive touch they give a little bit of feedback when you press it but still it's not the same as a real hard button it also gets a little bit annoying when you're using the touchcreen because once you rest your hand here you might end up changing the screen to something else or typing something in and you rest your hand all of a sudden you activate media or you're typing your hand put your hand here and you're going to activate the map so really not great however it does get a little better beneath that because there are some hard controls for example audio volume temperature controls fan speed the different mode for example for your air flow while having physical buttons for the climate control are nice most of the functions are actually handled through the infotainment screen and that's a problem because they're totally blocked by your hand when it's on the steering wheel or the steering wheel Rim itself you have to press a little plus button for it to shoot out where you you could do some adjustments such as selecting the rear or the front auto driver only Etc but still defroster rear defroster recirculate air conditioning it's all in this area that's blocked from your vision and makes it much more difficult to operate while you're driving dropping down is the other kind of annoying thing about the interior is that the gear selector is here kind of hidden on the steering wheel it's also where the start button is instead of being on the dash or just being an EV where you get it and go the start button's hidden over here and you then use the twist knob to select drive your reverse neutral and park better than some of the other weird ones that are out there but it still is awkwardly placed so a couple other controls the heated steering wheel and the heated and ventilated seat buttons are now on the door and no longer on the dash or center console that's uh gotten a little bit of griping from some of our testers mainly because it's new it's just very different for Hyundai and Kia so kind of in your everyday use things there's this giant bin down here where you can throw a bag a wallet phone whatever you want but it is kind of loose and open and exposed unfortunately the only real hovered area for storage aside from the glove box is this tiny little space that's under the center armrest so look the key thing with any vehicle is you're always going to be sitting in the driver's seat at the minimum so you want something comfortable so far I found them to be pretty supportive good bottom cushion good bolstering on the side I particularly like these head restraints they're kind of like an office chair with the mesh there but unlike most Vehicles which have a very heavy hard thick pad back there for head restraint these are a little soft so they make it kind of comfortable to rest your head against instead of making it like you know you're sleeping on a rock hard pillow at a cheap hotel so the second row seat is downright gigantic in a regular push back position there's a ton of leg room I had three kids backpacks winter coats all the comments were this seat is huge you can also slide it forward if you need to so that you can give more room to the third row occupant plus probably the best thing is that Kia and Hyundai have started adopting this one button Touch system to flip the seat forward so a kid can come up and press this bottom button the seat flips up and they can get right into the third row seat so that's our early review of the Kia ev9 check back for our full road test results at consumerreports.orgthis is the early review of the 2024 Kia ev9 SUV so the Kia ev9 is an allnew first generation electric three row SUV we bought the wind trim it's also the least expensive version that you can get with all-wheel drive the wind trim is the one that we feel most people are going to buy and also speaking the Kia they expect that that's going to be the most popular version overall our ev9 wind with the long range battery it came with dual sunroofs heated and ventilated power adjustable front seats heated steering wheel Wireless Android auto and apple carplay capability and hands-free power operated rear liftgate we only have one option on it carpeted floor mats for $225 and the total cost including the $1,495 destination charge was $65,625 width height the numbers are almost identical between the two SUVs but the key difference is in wheelbase the key ev9 is 8 in longer and that translates into a lot more interior room particularly in the second row but all that aside it's an EV and the things you're going to want to know charging speed battery size and driving range R SUV comes with a 99.8 KW lithium ion battery which drives two Motors that gives it all-wheel drive and those two Motors combined to make 379 horsepower so it can accept 350 KW DC fast charging that is if the public DC fast charger is working according to the EPA the ev9 wind is rated at 280 Mi of range it'll take 14 and a half hours on a 240 volt level two charger to replenish the battery from empty and of course like every EV we test we're going to be putting the ev9 through our exclusive 70 mph Highway range test and those findings will be part of our final road tests on consumerreports.org so far as we're putting on our 2,000 break-in miles we found that it has pretty decent handling for a 3ow SUV but you're always aware of its weight it's 5,715 lb that's 1,400 lb heavier than the tellure ride it'll be interesting to see how it performs in our driving evaluations particular our emergency handling test so while the EV 9's blocky exterior style is unique the interior has its own special touches as well like every new vehicle almost it's dominated by a giant screen in reality it's two 12.3 in screens buttered up next to each other there's the gauge cluster for the driver but everything else climate controls media mapping Etc are all handled by the center screen it's got some big tiles here you could slide back and forth and make choices gone to the days of all the little icons all over the screen now you have defined sections underneath that you have touch sensitive controls or capacitive touch they give a little bit of feedback when you press it but still it's not the same as a real hard button it also gets a little bit annoying when you're using the touchcreen because once you rest your hand here you might end up changing the screen to something else or typing something in and you rest your hand all of a sudden you activate media or you're typing your hand put your hand here and you're going to activate the map so really not great however it does get a little better beneath that because there are some hard controls for example audio volume temperature controls fan speed the different mode for example for your air flow while having physical buttons for the climate control are nice most of the functions are actually handled through the infotainment screen and that's a problem because they're totally blocked by your hand when it's on the steering wheel or the steering wheel Rim itself you have to press a little plus button for it to shoot out where you you could do some adjustments such as selecting the rear or the front auto driver only Etc but still defroster rear defroster recirculate air conditioning it's all in this area that's blocked from your vision and makes it much more difficult to operate while you're driving dropping down is the other kind of annoying thing about the interior is that the gear selector is here kind of hidden on the steering wheel it's also where the start button is instead of being on the dash or just being an EV where you get it and go the start button's hidden over here and you then use the twist knob to select drive your reverse neutral and park better than some of the other weird ones that are out there but it still is awkwardly placed so a couple other controls the heated steering wheel and the heated and ventilated seat buttons are now on the door and no longer on the dash or center console that's uh gotten a little bit of griping from some of our testers mainly because it's new it's just very different for Hyundai and Kia so kind of in your everyday use things there's this giant bin down here where you can throw a bag a wallet phone whatever you want but it is kind of loose and open and exposed unfortunately the only real hovered area for storage aside from the glove box is this tiny little space that's under the center armrest so look the key thing with any vehicle is you're always going to be sitting in the driver's seat at the minimum so you want something comfortable so far I found them to be pretty supportive good bottom cushion good bolstering on the side I particularly like these head restraints they're kind of like an office chair with the mesh there but unlike most Vehicles which have a very heavy hard thick pad back there for head restraint these are a little soft so they make it kind of comfortable to rest your head against instead of making it like you know you're sleeping on a rock hard pillow at a cheap hotel so the second row seat is downright gigantic in a regular push back position there's a ton of leg room I had three kids backpacks winter coats all the comments were this seat is huge you can also slide it forward if you need to so that you can give more room to the third row occupant plus probably the best thing is that Kia and Hyundai have started adopting this one button Touch system to flip the seat forward so a kid can come up and press this bottom button the seat flips up and they can get right into the third row seat so that's our early review of the Kia ev9 check back for our full road test results at consumerreports.org\n"