Overview
THIS is an enormous second for Kia Australia – figuratively and actually. The EV9 is the most important Kia mannequin ever offered in our market, and the most costly car ever to put on the Korean model’s badge right here.
The query of whether or not it lives as much as the value – ranging from $97,000+ORC and topping out at $121,000+ORC – is probably the most poignant consideration. It actually has the gear to assist justify the associated fee, and the tech’, battery capability and measurement to make it appear to be an honest return on funding.
Kia Australia says the EV9 has seen greater than 12,000 expressions of curiosity, together with a very good proportion of these being from ‘new postcodes for the model’, together with rich north-shore Sydney suburbs the place you’d extra sometimes discover Audi, BMW, Mercedes or Volvo SUVs parked.
The styling will definitely assist it make a press release on these fashion-conscious streets, although the decrease grade variations with their unfinished-looking plastics and oddly designed aerodynamic alloy wheel covers is probably not to all tastes. The high-grade GT-Line actually has probably the most presence, with shiny black exterior trims and 21-inch wheels.
The inside is nowhere close to as audacious as the outside, however nonetheless affords a complicated and opulent feeling, one with the family-friendly options you’d anticipate in a really giant SUV from a model that is aware of a factor or two about sensible autos.
The dual 12.3-inch screens (one for multimedia, the opposite for driver data’) are moderately simple to be taught, the storage on provide is phenomenal (bottle and cup holders for all three rows), everybody ought to be sorted for charging (USB-C ports in all three rows), and when you’ve got an enormous brood, there are 4 ISOFIX factors and 5 top-tether factors on provide.
There’s 333 litres of baggage capability with the third-row seats up, and that expands to 828 litres for those who plan to run this as a five-seater with a bonus row. There’s a pair of quick-release triggers for fast second-row folding, too, plus the boot has a vehicle-to-load (V2L) 230v energy level within the boot. There is no such thing as a spare wheel, which may very well be a problem.
Notice, although, that the V2L adapter for the principle Kind 2 mixture plug is just supplied on the GT-Line, so when you’ve got a blackout and must run your fridge and washer, you’d greatest be hoping you bought the top-spec.
As for powertrains, the bottom mannequin Air has a single rear-mounted electrical motor producing 160kW/350Nm, enabling it to do 0-100km/h in about 8.2 seconds. The Earth and GT-Line fashions add a front-mounted motor to the combo for all-wheel-drive propulsion, and a heap extra grunt – 282kW and 700Nm – and sprightly acceleration figures of 6.0sec for the Earth and 5.3sec for the GT-Line because of a software program tweak.
The battery pack measurement differs for the Air (76.1kWh lithium-ion NMC) in contrast with the dual-motor variations, which each pack a 99.8kWh setup.
Effectivity numbers are good for this very giant SUV (it’s greater than 5 metres lengthy, virtually two metres large, and weighs greater than 2.3 tonnes), but the official WLTP rated vitality consumption is nineteen.5kWh/100km for the Air RWD, 22.3kWh/100km for the Earth, and 22.8kWh/100km for the GT-Line. Vary claims are respectable, with the Air having a said WLTP vary of 443km, whereas the Earth mannequin boasts one of the best vary with 512km, and the GT-Line a commendable 505km.
Kia Australia has a seven-year/limitless kilometre guarantee for the automobile, however the battery guarantee is proscribed to 150,000km, and even then the model solely ensures it to retain 65 per cent of its life after that many kays. There may be roadside help included within the guarantee phrases, and servicing is a prepay-only setup – three years/45,000km ($706), 5 years/75,000km ($1351), or seven years/105,000km ($1997).
Driving impressions
The EV9 drives rather well – it’s a disgrace, although, that to truly benefit from the drive, you must flip off a couple of very annoying security programs which are overbearingly interruptive – and also you want to take action each single time you begin the automobile, if you would like them off.
Kia Australia clearly is aware of this, because the crew briefed us on these particular programs earlier than we drove the automobile.
The primary system in query is DAWS (Driver Consideration Warning System), a driver monitoring digital camera system that tracks your eyes to make sure you’re being attentive to the street forward. It is vitally delicate, and can begin beeping at you even for those who simply attempt to change the radio station or look over your shoulder to test on a rear-seat occupant.
The opposite is the badly named ISLA (Clever Pace Restrict Help), which isn’t clever in any respect. This one reads the velocity indicators that the digital camera sees and relays them to you by beeping. And for those who drive over the restrict, it is going to regularly beep. It’s now 3 decibels quieter than earlier than, nevertheless it’s nonetheless very annoying. Simply take into consideration having the automobile beep to let you know the velocity restrict has modified in your typical college drop-off run or work commute… it could drive you nuts. It will me, anyway.
All the vehicles on the launch occasion had the star ‘favorite’ button on the steering wheel configured to leap to the display menu the place these programs may very well be switched off – but it was nonetheless a collection of display presses to get them off from there, which means about 20 seconds of your time wasted every time you drive.
These two ‘security applied sciences’ are disruptive and actually get in the best way of an pleasing drive. And it’s saying one thing that the lane-keeping system doesn’t price as a lot of a point out right here, nevertheless it’s on the sting of being unlikeable, too.
Severely, it places a damper on what’s in any other case a tremendously nicely executed giant SUV drive expertise.
Kia’s Australian trip and dealing with crew described the EV9 as “probably the most difficult mission but”, being that it’s such a heavy car (from 2312kg within the base mannequin as much as 2636kg for the top-spec) – but the result’s large, with a much more full of life and agile feeling car than its bulk suggests it ought to be. It’s virtually Vary Rover-like in that regard.
The steering strikes a stability between urban-friendly, with a lightweight motion and fast response for parking strikes or roundabouts, and the suspension tune errs on the marginally agency facet, extra noticeably within the GT-Line with its bigger wheels and lower-profile tyres, however over the roads I examined the automobile on, it by no means felt too onerous, nor clumsy, as a car of this measurement may over sharper edges.
And the powertrains? Good. Even the bottom mannequin Air, with its rear-mounted motor and modest-for-its-size energy outputs, feels perky and punchy, and would possibly even be the choose for many who fancy themselves on the fanatic spectrum, because it has a delightfully pure driving character.
The GT-Line dual-motor mannequin is, you guessed it, significantly faster, with the all-wheel drive system serving to it really feel prefer it’s grabbing down on the floor beneath and pulling you in the direction of the horizon with a good bit extra power. It clearly possesses the additional advantage of higher loose- or wet-surface traction, too.
There’s a multi-mode regenerative braking system to mean you can have as a lot vitality feeding again into the battery pack as you’d like, and the brake pedal really feel is constructive.
This can be a nice drive – one which lives as much as the value being requested – dulled by annoying know-how.
