Owning the Kia EV9: Still the Best Electric SUV? | One-Year Road Test and Review
RYAN GREGER: Other than
a couple luxury cars, usable electric three-row
SUVs pretty much didn’t exist until the
Kia EV9 came along. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is our Kia
EV9, the car we’ve had for the last 12 months as
part of our one-year road test fleet, which includes about
20 or so other vehicles too. In that time, tons of folks on
our staff have driven the EV9. It’s been everything
from a commuter, to a family hauler, and
everything in between. We’ve gotten to know
this car way better than we could have with just
a few hours at the dealership and a test drive. We’re going to tell
you everything. And there’s a lot
of good here, but we do have a few complaints too. And, of course, we’ll dive into
how much our maintenance costs were and what the car is worth
after a year and roughly 8,500 miles of driving. All right, let’s get into it. Most automakers don’t
put in a ton of effort when it comes to things
like headrest comfort. That’s not the case here. These mesh headrests are
absolutely wonderful. They’re like cushy little
hammocks for my head. It’s little bits of
extra effort like that really make this interior
feel special and luxurious. Kia really paid attention
to all the details in here and, honestly, they
nailed the execution. WILL KAUFMAN: You know those
little motors that control the seats and the windows? In the EV9, they
are almost silent. It’s little details
like that just add up and make the car feel
really well thought out. RYAN GREGER: We also like
that while, yes, the EV9 does have these big digital displays
up front, like many other EVs, you can still get a
lot done without taking your eyes off the road
because there’s plenty of physical controls around. Plus, again, unlike
many other EVs, the EV9 has standard Apple
CarPlay and Android Auto. The interior looks
great without any of that touchscreen-only
minimalist nonsense. It just works. CARRIE KIM: There
are so many details that are fun, that are
different than your regular car. This feels like
almost a living room. RYAN GREGER: And it feels
just as nice for passengers as it does for the driver. Materials in the back of the
car are just as top notch as they are up front. And there’s cupholders and
USB ports at every seat. Plus, it’s easy to
get into the third row thanks to this
one-touch mechanism. And there’s plenty
of space back there. RONALD MONTOYA:
One of the things I liked about the Kia EV9 is
that, even in the third row, you can fit people
that are pretty tall. I had a couple of 6-foot people
sit in the back for a short distance And they were
able to fit just fine. Even the headroom was good. And that’s not
something that you could do with a Tesla Model
Y or X because of the way the roof is shaped. RYAN GREGER: But, of
course, if you buy an EV9, you’re going to spend most of
your time behind the wheel. And, thankfully, that’s
a pretty great time, too, largely thanks to its
comfort and power. [MUSIC PLAYING] CARRIE KIM: As the daily
driver of a Subaru Ascent, the EV9 was a major upgrade. I was a little worried. It seemed big, but it
didn’t feel nearly as big when I was behind the wheel. It was very comfy. I felt very coddled on
my drive down the 405. RYAN GREGER: And there’s a
lot of great driving tech here that makes your life
just a bit easier. Kia makes a lot of great
stuff standard on the EV9 and especially on this
well equipped GT Line trim. Some of the features
really stood out. BRAIN WONG: The EV9’s 360-degree
surround view camera system is phenomenal. It’s big, high
resolution picture takes up the whole screen. And I love that it has a
dedicated camera button. That’s a feature
that I use often because you want to
see what’s around you, not only when you’re
going in reverse. I also really enjoy Kia’s
blind spot monitor system in the instrument cluster. All this good tech just
makes driving easier. RYAN GREGER: We were also
impressed by the adaptive cruise control and the system’s ability
to change lanes automatically. And you’ll be able to cover a
solid amount of ground here. As far as three-row electric
SUVs go, the EV9’s range is good and it has super fast
charging capabilities. WILL KAUFMAN: I took a road
trip in the EV9 with my family. And when the range
started running low, I found a charger near my hotel
and I spent about half an hour there, taking some
much needed alone time, to add back over 200 miles
of range to the vehicle. EV9’s fast charging really makes
a difference– half an hour I can get away for. If it had been an hour, it
would have been a real hassle. RYAN GREGER: On
the right charger, you can get from 10% to 80%
in less than 25 minutes, which is seriously impressive. One of our EV9’s hardest
