What you’re looking at isn’t quite Kia’s next electric car. But it’s a strong hint of what is likely coming next.
At this week’s Los Angeles Auto Show, Kia unveiled a visionary 7-seat electric SUV it is calling the EV9 concept. As a concept, it’s not a production car headed to a Kia dealership near you anytime soon. But it may presage one. Production versions of concept cars tend to be less radical than the showpieces they’re based on but thematically similar.
A Logical Place in Kia Showrooms
Kia has promised at least five all-electric models in American showrooms by the end of 2027. The first reaches dealerships early next year. It’s called the EV6, and it’s a bold step for Kia. A sleek electric hatchback, the EV6 is available with up to 576 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time under 3.5 seconds.
This one’s called the EV9 – a hint that it’s something more than a design study.
A Digital, Stretched Soul With Added Style
The EV9 has bold, boxy lines. In silhouette, it’s almost a taffy-stretched version of the compact Kia Soul – probably the brand’s most recognizable car. But angular body panels give it a hint of a video game car that hasn’t quite finished rendering.
The EV9’s dimensions are quite close to those of the Kia Telluride – the 3-row SUV that has bolstered the brand and is one of the fastest-selling cars in America this year.
The concept features no pillar between the front and rear doors, which open in reverse like a 1960s Lincoln Continental Coach model, allowing drivers to open almost the entire cabin to the outdoors.
A Cabin Like No Other
And what a cabin it is. The first and third-row seats pivot 180 degrees. The second row folds flat to form a table. So you could park your EV9 and turn it into a dining room or meeting space for four. The third row can face the tailgate – perfect for watching the sunset or reliving your childhood memories of waving at traffic from the back of mom’s Oldsmobile Caprice wagon (you have very specific childhood memories, okay?).
When you tire of all that and turn your lounge back into a car, the EV9’s cabin centers on an enormous 27-inch screen and – the must-have accessory of 2021’s concept cars – a pilot-style yoke instead of a steering wheel.
300-Mile Range
Kia hasn’t specified much about the mechanics of the EV9. It rides on the same platform as the EV6. Kia calls that architecture the E-GMP platform. It’s a skateboard-like unit with most mechanical bits under a flat floor so that it can be scaled up or down to build vehicles of many sizes. Kia says it has a range of up to 300 miles and can recharge 80% of its battery in under 30 minutes.
How Real is This Thing?
So will you see an EV9 with reversible seats and coach-style doors in a Kia dealership next year? We’re skeptical of those extravagant touches. But the central idea here is a Telluride-sized EV based on a platform the company already builds, with a silhouette like an updated version of its best-loved product. That seems like a guaranteed success. So we do expect to see an EV9 in Kia dealerships within a year or two. Just perhaps not one this cool.
