Kia is following up its smash hit EV6 electric crossover with the EV9 SUV and has just dropped a series of pics showing it working out ahead of next year’s launch. The Korean automaker previewed the three-row SUV with the Concept EV9 at the 2021 Automobility LA show in Los Angeles last year, but is now gearing up for the production version’s global debut in the first quarter of 2023.
And the great news is the SUV we’ll be
able to buy looks almost indistinguishable from the show car. Yes, there are
detail differences like visible (but flush-fit) door handles on the working
prototype, and the rear doors open conventionally rather than being hinged at
the back. But the overall shape, the boxy arches, the AMC Gremlin-style rear
window kink, and even the grille and headlamp arrangement appears to have been
carried over mostly unchanged.
We don’t get to see the rear of the
prototype, but given how similar the rest of the development car looks to the
prototype, we’ve no reason to think Kia will disappoint us. The Automobility LA
car did also feature camera-based door mirrors, while the prototype has
conventional mirrors, but the show car’s tech could well be fitted, or offered
as an option, on higher trim levels.
These images show a prototype vehicle
undergoing testing at Kia’s global Namyang R&D center in Korea, where it’s
being subjected to hill-climbing trials and high- and low-speed handling tests
on dry and low grip surfaces, plus the dreaded Belgian pavé cobbled road
surfaces that make even the tightest of cars feel like a baggy old Camaro. It’s
interesting to note that Kia doesn’t mention wading performance though. Kia
does say that the EV9 has also been testing in other locations around the
world, something we know because we’ve already spotted a prototype being put
through its paces near Germany’s Nürburgring. But that development car’s fairly
heavy disguise means these official Kia images give us a much clearer view of
what the final car will look like when it lands in showrooms next spring.
If the production car’s measurements match
those of the concept it will be around 4.93 m long, making it
slightly shorter than the current Kia Telluride overall, but riding on a longer 3.1 m wheelbase. The concept promised up to 482 km on a
full charge and could replenish its battery from 10 to 80 percent in 30
minutes. Kia plans to offer the EV9 in North America, Asia and Europe, but is
likely to build the SUV and other EVs at a new electric vehicle plant in
Georgia. If it builds the EV9 in Korea, buyers in the U.S. won’t be eligible
for tax credits, which now require vehicles to be made in North America to be
eligible for federal incentives.