challenges in the last year was a comparison test against
the excellent Rivian R1S. And the Kia came out on top. It’s not better at
everything, but the EV9 is so well-rounded and
likable that it’s easy for us to recommend. So easy to recommend,
in fact, that we gave it our top rated Best of
the Best award for 2024. And it’s still our top
rated electric SUV for 2025. There’s just so much to here–
style, space, tech, comfort, range, build
quality, you name it. So, yeah, the EV9
is pretty fantastic. But as great as it is, there’s
still some room for improvement. Come on now. Let’s keep it together. Keep us in our lane. It’s not that hard. Some of the driver
aids are great. The adaptive cruise control,
the auto lane change, the 360 camera, the
blind spot camera. Love them. Kia’s lane centering, however– eh, it’s just not very
good at handling curves and something about the tuning
just doesn’t quite feel right. It’s too aggressive. CLINT SIMONE: So the lane
keeping system in the EV9 is just not it. The problem is if it feels even
a slight nudge from your hand, the steering assistance
cuts out completely. But then, at the
same time, you have to have your hand on the
steering wheel for the system to be working to begin with. So sometimes it’s just so
touchy feely that I don’t even bother turning it on. RYAN GREGER: We had a couple
nitpicks with the tech and usability inside too. Like we said, the EV9
is mostly good here, but there are a few things
that you could shrug off in a test drive
that would certainly start to wear on you after
a full year of ownership– like these buttons. DUNCAN BRADY: It’s
cool how the buttons shine through the dash instead
of being a physical button. I like that. It’s very smooth,
very sleek, whatever. And it’s cool that they give
you some tactile feedback so the system lets you know
that it registered your input. But you have to be really
specific where you press. That’s annoying. And it’s in prime real estate. That’s where I like
to anchor my phone so I can make more accurate
touch inputs when I’m on the go. I hope they can fix this. RYAN GREGER: And that’s not the
only issue with these buttons. In direct sunlight,
they’re almost completely washed out, which
makes them really hard to use on a sunny day. We also came across a
couple of ergonomic issues, mainly that certain
frequently used controls can be weirdly hard to see. We’ve had a similar problem in
vehicles like the new Toyota Prius, where part
of the gauge cluster is blocked by the
steering wheel. But here in the
EV9, the problems start just about as soon
as you get into the car. NICK YEKIKIAN: I really don’t
like where the starter button is placed on the EV9. It’s on this little
stalk that juts out from the steering column. And every time I get in, I
have to either fumble around with the thing or
crane my neck to see where it is to start it up. Also, that little
climate control screen that’s in between the
instrument cluster and the infotainment screen
is completely useless. It’s also perfectly blocked
by the steering wheel. And you might as well
just press the button to bring up the controls
on the main display because the buttons are
too small to press anyway. RYAN GREGER: Some
of those controls you’ll get used to with some
more time behind the wheel, but that climate screen– that is still annoying
no matter what. Speaking of, many EV owners
or even friends of EV owners know or have heard about
how difficult and annoying public charging can be. Now, that’s no fault
of the EV9 itself, but it is a reality of
EV ownership right now. ANDY WHITE: EV9 is a
great electric SUV, as long as you can stay
relatively close to home. We took one just 90 minutes
out of town to Santa Barbara and quickly discovered
the realities of charging on anything but
the supercharger network– slow charge speeds, inability
to pair, error codes. And this is in the heart
of Southern California. If it’s not good here,
the infrastructure is not good anywhere. RYAN GREGER: Good news
is the Tesla Supercharger network has actually just
recently been opened up to all Kia EVs. And any buyers who
purchase their Kia EV after September 2024 will
get adapters for free. That’s huge. Tesla Superchargers are way
more common than other charging stations, like EVgo
or Electrify America, and they’re more reliable too. So hopefully that’ll make
charging a lot easier for folks that can’t do it at home. One of the major
benefits of EVs is that they have fewer
moving parts, which means there’s potential for
increased reliability and lower maintenance cost. So how’d this guy do? We’ve had no real
problems with our EV9. Now, granted, it’s only got
about 8,500 miles on it, which means there’s been fewer
