Last year, Kia unveiled one of the most distinctive concept cars to hit the auto show circuit in recent years. The EV9 concept was boxy and sharp in a deliberate, design-forward way that would make it stand out dramatically in a parking lot crowded with other midsize SUVs. We loved it, but we questioned whether its funky spirit would ever reach production.
Today, Kia took the wraps off a production vehicle that somehow managed to keep most of its one-of-a-kind character.
An Electric Telluride With Style
I flew to Seoul to see the Kia EV9 unveiled in a retired steel factory and talk to the designers behind its unique faceted look. Kia won’t say whether the EV9 will appear as a 2024 or 2025 model, but we’re betting on the former.
The EV9, if Kia times its market arrival right, will be the first electric 3-row SUV from a non-luxury automaker. Kia executives are not shy about calling it a new flagship for the brand.
Kia has seemed to be riding a wave of energy in the U.S. market over the past few years. The dramatic success of the Telluride 3-row SUV has spurred on the marque. In a business where car dealers try to keep at least 60 days’ worth of most models in stock, they’ve had trouble keeping a week’s worth of Tellurides, so intense is demand for the vehicle.
If I told you they were building an electric Telluride, you’d assume they’ll succeed. If I told you they were building a more visually interesting electric Telluride, many shoppers might buy it sight unseen. That’s the central concept designers seem to have worked with.
“Tension for Serenity”
The production car has retained perhaps the most important design element from the concept — an almost fractal look, as if it’s a car in a video game that hasn’t quite finished loading. The look is unquestionably toned-down for production but still recognizable.
Karim Habib, the soft-spoken Senior Vice President of Design behind Kia’s dramatic design renaissance in recent years, calls the philosophy behind the shape “tension for serenity.” He wants people seeing the car to “feel initially uncomfortable, but love it.”
Electric cars don’t need grilles, so Kia has given the EV9 a big expanse of pixelated lights in its place. They’ll play animations in the future, Kia designers tell us, but perhaps not at launch. Thin three-branch head- and taillights seem to outline the car beneath — Habib calls them “star maps” and says the look will spread to other Kias soon.
In profile, there’s a touch of Soul in the look. Habib says designers were conscious of the family resemblance — darkened A-pillars create a floating roof look that hints at it. But, more than anything, you’re struck by how much glass they managed to keep, giving the SUV an airy look for something so large.
Swiveling Seats, Blissful Lack of Glossy Surfaces
Inside, the production vehicle has lost the coach doors of the concept — no engineer has figured out how to provide the crash protection today’s drivers expect without pillars. That robs the cabin of a bit of its sense of space.
But not much of it. Three-row SUVs are bulky beasts, but designers have managed to keep this one feeling light and airy. Kia’s Vice President for Interior Design, Jochen Paesen — the most svelte, fashionably-dressed Santa Claus I’ve ever met — tells me designers were “not just working with the objects themselves, but with the space between objects.”
That shows in the front-seat headrests, which have thin sculptural supports but mesh in place of traditional upholstery. They’re comfortable (and pass crash tests, Paesen assures me). But sit in the front seat and turn your head, and you’ll see right through them to your rear-seat passengers.
Designers lost the steering yoke of the concept but gave it a subtly stretched octagon that provides all the user-friendliness of a steering wheel while hinting at something more modern.
Most carmakers have spent the last few years perfecting leather alternatives made from vegan materials, but I’m shocked when Paesen tells me I’m not sitting on leather. I find a few hard plastics in the third row, but that’s not unusual in SUVs from mainstream automakers.
Screens are set high — “everything at eyepoint,” Paesen says — so the driver never has to look down to change a setting. A subtle row of buttons and a toggle switch beneath save you from having to page through menus to adjust volume or temperature.
Designers have kept one of the concept’s other unique touches — swiveling seats. Second-row captain’s chairs can face forward, turn to face out the door, or face the third row for a coach-like rear cabin.
Mechanical Details? We’ll Get Back to You
Kia is keeping mum on specifications for the time being.
Kia admits it’s built on the brand’s Electric Global Modular Platform. A skateboard-like combination of batteries, electric motors, steering, and suspension components, it can be scaled up or down to build vehicles of different sizes.
It’s the same architecture used in the 2023 Kia EV6, which suggests some possible details. That crossover is available in rear- or all-wheel drive, with power levels from 225 to 576 horsepower. The EV9 likely won’t depart much from those numbers, but Kia won’t answer our questions yet.
Price is also a mystery. Executives are frank about calling this the brand’s new flagship. So we expect it to carry the highest price in the Kia dealership, but they likely know they can’t push buyers into luxury territory.
The EV9 will likely debut publicly at the upcoming New York International Auto Show. We expect to learn more there.
