The EPA scores for the EV9, Kia’s three-row electric SUV, have been made public. Our real 75-mph highway range test also put an EV9 GT-Line through its paces. In real life, the EV9 went 240 miles, just short of the EPA’s rating of 270 miles. The EPA just posted official range numbers for the new 2024 Kia EV9. Our test results show how far the new three-row electric SUV can go on a charge. The government says that the EV9 can go between 230 and 304 miles, based on its setup. The EPA figure for the dual-motor GT-Line trim level with the bigger battery pack matches what we found. Our fully equipped GT-Line test car had two motors that put out 379 horsepower and a 99.8 kWh battery pack, which let it go 240 miles. The EPA rate for this car is 270 miles, but we drove it on the highway at 75 mph during our test, so keep that in mind. This means the EV9 did 88% better than the EPA predicted. When we tried other EV SUVs, like the Rivian R1S, Cadillac Lyriq, and Nissan Ariya, they all got 82% of the EPA’s estimate. This is a higher percentage than those cars. The EV9 could be more there, too, because several EVs, mostly from German companies, did better than their EPA scores in our tests. Still, this is a fantastic result considering how big and boxy the EV9 is; at higher speeds, one would expect a car this size not to perform as well as the EPA says it should. Choose the EV9 Light model with the larger battery pack and rear-wheel drive to extend the range. Its EPA range estimate is 304 miles. The smaller 76.1-kWh battery pack in the base RWD Light model gives it a range of 230 miles. On the other hand the AWD Wind and Land trims have a range of 280 miles. We can’t wait to test these other changes and see what real-world range results they give us.
