I've had 3 x KIAs and they keep getting better and more expensive. My only issue is that the dealerships and the sales staff need to lift their game if they are going to be playing in this space!
A very interesting option for those with the coin, and I feel it’s within the ballpark for those leasing their cars for 3+ years, and I also feel in 3+ years time the car market will be more geared to electric cars rather than hybrid and petrol.
Another excellent review, Tom. Thankyou. This looks like an excellent package. Although large,it is well thought out and has everything a family would need.
When you tested the third row, the second row is moved forward by around 10 cm. It will be more straightforward if you adjusted the second row, show the legroom, keep it and tested the third row
This EV9 is going to storm the 6/7-seater electric market, as the others are so far behind releasing competitors at this price point - though it is, admittedly, expensive. Bravo Kia!
I have been looking at the XC90 B6 Dark and T8 recharge, q7 50TDI and x7 30d as options, but wanted to wait till this came out, it looks fantastic inside and out, but as I predicted, the range is just not good enough for highway driving, I was more hoping for 600kms Highway. What was concerning also was when you said the warranty was for 65% battery capacity. Who would want a 7 year old SUV that only can go under 300kms when hauling a big family and luggage plus a dog and trying to find a place to charge it? The mild hybrid diesels and PHEV looks like the better option in 2023 in our country right now until infrastructure is better but I’m predicting it’s going to be at least another 6-10 years away
@@techpappee yeah, not enough, if what Kia is forecasting with a potential loss of 35% range, I couldn’t imagine how frustrating it would be to have 230kms range on an old battery that’s no longer under warranty. What’s a battery cost to replace? Also what’s the “environmental impact” of discarding the old battery. If this car gives me 500kms range and in 7 years gives me 280kms, but a mild hybrid diesel costs $20K less to begin with and gives you 1000kms+ on a tank for the life of the car, or XC90 PHEV which gives you 77kms range and then the petrol kicks in to give you 600kms and if you are away, with nowhere to charge, you just fill up and off you go again, the convenience is right up there
Actually, the greenest car is the one you already have. the car is made from petro chemical interiors, the metal fabricated using fossil fuel generators, the battery mined and is an enormous monstrosity given the limited resources we have (it’s battery could power 6 solar equipped houses).
@@twinrotorsthat's such a platitude of a nothing statement to make though. It's also based on outdated ideas from the early prius days. People will always need access to new cars as entropy exists and old ones become harder to maintain and less efficient over time until they simply die. Buying new cars is not an avoidable thing. May as well make the cars available to buy as green as possible so when people do get new cars, they're better. Given that EVs can pay off their manufacturing carbon"debt" within the first 6-12 months or so of driving depending on electricity sources, it seems a no brainer.
Thanks for the excellent review. I think Kia has offered the best it can with today's tech (applies to all other manufacturers). But unfortunately for the practical reason to have a large SUV, for the Aus environment such as the charging infrastructure is simply not enough. Why I will obtain an EV for fun, to get an EV for practical purposes, all large EV SUVs are not in my choice. (nothing to do with what brands they are).
Biggest let down no spare. Australia is a place where having no spare is a big mistake. After owning euro car with no spare, I’ll never buy another car with out at a minimum a space saver spare
Odd, base price in US is $54,900... That should be $86,307 aussie not $110. You're off by around 30k. You're quoting top spec, dual motor all bell and whistles model not base. He quoted top spec price, he never said it was base price
@@techpappee Sorry dude. you're wrong. Australian pricing for the BASE model is $97,000 plus on road taxes etc. That makes it about $110k ( ouch - for us Aussies)
@@Dreamer10888 Japanese / Korean cars have come so far since 1980s. Chinese cars will have have to prove their quality in the nearest future. If not, they will get knocked out. Luckily, they have EVs.
Plenty of ICE SUV weigh about the same, maybe you would buy an EV because you like the way they drive and how quiet they are, and how cheap they are to run, and how the embedded CO2 is paid back far quicker than any ICE vehicle, and plenty of other reasons.
Maybe there will be a PHEV in the next-gen Telluride, or maybe the EV9 will sell well enough to make Kia think that a regular hybrid and a full EV is enough
@@chasingcars I appreciate the response, would be keen to hear from budget direct on the insurance costs for such a large battery in the event of a minor / major bingle. I believe insurance premiums will be soon prohibitive.
