As angular as electric
After the Kia EV6 comes… the EV9! The Kia EV9 will be a hefty electric SUV, which has now been photographed again during test work. This time, the new electric Kia has a better look.
Rewind to 2019, the year in which both Kia and Hyundai presented a preview of a large electric SUV. Hyundai called its harbinger Seven, Kia put the Concept EV9 name on its electric behemoth. Although the two electric SUVs will operate more or less in the same segment, they will not be equal at all. Kia gave the Concept EV9 a strikingly angular body and for the production version of that car, the brand is sticking to the lines of the show car.
Kia Concept EV9
The Kia EV9 is perhaps best described as a Concept EV9 where the brand has removed the show glimmers. For example, with all its angular shapes, we see a chunky-looking SUV with apparently still extravagant lighting at the front and rear, but with conventional side mirrors. The Kia EV9 does get recessed handles in the body. By the way, don’t be fooled by the striking bumps on the hood, at the rear side windows and above the wheel arches. Kia’s testing department seems to have added blocks of Styrofoam to somewhat obscure the car’s final shapes.
This test sample of the Kia EV9 was photographed on and near the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, indicating that the electric SUV is definitely not in the early stages of development anymore. The Kia EV9 is about 4.90 to 4.95 meters long and gets at least three meters between its front and rear axle. That means that it is about ten centimeters larger than the Sorento, the largest SUV that the brand offers in Europe. Purely in terms of size, however, the EV9 has to tolerate the Telluride supplied in the United States and more than five meters long. Thanks to its dimensions, the EV9 can undoubtedly accommodate up to seven occupants, spread over three rows of seats in the plug-in SUV.
Kia Concept EV9
Under the Kia EV9 you will soon find a variant of the E-GMP platform known from the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6. Count on the arrival of various engine versions. On paper, the Kia Concept EV9 had to cover about 480 kilometers on a full charge. We therefore expect a comparable range from at least one of the engine versions.
We expect the Kia EV9 to hit the market around 2023. Many other electric models of the brand will follow. By 2027, the brand aims to have 14 EVs in its international portfolio. These are not only so-called dedicated EVs, but also models that are available with both combustion engines and electric powertrains. Think of the Niro.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl