The arrival of the 2024 Kia EV9 is just around the corner, and the automaker’s announced a starting price of $54,900 (excluding an unspecified freight charge). Given the Kia Telluride’s $1,365 freight charge, don’t be surprised if pricing clocks in just north of $56,000 for the base model. That doesn’t sound terrible for an all-electric three-row crossover, but it’s worth keeping in mind exactly what that sort of money gets you.
The base EV9 Light trim features a single rear motor making 215 horsepower and 258 lb.-ft. of torque. While this rear-wheel-drive layout should be fine for those in warm climates, snowbelt dwellers might wish for all-wheel-drive. Oh, and if you want your EV to be quick, you’ll probably want all-wheel-drive, too.
While Kia hasn’t released a zero-to-60 mph time for the base trim, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that modest output and a curb weight of 5,093 pounds won’t break many necks.
The bigger caveat is how the 76.1 kWh battery pack in the base EV9 means Kia’s targeting a range of 223 miles. For urbanites without access to home charging, frequent road-trippers, and anyone who’s been given an exorbitant quote to upgrade from a 100-amp service panel, that sort of range might fall just short of expectations. Oh, and this base model doesn’t get a heat pump, a great piece of equipment that can aid winter range due to being more efficient than PTC resistance cabin heating alone.
However, if you’re a feature-driven consumer, the base EV9 doesn’t seem like bad value. After all, it comes with a power liftgate, heated and ventilated front seats, wireless phone charging, automatic power windows in all four doors, a digital instrument cluster, and an auto-dimming rearview mirror. That’s a decent amount of kit, although it should also be expected on a vehicle priced in the mid-50s.
So, what if you aren’t quite happy with what the base EV9 Light trim has to offer? Well, I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait a little bit longer, as Kia claims that “pricing for the Light Long Range, Wind, Land and GT-Line will be announced later.” That’s a bit of a bummer, especially since with two different battery pack sizes and a litany of trim levels, the price walk from the cheapest EV9 to the most expensive model likely won’t be what anyone would call small.
However, there’s always a price to being first, and the EV9 is the first large three-row electric non-luxury crossover on the market. Plus, once production starts up in Georgia, the EV9 should qualify for IRA tax rebates, so that should ease some of the cost pains. Either way, I wouldn’t let this base price dissuade you from an EV9. After all, Kia still needs to show all its cards.
(Photo credits: Kia)
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“Oh, and this base model doesn’t get a heat pump, a great piece of equipment that can aid winter range due to being more efficient than PTC resistance cabin heating alone.”
Come on Hyundai! Is it THAT hard to run the A\C in reverse?
I found out the hardway, owning a kia, even a nice one, is still owning a kia.
That means, shit dealer, shit service department and a pain in the ass to do almost anything. Even after selling the car, getting a refund on the extended warranty took multiple phone calls and emails to the dealer to get a response. We will see if I actually get the money back.
I will not buy a kia again, or any of their sister brand either.
This at $60k seems to be more relevant than a lot of other EVs. People buy $50-60k 3-row crossovers, even with Kia badges. Seems like this may even be an easier sell than a $40k+ sedan or hatch with Kia badges, like the EV6, and I actually see a good number of those in my area. And I doubt anyone’s fooled by the wink-wink-nudge “it’s a crossover” of the EV6.
Whether or not we would buy it (I wouldn’t either), people are increasingly open to an EV as their primary vehicle, and for a lot of people a medium/large crossover is that primary vehicle.
It is a no sale in the midwest, Rear wheel drive in a still rather portly vehicle that has crap range in the optimistic “posted” numbers, while very likely getting half that at best in the winter is a big issue.
Sure, but that’s not really exclusive to the EV9 is it? Many ICE crossovers are optional AWD, which is coming for this; other electrics are RWD standard with optional AWD and have the same winter range concern.
except most ICE crossovers these days are FWD first. FWD is not the best for winter driving, but it seems a little better for less competent winter drivers.
That is a big deal for most drivers these days. I grew up on RWD and V8’s, so I am aware of the ways to make RWD work in the winter, but so few do these days and the Electric drivetrain does not exactly work the same way a neutral option in an automatic or manual does so some one could get in trouble pretty fast I fear.
Right, but again, AWD is coming, this isn’t the only version. I don’t think Kia is facepalming realizing they forgot cold weather areas exist. I expect the model mix in AWD vs. 2WD for any crossover that offers both more heavily favors AWD, and I’d also expect Kia expects that to be the case here once the full lineup is out. I don’t think the base model being RWD is going to be a turnoff for buyers, as AWD has typically been an option not a standard, and an EV buyer is probably more likely to have researched before going on a lot to know what they want.
With Hyundai testing their new external combustion engine inside people’s garages, does it come with a fire extinguisher?
I’d think the 360km range for most people who can drop that cash on a car is sufficient, at least in Aussie… Most would have a solar setup, prob at least one WFH day, and a commute less than 50km round trip.
That power and torque isn’t miles off what the 2.2l diesel or the V6 is doing in their current range. I’m sure in real driving this would feel zippier than either of those options. Which is perfectly acceptable for a nicely appointed appliance car.
215 hp in a 5600 lb (loaded with 2 typical American adults and some baggage) vehicle is, er, not much. That EV torque will help out off the line.
People will snap these up since it’s an electric Telluride. Those have been a smash hit for Kia.
At least for me, the real selling point for the telluride was the simple and reliable 3.8 NA V6 while everyone else was eating the 2.0L 4 pot turbo cookies and looking the other way when the turbos failed or the number 2 and/or 3 cylinders started drinking Coolant…until they could not any more and just died.
“automatic power windows in all four doors”
Be still my heart.
Do each of them get their own button, or do you need to use some sort of magic wand thing to operate them?
There’s a single unlit capacitive button for the windows, sunroof, heat, and mirror adjustments. You have to input the konami code to actuate the windows.
“…qualify for IRA tax rebates…”
So I should tap-into the IRS for my retirement?
You’ll just end up in the troubles.
I dunno, but definitely don’t file your tax return with the Inflation Reduction Act 😉
This looks like a cyberpunk version of the Kia soul.
I was really starting to worry that we didn’t have enough $60,000 electric crossovers. I feel much better now.
Spending around $60K on an all electric crossover doesn’t correlate with KIA, in my opinion.
“the EV9 is the first large three-row electric non-luxury crossover on the market”
According to the article it’s still a KIA /s
Yeah, as an old, the calibration of my cerebral cortex is never going to be good with an average car costing that amount of scratch. I’ll just buy old crap and fix it. This has nothing to with my bank account, and everything to do with corporate rape in modern North America.
IDK, I consulted with my friend Global Warming, and we’re only 3 more 60k crossovers away from getting the whole Ross Ice Shelf back together.
Kia/ Hyundai have turned into the Netflix True Crime of cars. Every week there’s a whole new series, and I have no idea which one is which anymore.
I love how many features/gimmicks they throw at you to distract you from the crap range you get on many EVs. Great! It’s got a power lift gate, heated seats, a gimmicky light show sequence when you hit the “unlock” button on your fob! How about confidence that you’ll actually get where you’re going no matter the temperature or what you’re hauling/towing? For the people who are locked and loaded with “well, the average person only NEEDS x miles”, save it. If people are buying something this big and pricey, there is a very good chance it’ll be their main (or only) vehicle, so I don’t blame them for wanting to cover all bases including less-frequent activities. This is very nice, but I’ll stick with gas or PHEV for the time-being.
Are those gimmicks? Heated seats and a power liftgate aren’t exactly exotic features in the $60k end of the market. Hell they’re barely exotic for half that price.