@@twinrotors Plenty of 100K+ ICE vehicles get written off with what looks like not a lot of damage, so shouldn't bee much difference in premium, but yes it would be good to know the difference in policy say for the same driver and an equivalent vehicle to the one being reviewed, Tom should be able to add this easily to his reviews as Budget Direct are part of his channel, TOM ?.
My guess is is that people who normally buy KIA,s (like me, I have a Sorrento gt line) are going to say 100k on road for base model is too much and 130k for a top spec? those who can afford it are likely already buyers of European marques so it occupies a fairly rare place and will need to convince brand snobs of its value AND convince the friends of the owner at the private school drop off that’s it’s a worthy contender as well. I’m also not sure about the Star Wars storm trooper helmet look at the front, especially in white…. or I might be jealous I can’t afford one. Not sure yet.🤔
Disappointing Price. I was hoping it would be somewhere around a prado, but not to be. I’m clearly not in the market they are looking at, but considering how quickly Kia’s lose their value, it would in no way be worth it for me. I don’t know who would want to buy a GT line for over 140k.
I don't know, ask the Australian Mining industry that provided the materials. There is some murkiness with Chinese EVs but these are Korean with Korean battery makers who have contracts with our mining companies for resources.
Nice Tom, were you in Nice as well? Remember it competes against other EV's so the EX90 would be one or the EQV let's not look at Dinosaurs as competition. ;) Frunk in Mach-e is also pretty decent and the frunk is really best for charge cables anyway so even 25L is enough for that.
I was not in Nice. I'd say the difference is that the EX90 isn't even that close to starting deliveries yet … but Kia has managed to get their EV9 launched globally already.
@@chasingcars well it is in some parts of the world though. Initially as all the other reviews I'd seen of the EV9 were in France(Nice) so assumed you were there as well. Unfortunate not getting the rotating 2nd row seats as an option they look good although either rotating or recline not both.
so where are all the people that usually get on here and complain about the size and weight of certain vehicles on austrailian roads at least the yank tanks and large SUVs pay more road tax through the fuel excise but this 2.6 ton brick pays nothing but GST on the energy it consumes for the damage it will do to the roads not to mention all the environmental damage in south armerica thanks to lithium mining bet no one talks about that when they are acting virtuous about driving an electric car
Hey buddy the lithium is mined in Australia, the cobalt and nickel as well. Look I do hate SUVs even if they are electric, but if they were going to buy a huge SUV I'd prefer it was this one. Some people have a lot of children or Children + Dogs that don't fit in a smaller car. I consider the damage to the atmosphere not just CO2 but also air pollution and particulates to be a bigger problem than road damage.
@@narvuntien and you know for a fact that all the lithium and cobalt in those batteries comes from a single origin australia? typical EV lover palms off assumptions as facts. here's some for you most EVs never recover the CO2 debt they start with from extra materials and manufacturing processes over an equivalent ICE vehicle CO2 is a natural element in the environment and does not damage the atmosphere or ozone layer in any way not only that CO2 is an inert gas it physically can't react in the atmosphere being heavier then air it sinks to the ground over night and is absorbed by vegetation during the day here's a tip the plants couldn't care less where their food comes from your car my triton the 15L cummins powered truck that drove your dinner to the shops you right now are breathing out CO2 at a rate of around 40000PPM because humans are CARBON based life forms. carcinogenic particles from diesel engines are a massive problem DPFs do not remove them just burn them down in size to 2.5nm and under out of sight out of mind and the main reason there are millions of these shit heaps on the road is they were very heavily pushed for having 10/15% less CO2 per km on average then an equivalent petrol at the cost of human health it was later found. last one if you really cared about the environment you should care about damaged roads because of all the tyres and wheels sent to early graves from crap roads in my falcon i cracked 2 alloys shattered one and damaged 6/7 tyres traveling on damaged roads in regional NSW i'm not at all saying only EVs contribute to road degradation but they should be taxed accordingly for using the roads like everyone else
@@word1901 look if thousands of the world's climate experts can't convince you then I won't be able to in youtube comment. I checked Kia uses SK batteries which sources nickel and cobalt from Sconi Project in Queensland. It appears they do get lithium from South America but the company running that operation is Australian, (Lake Resources) using a new techniques. (A surprise since China gets lithium directly from Australia). Since it is a listed South Korean company tracking it's sourcing is pretty easy.
