For 17,265 miles, the 2024 Kia EV9 Land was a delight. The electric three-row SUV ferried my family of four near and far in complete comfort and retro-futuristic style. It offers many of the same modern connectivity conveniences of a Tesla (plus Apple CarPlay and Android Auto) with no learning curve for how to open the doors, activate cruise control, use the turn signal, or simply turn the thing on. It was perfectly dependable in the same way your dog greets you with a wagging tail every time you return home.
With time, I even came to terms with our EV9 Land’s $74,520 sticker price, which had struck me as steep when I ordered it. I’d been lured in by the fact that the Land is the least expensive trim with vehicle-to-load capability, which would allow me to power a few home appliances and lights from the EV9 during a power outage. Naturally, I never needed to use that feature once in 12 months. What I did use nearly every day was the EV9 Land’s long list of features. One step below the GT-Line trim, it’s loaded with heated and ventilated front seats, heated second-row captain’s chairs, a heated power-adjustable steering wheel, dual sunroofs, second-row window shades, a wireless phone charger, three-zone climate control, a 14-speaker Meridian audio system, and hands-on lane centering.
Yes, $75K is a lot of cheddar for a Kia (an identical 2026 model now costs $71,810), especially when you have daycare bills to pay. But cross-shop the alternatives, and you’ll likely come to the same conclusion I did: that there isn’t another three-row EV that offers more for your money—unless you want to squeeze your kids into the Tesla Model Y’s cramped optional third row. While nothing about the EV9 feels like a budget buy, Kia hasn’t backed away from selling on value.
What You Get for Your Money
The EV9 Land’s monochromatic gray interior gives the cabin a sterile feel, but look closer, and you’ll find excellent materials and impressive build quality that held up to my toddlers’ abuses with no real wear to report. The only things that broke were two rubber nubs that keep the front armrest from rattling against the center console. A dealer ordered a replacement lid under warranty during the 16,000-mile service visit, though the part was backordered, and I returned the vehicle to Kia before it arrived. Faced with similar waits, some EV9 owners have instead replaced those bumpers with cheap earbud tips bought on Amazon.
The EV9 quashed the usual electric-car hang-ups with its ability to cover 270 miles in our 70-mph Road-Trip Range test and its consistent fast-charging performance, replenishing 134 miles in just 15 minutes during MotorTrend testing. I was also won over by how the EV9 erases many of the compromises you get with three-row gas or hybrid SUVs. Those lumbering beasts are universally top-heavy and nose-heavy, which makes for lousy handling. Anchored by a 99.8-kWh battery and a 379-hp dual-motor powertrain, the all-wheel-drive EV9 Land sprinted from 0 to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds, and that was before downloading an extra 74 lb-ft of torque for the front motor. That upgrade cut the sprint to 4.6 seconds. While the EV9’s handling isn’t exactly agile, it easily keeps pace with the punchy powertrain.
Of course, the EV9 competes in a segment where driving dynamics rank below cupholder count, and it excels at the practical stuff, too. With all three rows up, it carries adults comfortably, though luggage space is tight. More often, my family treated it as a two-row SUV with a cavernous cargo hold. With the rear seats folded, it swallowed a cooler, travel crib, collapsed dog crate, stroller, duffel bags, and a couple of toddler bikes. The small frunk doesn’t add much volume, but it’s perfect for storing the mobile charging cable and a DC fast-charging adapter out of the way.
At an average efficiency of 2.2 miles per kilowatt-hour, it cost us $0.13 per mile to keep the EV9 juiced up—slightly better than the $0.15 per mile we estimate it would have taken to fuel a gas-powered Kia Telluride during the same period. That difference won’t offset the EV9’s higher upfront cost and steeper depreciation, but you also can’t put a price on never again standing at a gas pump in 30-mph winds on a 10-degree day.