Whether or not this car makes sense for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense for a lot of people. Hell it doesn’t make sense for me – if kids are formed in my relationship it’ll be a pretty dramatic medical anomaly, so there’s no way this would find its way into my parking spot. But it will make sense for plenty of people.
Your list are all features that are on ICE cars as well. I don’t think this is a very coherent thought
You do know that the fuel economy in a gas powered car is also affected by temperature and towing as well right?
The difference is heat. An ICE is basically a heater that happens to put out mechanical energy whereas an electric motor and battery put out less heat. That ICE waste heat is much more useful in winter as cabin and battery heat and yet another reason I think PHEVs are the way to go.
Why does it come with pre-clamped wheels?
It’s assumed owners are going to end up having to park it in an inappropriate place at some point.
OK, the low poly 3d model looks alright, lets see the finished render.
You don’t NEED to update your 100amp service for an EV that you plan to charge at home. You do need to do a full assessment of your usage and capacity and make sure your charger fits with capacity and adheres to local building and electrical requirements.
I have my Model3 charging at 40 amps on a 100amp service (IIRC, the home charger can be configured to use up to 48 amps). We had ample excess capacity after the assessment was done. We will need to update if we add a second EV however.
Before we upgraded our panel, all charging happened between 11pm and 6am. That’s when home AC usage was lowest and we wouldn’t be using other electric appliances. There is also a big drop in off peak electric rates.
I’m amazed we didn’t trip the main breaker the few times we charged in the middle of a hot day. We must have gotten lucky by not running anything like the clothes dryer or oven.
Right on. Our 1974-built house had a 100 amp panel (and aluminum wiring!) and we wanted to get our 40-amp ChargePoint charger installed (on a 50-amp GFCI breaker). The first electrician insisted on a 200-amp upgrade and quoted us $13,000 for the complete job (including some wiring to a shed and some other stuff). We had a second electrician come take a look and he said we didn’t have to upgrade the panel. He had us change all our lightbulbs to LEDs, consolidated a few lightly-used 20-amp circuits and it was no problem at all. We charged whenever we felt like it, but mostly in the 9 AM – 1 PM range.
For setups like yours, a ConnectDER may be a good option, especially if you add another EV. It goes between the meter and the feed lines for the main electrical panel. It’s a way of adding capacity (assuming the utility feed lines can handle it) without a panel upgrade.
“Our 1974-built house had a 100 amp panel (and aluminum wiring!)”
You have my sympathy. Words cannot express my loathing of residential aluminum wiring.
It was actually fine, although it freaked people out when we told them. As long as you use ALOX wherever you tie the aluminum wiring to copper, it won’t cause any problems. I was just too much of a cheap bastard to replace it. 😀
Aluminum needs a gauge up to carry the same amount of power. Its also stiffer. As such its much harder to bend and twist than copper.
It also is more prone to oxidizing than copper so any where the metal is exposed can become brittle and crack. I found this out the hard way when replacing 40 yo ceiling fixtures. The wiring insulation had micro cracks and the wire beneath had corroded to the point of breakage.
thing is the level 2’s at 40Amps requires 12 hours or more to charge a vehicle fully. and at least in our area the Electric company has imposed a rate hike between 4PM and 8PM to specifically charge more for EV’s being plugged in during those hours. I guess hope we don’t forget to head out and plug in in our PJ’s. It makes a little sense to basically trickle charge at night, but a continuous 40AMPs on a 100Amp box is kind of pushing it. if you add up al of your fuses they generally are 2 times the box rating as they assume you will never run everything at once. but a Dryer running as you go to bed could quite easily put a 100 A service to the bring if the car is pulling it’s full 40.
Only a Hummer EV would ever need that long on a 40 amp level 2 charger in practice. 40A x 240V x 95% charging efficiency = 9.12 kW, so 12 hrs at 9.12 kW is 109.44 kWH. Most current EVs have an ~80 kWH battery or less, and folks that have home charging will rarely need to charge more than 50% of that capacity at a time. 12 hours of charging time per day on a 40A level 2 charger is more than enough time to keep *2* typical EVs charged for most commuter’s use cases. Yes there are exceptions, but your 12 hour figure just is not realistic.
