REVEALED Wraps are off Kia's biggest, priciest EV

Range-topping EV offers six or seven seats, up to 336-mile range, and could cost more than £80k

- John Mcllroy

 

KIA has been stretching the limits of its years, with the most expensive Sorento to date and then the EV6, a pure-electric model that can break the £60,000 mark. But here's proof that the Korean brand isn't finished yet: this new flagship, the EV9, could well smash the £80,000 barrier.

The EV9 is designed to be the largest and most expensive zero-emissions vehicle in the Kia range. It's one of 14 new EVs that the company will launch globally over the next five years, and is the first of nine that will make it into UK showrooms. The new creation is an overtly upright, blocky SUV that's larger than the Sorento more in line, in fact, with the five metre-long Telluride that Kia sells in the United States. That means it's only very slightly shorter than the current Range Rover. It's conceived as a seven-seater, although it will also be available in a six-seat layout, complete with two individual centre-row seats.

The car was previewed by a concept at the Los Angeles Auto Show back in 2021 and the production model sticks pretty closely to that vehicle's lines.

The roof is a little lower, because the EV9 sits on slightly smaller 21-inch wheels, plus the concept's rear-hinged back doors have been replaced by more conventional items, and there's less ground clearance, courtesy of a proper floor that's now thick enough to contain the battery pack. But the overall profile of the finished production car looks remarkably similar. The front features a fresh interpretation of Kia's family grille, adapted for the greater height of this model compared with the EV6.