[ UPDATE 07/01/2024 13:50 ] First look at the Kia EV9 fully electric SUV in Malaysia.
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Five months after its global debut, the Kia EV9 has finally made an appearance in Malaysia. This begs the question: can we expect the new fully electric SUV to be launched in our market very soon?
The SUV was spotted by Nazrul Ihsan who shared an image of the sighting on the Malaysian Electric Vehicle Owners Club (MyEVOC) Facebook group. The location of the SUV was not mentioned but judging by the surrounding buildings, it seemed possible that it was captured somewhere nearby Kia Malaysia headquarters in Glenmarie.
It is also unclear from the image whether the unit on the flatbed truck has a right-hand drive setup or a left-hand drive. Nevertheless, the picture is a significant indicator that Kia Malaysia is already working to expand its EV offerings after the EV6 GT-Line and Niro EV.
Kia EV9 quick specs
Built using the Hyundai Motor Group e-GMP platform, this Kia EV9 has a rather massive physique with a wheelbase of 3,100mm and an overall length of 5,010mm. With a width of 1980mm and a height of 1755mm, the fully electric SUV can be matched with either 19, 20 or 21-inch wheels.
While it may have a blocky design but Kia claimed that the EV9 has an aerodynamic coefficient of 0.28. This was achieved through a 3D-sculpted underbody cover which has a convex shape at the front and a concave shape at the rear to improve airflow and efficiency.
Like the Kia EV6, the EV9 SUV comes in both single-motor rear-wheel-drive (RWD) and dual-motor all-wheel-drive (AWD) models. The standard RWD model gets a 76.1kWh battery while the Long Range RWD and AWD variants are fitted with a larger 99.8kWh battery.
Kia has provided two motor options for the RWD models with the Long Range variant pushing a 150kW (201hp) and 350Nm, that’s capable of doing 0-100km/h acceleration in 9.4 seconds. On the other hand, the standard RWD variant gets a slightly higher 160kW (215hp) output which helped it deliver a slightly quicker century sprint timing of 8.2 seconds.
Meanwhile, the AWD version gets two motors which can push a total output of 283kW (380hp) and 600Nm of torque alongside 0-100km/h timing of just 6.0 seconds. As if that is not enough, Kia is giving EV9 buyers the option to upgrade the performance post-purchase with the optional Boost feature that unlocks the motor’s 700Nm performance and subsequently brings down the 0-100 acceleration time to 5.3 seconds.
Similar to other Hyundai/Kia EVs on the e-GMP platform, the EV9 uses an 800V electrical architecture which makes ultra-fast charging possible. Kia has not provided specific AC and DC fast charging rates but it claims that the EV9 can get 239km of driving range with just 15 minutes of charge.
The SUV also supports Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) which lets you power up other home appliances up to 3.68kW. As you may know, both the existing Kia EV offerings in Malaysia, the EV6 GT-Line and Niro EV also come with the V2L feature.
Over in Korea, the EV9 has a starting price of KRW78.14 million which is equivalent to around RM271,508. Considering that the EV6 GT-Line is currently priced in Malaysia at around RM320,000, we expect the EV9, which is going to be the second 7-seater fully electric SUV in Malaysia after the Mercedes EQB, to cost more than RM400,000.