Source: We keep a mach-e that sees 50+ miles per day fully charged on a 40A level 2 home charger for about 4 hours every other day, or less.
I can tell you from experience using a Ford Built 48 Amp level 2 ford charger set to 40A for circuit protections, the 300 mile lighting Work truck takes 10-12 hours if into the 10% or less range.
Yep, that’s a 131 kWH battery, so 90% is 117.9 kWH. Also charging slows dramatically after 90% or so, even on a 40A level 2 charger, so even an 80% charge (10%-90%) is still 104.8 kWH.
Anyway, I stick to my statements above, yours is one of the exceptions. The vast majority of EVs have much smaller batteries and don’t use most of their range every day.
A lot of it has to do with the Inverter. the charge is only as fast as it converts AC to DC for level 1 and 2 charging. This is why most if not all level 3 stations often are DC Direct. No inverter to deal with when transferring electrons.
Huh… my charge time is WAY less than that. At 40 amps, I start charging at 2am when it’s cheapest and it’s normally finished before it’s time to leave for work. I only charge to 80% though… which keeps the Model3 in it’s happy place for charging.
You can’t set your EV and/or charger to automatically draw during off peak times? If you can you should be able to time your car to charge just after the dryer shuts off.
that would be ideal. but I am not really sure the systems are smart enough to do that are they?
Delay start dryers do exist:
https://products.geappliances.com/appliance/gea-support-search-content?contentId=35645
This level 2 home charger has a delay function as well:
https://www.amazon.com/Siemens-VersiCharge-Level-2-Charging-Compatibility/dp/B07V5QM262?th=1
In addition some chargers (and probably dryers) are controlled by app via bluetooth or WiFi so those should be timable too.
And there’s this:
https://electrek.co/2020/09/04/neocharge-240v-smart-splitter/
This device makes sure the dryer and car don’t pull too much power simultaneously.
At least with rebates it will effectively start at around the 50k mark, which granted is still a LARGE amount of money, even more so when the Long Range AWD trim inevitably has a 67-70k MSRP, even with a 7500 tax credit, that’s a massively big ask for a large crossover that is bound to depreciate like a brick
Just what the world needs, another $60k crossover
Automaker try not to introduce a $60k Crossover EV challenge: impossible
This take (and the one directly above it) is so weird to me.
Automakers compete with each other in pretty well-defined market niches of size, features, and price all the time.
Medium to large crossovers are popular.
EV production and sales are highly incentivized.
$60K is more than I’d personally pay for such a vehicle, but it hardly seems out of line compared to the market as a whole.
Yeah but they’re boring.
So are $100k EV sedans. Those are like the 2 genres of EVs that are actively being released.
The Niro EV isn’t $60k.
Looks like the Mach-E Mach starts at well under too.
I’m not going to spend my entire afternoon looking at crossover EVs.
Those two don’t have three rows, but I don’t think anyone else does either.
https://www.soundford.com/new-inventory/index.htm?search=mach%20e&sortBy=internetPrice%20asc
The Niro is a SUBCOMPACT that starts at 40k.
But that’s not even my point, not everything has to be upmarket yet somehow it seems to be impossible to release something that isn’t upmarket. Plus with the current crop of EVs everything is just the same car with different styling. *yawn*
Those are all mid-range models.
And you’re moving the goalposts here. The Niro is a compact CUV, but it is a CUV. And it’s a pretty decent one, all things considered.
Those were all that the first dealer I looked at had in stock/on order. That link is sorted low to high.
I wasn’t arguing that the Niro ev doesn’t count as boring, I was arguing that being a $40k subcompact puts in the same category as a $60k 3 row.