Kia EV9 GT-Line review: Would you like a massage with that commute?

Pros

• Currently massively discounted.
• Space age looks.
• Cavernous interior with heaps of head room.
• The comfiest seats I’ve experienced (with massage feature!).
• Tech galore.
• Fast – goes to 100kph in 6 seconds!

Cons

• It’s big, making it harder to park and maneuverer.
• Safety features bonging at you gets annoying (which isn’t really a bad thing, I know).
• No wireless Apple CarPlay – which seems criminal in a 2024 luxury vehicle.
• Cameras that replace the side mirrors can get fogged up.
• Not a lot of feel through to the driver when cornering.

First impressions

It was a rainy, dreary day when I picked up the GT-Line, the top-spec model from the Kia EV9 range. I’d already admired the shape and look of the EV9 from reading reviews and driving past the odd one on the road. I personally like the boxy look that Kia have adopted. Rather than spend any time in the rain, I hopped straight into the cab, and I’m glad I did, because it’s the best part of the car.

The first thing that struck me is a sense of space. The interior feels huge, both in width and height. The centre console is big too, which seems like an emerging trend in the motoring world. Along with a few cup holders, there’s also a wireless charging pad for your phone and another cubby under the central armrest.

The infotainment screen is massive and combines with the dash to have what feels like a continuous digital display across two thirds of the cabin. It’s crisp, bright and feels fancy.

The seats aren’t covered in real leather, but it doesn’t feel cheap. The main thing is that they’re ridiculously comfortable. I’m not sure what Kia did with the headrests, but they’re the best bit. You lean back into them and feel instantly relaxed.

The biggest departure from what feels like your standard car is that the GT-Line has digital side mirrors. Small cameras replace the traditional mirrors and project the images on little screens in the cabin.

Commuting

Viewing the world behind me through cameras, instead of mirrors, didn’t take a lot of getting used to. The first habit to go was trying to adjust my view by moving my head, like you can do with a mirror. The heads-up display informs you when there’s someone in your blind spot and when you flick the indicator to change lanes, a little live feed of your blind spot pops up on the dash. It’s all very well done.

Everything feels luxurious and smooth. I found the massage function to be a real treat when driving to work. You can set it to “Pelvic”, which sounded a bit distracting, “Lumbar” or “Whole body” and let the seat gently massage your tired back while commuting.

With the GT-Line, you feel like you’re driving a big, heavy and wide vehicle. Apart from the model’s size, that heft comes from the big 181Ah battery that drives the motors that put out a decent 283kW. That battery is massive, it’s three times the size of the 60kWh one in a BYD Atto 3. It also allows for a claimed range of 505km.

Big SUVs can feel quite daunting it tight spaces. However, parking is made much easier with an awesome 360° camera. Another thing of note in the GT-Line is a remote parking feature that turns it into a giant remote-controlled car with the key. I didn’t do much with this feature other than impress my friends and family by making the car drive backwards and forwards without me in it.

Stopping off at the shops on the way home, I made use of GT-Line's giant boot, which can be made even bigger by putting the third row of seats down. It swallowed the week’s shopping without spitting out the bones. The boot lip is quite high, so you’d need to check you can personally manage groceries with it – I found it easy, but I’m tall. When you raise the third-row seats, the boot reduces dramatically, but that’s always the trade-off.

Road trips

The GT-Line is a comfy cruiser around town, and this transfers to the open road. The underlying power is evident, making any steep hills feel flat and overtaking effortless.

I obviously had to give “Sport” mode a crack when going over the Remutaka Hill, which made for a fun time. After pressing the button, the seat bolsters inflated, and I felt it gripping and holding me in place – a necessary feature, because this thing goes quick when you hoof it. It goes round corners remarkably well too, considering its 2.6 tonne bulk. Despite its speed, the GT-Line doesn’t feel like a sports car, but that’s because it’s a flash, big SUV.

After I clicked the car out of sport mode and drove in a more relaxed manner, I discovered another great feature. The GT-Line had decided I’d been driving long enough to deserve some TLC and automatically started its massage feature. What a lovely gesture from the car!

