The Kia EV9: Raising the Bar of EV Luxury
As electrification is beginning to make a noticeable impact on various vehicle segments in the country, the three-row mid-size SUV has seemed immune to noteworthy electric vehicle introductions. That is, until now.
Kia Philipines has just introduced the EV9 at the Philippine International Motor Show, and despite its eye-watering Php 5,888,000 price tag, top executives, loaded families, and distinguished individuals are gravitating towards the Korean flagship EV SUV.
Chances are, by the time you read this, most, if not all, of Kia Philippines’ initial shipment would have been snapped up by the well-heeled among us. There’s good reason for this – the Kia EV9 is an award-winning all-electric SUV that looks the part and delivers with flying colors on where it matters – design, technology, creature comforts, and performance.
Award-winning is an understatement
The global introduction of the Kia EV9 in early 2023 shook industry stalwarts with its head-turning, futuristic vibe. The electric SUV’s bold styling, impressive performance, and comprehensive amenities have earned it global accolades such as the highly coveted 2024 Red Dot Best of the Best Award, a Gold trophy at the International Design Excellence Awards 2024, and the 2024 iF Design Gold Award.
And it didn’t stop there. The EV9 also racked up two of the most prestigious car titles this year, as the prestigious World Car Awards named it the 2024 Electric Vehicle of the Year and the 2024 World Car of the Year. It is also this year’s UK Car of the Year and Car and Driver’s 2024 North American Utility Vehicle of the Year. But how good is it, really?
Seeing it in the flesh, especially at its reveal at the Philippine International Motor Show, can be a jaw-dropping experience. Its design alone is so different from traditional three-row SUVs. It is more organic while at the same time technical and avant-garde. It transcends the conventional three-box layout with a seemingly one-piece mold that caters to efficient aerodynamics.
Larger than life
For a five-meter-long, nearly two-meter-wide SUV, it certainly commands a unique presence when you see it in the metal. The front end retains the brand’s signature look. However, with the EV9, Kia calls it the Digital Tiger Face, which is basically the brand’s trademark mug, albeit without a grille.
The EV9 drives home the futuristic vibe by sporting LED Daytime Running Lights, which change configuration and add animation to the slab nose. Digital cameras are now where the side mirrors typically are, reducing drag. Door handles retract when the vehicle is in motion. And huge 21-inch wheels aerodynamically direct air to the sides, reducing turbulence that a not-so-small profile can generate.
And as out-of-this-world as the outside is, Kia made sure the interiors would just be as equally as striking. Inside, three rows of vegan leather-clad seats greet the EV9’s occupants. The first two rows are what Kia calls Premium Relaxation seats, and they come with power adjustments, seat cooling, and even a massage function for the second row. But because the Kia EV9 is an EV built on Kia’s Electric Global Modular Platform or E-GMP, it has an expansive 3,100 mm wheelbase that allows occupants to stretch their legs in supreme comfort, much like being in a Kia Carnival.
Like the newly launched Carnival, the EV9 has two integrated 12.3-inch displays—one serving as the digital instrument cluster and the other as the touchscreen infotainment system center. Small screens at the corner of the front doors display what the digital side mirrors capture from the outside. The rearview mirror toggles between optical and digital modes to show what’s behind the large SUV. Hidden haptic buttons tidy up the interiors, while suede accents complement the leather finish, hinting at the EV’s performance potential.
So imagine riding as a passenger in an EV9 in traffic, legs stretched out with your seats reclined, in comfort, cooled down by the Tri-Zone Automatic Climate Control, and with music softly playing through its 14-speaker Meridian Surround Sound system. Life doesn’t get better than this, we reckon. But it does!
Getting serious about electrification
The Kia EV9 is the brand’s flagship electric vehicle. Now, let that sink in for a moment since, apart from the EV6, Kia hasn’t introduced a new EV to the Philippines yet and has just launched internal combustion engine models such as the Sonet and the Carnival. And while the Kia EV6 started the Korean brand’s move towards honest-to-goodness battery electric vehicles in the Philippines last year, it is the EV9 that is elevating the game this time around by not only offering a staggering 700 Newton-meters of torque along with 384 PS of noise, vibration, and harshness-free power, it does so using two electric motors delivering power to all four wheels. If that wasn’t enough, the EV9 could rake in 350 kilowatts when charging. Now, if we had a 350 kW DC charger, the EV9’s 99.8 kWh battery could charge from 10% to 80% in just 24 minutes.
On paper, Kia says the EV9 handles unlike any typical gas or diesel-powered SUV. For one, with its battery pack mounted under the floor and all that weight hung low, the EV9 inherits the EV platform’s handling credentials, belying its size and heft. Second, there’s copious, unrelenting power. Combined with agile handling, the EV9 easily stands out among its SUV peers. Add a luxurious high-tech finish and all the creature comforts you’d expect from a large family van; it doesn’t matter now where you end up sitting inside the Kia EV9.
And if you add the slew of connectivity features, charging ports, vehicle-to-load plug points and the Kia Drivewise suite of advanced driver assistance features, one can really have a house on wheels with the EV9 wherever its owners might take it.
Despite being nearly six million pesos, driving around a hulk of an SUV like the Kia EV9 with its stylish looks, zero tailpipe emissions, and all the amenities one can expect at this price just doesn’t seem like a guilty pleasure anymore.