Its a technical tour de force, very impressive, but not really a fan of the exterior styling, and the price is breathtaking for a Kia. A Lexus TX would better suit me personally. Excellent review as always, Tom. 🇺🇸
niche car , won't sell well in a current financial climate,I reckon , But kudos to KIA to make this halo car along with EV9. If they would start with EV3,4& 5. that would make waaay more sense!
It's the cheapest one in the segment by a long way. And the only one by a mainstream automaker. Thousands of people tried to preorder in Canada , for an available 480 cars. I think kia will do fine on it.
This EV is clearly designed for the US market where Kia's ICE 3-row SUV counterpart, the Telluride, is wildly popular -- they sell 100K unit sales/year.
Ev5 is a great smaller version with bigger range. No 7 seats but way more affordable. Affordable EVs will start coming 2024 2025. More affordable/efficiënt batteries are key in this market
65% after 7 years? yeah I'd rather get the Lexus RX hybrid for 20k less and a powertrain that will last 3-4 times that, doing 800km+ throughout that lifetime and "5min recharges" at the pump
To be clear, it isn't a statement that the battery *will* have 65% of its capacity after seven years, it's a statement that you are guaranteed to be protected from having any less than that
This 100 kw/hour battery will save maybe about 40 tons of co2 of vehicle emissions per year compared to a diesel. A typical house can be powered by solar and a 20 kw/hour battery, saving 20 tons of co2 for an average Australian house. Which saves more tons of co2 per battery capacity of 100 kw/hour? Kia EV9 100 kw/hour battery = 40 Tons 5 x houses with 20 kw/hour batteries = 5 x 20 Tons = 100 Tons of co2 direct emissions. Investing in Solar and On Site Battery Storage for Australian homes would be more effective in combatting climate change. Thoughts?
I don't know about Australia, but in some markets this car supports V2H/V2G so you don't have to spend extra money on a battery as this car can help with balancing the grid or as a home battery overnight when there is no sun. So you can have your 20kWh household battery and still have enough power for ~330km of range in the car.
Here are some thoughts about this car based on a few reviews I've seen now. I have no doubt it is a well made car and has lots of tech. I'm sure it looks and feels luxurious. It's a Kia and it's over $100K for the base model. I get that it's fully electric and that adds to the cost but who ever thought we'd be asking people to plonk down that amount of money for a Kia. People who buy a Cerato or a Rio (do they still make them?) or a Picanto do so because they're affordable and for the price value for money. If you have $100K to spend you're probably not a Kia buyer. That said Kia may well be abandoning the "cheap and cheerful" end of the market (which is their right) we can be sure the Chinese brands will fill that vacancy. It is a car that weighs in at 2.6 tonnes - heavier than a Land Cruiser I believe. As a SUV its range seems somewhat limited for off roading although there would be a fair bit of regen braking. No spare wheel is surely a drawback for such a vehicle. I did some research and found that the average Australian household is 2.59 people (let's call it 3). Given that who needs a 7 seater and why? In my view the selling point for EVs at the moment is as the second vehicle; the one that allows people to do the daily park and ride, the school run, the shopping, take children to various after school activities and the gym and even at the end of the week still have charge. Plug such a car in overnight at a power point and it will be fully charged for the sports run on the weekend. The MG Excite seems ideal for such a role and is affordable although at $30K drive away they'd sell like hotcakes. I just wonder who at Kia headquarters thought that a small tank like this at $100K is going to be on the EVs buyers list. It is easy to be negative but I would have thought a 5 seater urban runabout was the niche where EVs will sell well. Despite what I've said they'll probably sell heaps.
