Kia unveils its pure electric SUV with a concept car style design, positioned to compete with the likes of the Ideal ONE.

Admittedly, Korean car designs are quite unique, which can be well demonstrated in Kia’s latest flagship electric car, the EV9, a large SUV. Recently, Kia announced the latest flagship electric car EV9 in the North American market.

The size of the new car is estimated to be similar to that of Hyundai’s Palisade. It is positioned as a mid-to-large SUV and features Kia’s distinctive rugged design style in recent years. The front face adopts a closed-type air intake grille and a tough body contour. The vertical layout of the front and rear lights looks clean and neat.

The side uses sharp waistlines to outline distinct upper and lower levels. The polygonal wheel eyebrows, flat-floating roof, and hidden door handles are consistent with the concept car. The appearance of the car is highly recognizable and does not use mainstream design elements. It is indeed impeccable in appearance.

The interior is mainly minimalist and futuristic, featuring a gray-white interactive design, which I personally quite like. The rest is similar to high-end new energy vehicles on the market, all equipped with the through-type dual-screen. This design has become so common that people have become numb to it. Fortunately, this design is widely accepted by the public, so major automakers have continued to adopt it.

In terms of seat layout, the car has a six-seater layout. The most interesting thing is that the two seats in the second row can rotate 180 degrees, making it more convenient for elderly passengers to get on and off, and also allowing them to face the four people in the back row to play mahjong or hold a meeting. However, these advantages depend on a larger space. If the size of the EV9 does not have a significant advantage, the legroom in the third row will be limited.

Although the power and range of this car have not been announced, the new car is based on the E-GMP pure electric platform, so it is speculated that the maximum power of the two-wheel drive version of the car is 200 horsepower and the maximum torque is 339 Nm; the four-wheel drive version has a maximum power of 400 horsepower and a maximum torque of 651 Nm, and the pure electric range can reach 354-467km, depending on the configuration.

To be honest, the endurance of this car is really disappointing, with a range of just over 400km, it is far behind any electric vehicle in the market. This is clearly a weak point for this car, and I hope that the endurance can be improved when it enters mass production, otherwise it will be too weak in terms of competitiveness.

Kia has been in China for 20 years and has gone from rapid growth to stagnation. But it is not appropriate to say that Kia is at the end of the road, after all, their global sales are still good. However, it is not an exaggeration to say that Kia has almost reached the end of its road in the Chinese market. In recent years, with the rapid transformation of the automobile industry towards the new quadruple revolution and the long stagnation of Korean cars in China, Dongfeng Yueda Kia has also faced difficulties in its operations. Under continuous losses, Dongfeng Automobile, one of the joint venture partners, chose to withdraw officially in January last year.

However, putting aside prejudice against the brand, just looking at the appearance and the “black technology” in terms of space, I think it is worth for domestic independent brands to learn from. As Kia’s latest pure electric SUV, it is very suitable for Chinese consumers in terms of size and positioning. The manufacturer clearly stated that it will be introduced into the domestic market, but after the cross-border EV6 and the domestic SUV EV5, the timing is expected to be at the end of this year or early next year. However, in order to compete with rivals like NIO and XPeng on their home turf, they need to demonstrate their strength. Perhaps some answers will be revealed after the release on March 20th.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.