chances for things to go wrong, especially compared to some
other vehicles in our fleet that have closer to 12,000
or 15,000 miles. Still, no error codes, no
unplanned dealer visits, no recalls– last year we owned
a Chevy Blazer EV for about the
same amount of miles and let’s just say things were
quite a bit more dramatic. CLINT SIMONE: We’ve had so
many problems with this car. RYAN GREGER: Our nitpicks
here still stand, but they’re much
easier to forget about in a car that’s never
given us any mechanical trouble. [MUSIC PLAYING] At over $75,000, our EV9
GT Line was, at the time, the most expensive
vehicle Kia had ever sold. That can be a hard number
to swallow, especially for a brand that built
its name on value. But, remember, you can easily
spend more money on something like a Chevy Tahoe that
has a similar amount of interior space. So was the Kia worth it? The short answer is
a resounding yes. The interior and overall
build quality are more than on par with the car’s
price point and it’s way, way better than something like
our older Tesla Model Y. Plus, the range and fast
charging speeds are more than competitive
with other electric SUVs, like the Rivian R1S. The comfort and noise levels are
also on par with other vehicles around $75,000. So, yeah, it’s worth the money. Even the $65,000 version
delivers a lot of what we like about the EV9, but we do think
the GT Line is worth ponying up the extra cash. As for what it’s worth now– when we brought it in to
a dealer for appraisal, they offered us $52,000. That’s really good. Sure, losing $25,000 in
a year never feels great, but that’s a much lower
depreciation than what we’ve seen from other EVs in
our one-year road test fleet. [MUSIC PLAYING] So what have we learned? We bought this EV9 because
it impressed us so much in our initial round of
testing that it won our highest honor, Top Rated award. That recognition is a
celebration of a great vehicle, but we’re just trying to help
regular people figure out what car to buy. So we wanted to put it
under even more scrutiny and see if it truly holds up and
still deserves our endorsement after a full year
of hard testing. And– WILL KAUFMAN: You get
three rows in an SUV that puts luxury SUVs from
just a few years ago to shame. It’s great. NICK YEKIKIAN: The EV9 is Top
Rated because of how spacious it is inside and its
super comfy ride. CARRIE KIM: It fits anyone. You can have a family, you
can be an active couple, you can be on your own and
you’ll enjoy the EV9 the same. BRAIN WONG: From its technology
to its highly functional interior, everything
is easy to use. CLINT SIMONE: The EV9,
really simply put, is still the best electric
three-row on sale today. The market is
starting to catch up. The alternatives are
getting closer and closer. But as of right
now, in this moment, that’s still the best one. WILL KAUFMAN: Kia
and Hyundai’s EV tech is some of the best in
the mainstream segment. And they put it in a package
that is useful for families and just feels nice. RYAN GREGER: I love this
thing and, honestly, I’m really going to miss it. What do you think? Are you in the market for a
three-row electric vehicle? Would you rather check out
Volkswagen’s electric van, the ID.Buzz. Tell us below in the comments. We read them all.
We spent an entire year living with the 2024 Kia EV9 GT-Line, using it as a daily driver, road tripper and family hauler. Now it’s time to tell you everything — the wins, the pain points, and whether it still deserves our highest honor: Edmunds Top Rated Best of the Best.
From interior comfort and charging speeds to tech quirks and depreciation, this long-term review dives deep into what it’s actually like to own one of the most important 3-row electric SUVs on the market.
✅ Real-world charging & range
✅ Ownership quirks that surfaced after 8,500 miles
✅ Reliability, resale value and maintenance costs
Whether you’re shopping for a family EV or just curious how the EV9 stacks up a year later — we’ve got you.
👍 Like what you see? Hit that subscribe button for more long-term reviews, first drives and EV comparisons.
💬 Got questions about the EV9? Or want to see it compared with the Volvo EX90, VW ID. Buzz, or Tesla Model X? Drop a comment — we read and reply to as many as we can!
📌 Chapters
00:00 – Intro & Why the EV9 Mattered
00:52 – What We Loved After a Year
03:30 – The EV9’s Driving Experience
04:52 – What Didn’t Hold Up
07:20 – Charging, Range & Road Trips
08:21 – Reliability & Maintenance
09:05 – Is the EV9 Worth $75K?
10:18 – Edmunds’ Take
#KiaEV9 #ElectricSUV #EV9Review #Edmunds #LongTermReview #EVComparison #TopRated #RivianR1S #TeslaModelX #3RowSUV #KiaElectric #EVShopping
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