A number of people have given the MG Excite a good review - no doubt in the back of their mind is the "you get what you pay for" as was the case for many years with Korean cars just like it was with Japanese cars before them. As I said in my comments despite my opinion the EV9 will probably sell all that are allocated to the Australian market. Thanks for reading and responding to my comments.@@VH-gw3qi
They and Hyundai have abandoned low end for a while. They are middle upper now. I dropped 60+K on a Hyundai a few years ago and was a little nervous. Best car I ever purchased by a long mile. This is very steep however. Getting a lot of interest from well to do postcodes
actulally EV9 is cheap in that price range. Because it have 100kwh batteries with NCM 811 and it's E-GMP which is the most advanced EV platform in the world.
Looks are subjective (GT line looks better). I don't like it much but internally I do. Square shapes are much better for these types of vehicles (hence why the Kia Carnival is better then an SUV if you use the 3rd row often). That price though....and the gamble you take on no other technology coming around and wiping a whole lot of value off electric cars is a worry (watch out for hydrogen).
I swear just the sheer overall boxyness shape reminds me of a ... KN Carnival Could its biggest detractor be internally and increased carny sales? anyway Mazda CX90 wants to enter the chat re : prem SUV
Has no effect on reducing CO2 emissions due to huge CO2 emissions during car and battery manufacture, so why make it KIA? Also the cobalt content in the batteries makes it TOXIC in a accidental fire scenario for firefighters.
@@JamesKnightSmith It has to do with the market. In the EU they have set the same 7 years and 150k km, but with a 70% limit for capacity. These conditions are used here for all electric vehicles, including those with smaller batteries that need more charging cycles to travel 150k km.
The Germans are going to be bringing out something better soon they are probably sitting on the technology. Great car but over priced for a Kia Do I like it? Yes Would I buy one? No I rather wait for the Germans to drop the new technology
@@tooltalk yeah I’m probably being a bit unfair. If only charged to 80% and taken care of that sounds about right. I guess the other issue is the depreciation and whether people will buy secondhand evs. There is currently no lithium recycling in Australia and could cause more problems if people are having to buy new cares more often
@@tooltalk More like the EVs that come out in the next 5-10 years will have far better range and technology, and manufacturers won't keep pushing updates to these increasingly digital cars, rendering them obsolete.
$120,000 and it has no spare tyre and can only do 409km….. no thanks…. That’s not capability and the engineers in the room need to call it out. Buy the Kia ICE equivalent and save 60k
Looks like a Range Rover where someone has stolen the grille and covered it with spare bits from the tip. Effing ugly and outrageously priced. I have not paid that amount of money for all the cars I have owned in 45 yrs of driving including 4 brand new cars. My current car will outlast me and it only cost $20,000. Diesels rule.
Nice review Tom. What would a battery replacement be on something like this? With EVs I can't help but compare the longevity of what happens when my mobile starts to age and the battery gives me the shits as it won't last a day and becomes painful to manage. To have over 100k in a vehicle and have those inconveniences that become constant headaches that you always have to manage would really be a punish. I'd hate to think of the resale value as well when it's only 6 or so years of age and battery performance is well on the decline.. Would anyone buy it knowing they're up for tens of thousands of dollars for a battery replacement within a few short years? I don't think so unless you took a MASSIVE hit on sale price.. For me , like our phones, it almost makes the car feel like a throw away and get a new one...
Kia uses SK On's most cutting edge NCM9+ high-energy batteries. These high-energy EV battery packs are really designed to last well over 10 yrs -15 yr unless you are an Uber/ride-share driver with over 100K miles/year.
EVs are not environmental friendly at all especially if you charge from the grid. As Aus are using natural gas and coal in their power plant. Emission of C02 of making a 1 ton of ICE car is generally the same as 1 ton of EV. Plus battery is toxic. Only if you charge it from Solar that the environment damage can be reduced. (not eliminated). Just my 2 cents.
Why the hate with Kia ? Tell me where you can get any 2023 to 2024 7 seater model EV at that size for less than 100k.............i wait. This Kia is a great design and great addition to the EV market. Kia is innovating and still most affordable among all the rest.
@@tooltalk Thats not true is it. Batteries will not get cheaper than it is now because of physical limitation of material availability like for example lithium and cobalt are very limited substance. They're not like iron. Which is widely available so if you look at the bigger picture EV's will not get any cheaper than they are now which is why some of the bigger brands like Porsche and Toyota are investing on other alternatives