The rear passengers are looked after in the GT-Line, too. There are built-in roller shades on the rear windows. Before having a baby, I thought this was a lame feature. Now I think it’s one of the most important things a car can have. The outer seats also have heating and ventilation. Speaking of rear passengers, the third-row occupants even have access to their own drink holders, USB plugs and A/C vents, which may reduce complaining.

In my opinion, the centre console seems to be designed more for a bag down the front rather than a repository for lollies and car snacks. The covered bin is shallow and most space is taken up by the wireless phone charger. Is it a deal breaker? Nope. It’s just something to be aware of. I personally would like to have more snack storage for a roadie, but maybe owning an EV9 would make me a sleeker version of myself.

Gripes

The EV9 is awesome, but it’s not perfect. I find the lack of Wireless Apple CarPlay to be a real negative in a 2023–24 luxury vehicle. It’s easy enough to plug in; however, the EV9 did make my old charging cable obsolete by only having USB-C connections. I had to borrow a colleague’s charging cable so I could see how well CarPlay worked. Even so, it made a wireless charging pad a bit redundant when you have to plug in anyway.

I also found that the car’s digital camera mirrors were getting fogged up when the weather was extra humid. There was a tiny amount of moisture trapped in the lens that made for a rubbish picture on the screens inside the car. I couldn’t work out how to fix it until after I returned the car to the dealership and read the manual. Apparently, the rear window defrost would’ve fixed that for me lickety split. It never occurred to me as the logical thing to do as it was the mirrors, not the rear windscreen that was causing me issues. But do you know what would’ve worked flawlessly in humid conditions? A regular mirror.

My last gripe concerned the safety features, and I should stress this isn’t a Kia-specific problem. But goodness me modern cars can be a pain with the binging and bonging you get fed all the time. The EV9 reads speed signs (and has zones remembered in the navigation) and bongs at you as soon as you exceed the posted limit – even if it’s just 1km/h over. I feel like I shouldn’t be able to complain about being warned for exceeding a speed limit, but it’s actually just plain annoying. Think about your daily driving now, you probably unintentionally do it all the time. Well I do anyway, and it felt like I had an overzealous licence assessor tut-tutting at me on every journey. Luckily, you can turn it off – it takes about 10 seconds in the car menu, but it resets every time you start the vehicle, so you need to make it part of your routine or obey the law I suppose.

Wrapping up

That was a fun week. The GT-Line looks great inside and out, drives nicely and is just easy to live with. I feel like I was only just scratching the surface as to what the car offers in terms of the using the infotainment system and other gizmos to their full potential. If you do buy one, I suggest forcing the salesperson to give you a lengthy induction and to setup your profile, so things are just the way you like it from the get-go.

Now, to address the elephant in the room: Kia recently introduced up to a $35,000 price drop across its EV9 range. It’s great for anyone looking at cars around the $100k price point, but I feel for anyone who happened to buy one before this deal. The price reduction is working. Sales were flat for the EV9 in 2024, with only 36 EV9s registered this year up until June. When the big discounts were applied, there was an immediate spike of 31 registrations in July alone. It’s worth noting that Kia’s offer is limited to 36 of the mid-range Earth models, which are now up for grabs at $90,000 each, and 100 of the GT-Line models ($100,000). That makes them both cheaper than the entry-level Light model, which isn’t discounted and is priced at $105,000. I ran the sums – Kia is lumping a total discount of over $4.4 million on this offer. That must sting, but it’s a win for us as consumers, and more specifically those who can afford to grab this deal.

Should you buy one? Well, nobody needs to be massaged on their way to work, but it’s tough to beat and you should definitely try it. The cabin of the GT-Line really is the place to be on your commute or next road trip. Being tall, I also love the high seat that an SUV gives me, meaning I can sit in the car without lowering myself. I could happily have a GT-Line in my driveway permanently, Kia just needs to release an update that lets you dial back the safety warnings and keep them from coming back.