Kia EV9 GT review: a ludicrous car for sensible people

Oh my, we’ve really jumped the shark now…

Tell me about it. The latest entry under ‘things nobody wanted’ – right in the slipstream of a global energy crisis and Ye headlining a festival – is a massively powerful and massively quick version of this, erm, massive family SUV.

You might remember Kia’s first toe in these waters was the EV6 GT some years ago, and soon it’ll be doing a full running bomb off the high board with a GT variant of every EVX it makes. Yep, the EV3, EV4 and EV5 GTs aren’t far away.

The recipe is pretty simple: add a motor for all-wheel drive, mix with fake ‘gear’ shifts, furnish with neon detailing, jack the price up and serve. Bon appetit.

Except that doesn’t quite do justice to the engineering here. The car’s electronically controlled suspension features MacPherson struts at the front and a five-link setup with hydraulic bushings to the rear, and as well as adapting on the fly to road conditions it’s employed to limit lateral roll, dive and squat; the 21in alloys – shod in sticky Continental SportContact 6s – are 2kg lighter than those found on the GT-Line S thanks to a special casting process; electronic dynamic torque vectoring improves grip and cornering, aided further by an e-LSD. The brakes are whoppers – 20- and 19-inch calipers front and back – and are tuned specifically for the GT’s needs.

Fair enough, not what you’d call superficial then…

Nope. Where cars like this often come unstuck (the one that springs to my mind is the Skoda Enyaq vRS) is that the oomph is entirely one-dimensional, so the badging ends up looking like lazy marketing. At least the EV9 GT gives it a proper go.

Take the virtual gear shift, for instance: it simulates a six-speed transmission so you can pretend to climb through the ratios as you unleash that reservoir power. The closer you get to the ‘rev limiter’, the bigger the kick as you change up. No such action on the way down, but without the interaction all you’re left with is blind, predictable torque with no flavour. Yawn.

Meanwhile Kia underscores all this with active sound design, an indistinct murmur that changes pitch with your speed. It sounds kinda serious, like the latter rounds of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? if the music was replaced by the hum of a substation.

I’d wager not a single EV9 buyer has ever asked for this kind of engagement; I bet those who try it will get bored of it quickly, but you’ve got to give some credit to Kia for not letting the Ioniq 5 N and Honda Prelude hog all the kudos.

So it lives up to the badge?

I didn’t say that. After the addition of that second motor – and bearing in mind the underfloor battery is more than half a tonne on its own – the EV9 GT weighs as much as Wigan. And is nearly as large. Kerbweight is 2,718kg and at over five metres long and almost two meters wide, this is a substantial chunk of car; the sort of thing that would need to be cleared from the hard shoulder with dynamite, not a tow truck. So no amount of trick damping is going to invoke the spirit of an M2 CS.

Cornering is a wild ride. Hit the brakes and your first reaction is not ‘Woah! My face is being pulled off’ but ‘Woah! That hedge looks kinda close.’ Those neon calipers could do with less glow and more show, such is the mass they’re charged with keeping in check. So you quickly learn to err on the side of caution.

Then you turn the wheel. Weirdly this isn’t how you drive it – no, you get so little from the steering that you actually feel your way along with your torso, squeezed as it is by the bolsters that inflate around your lower back in the sportier driving modes. The big Kia’s body is impressively taut, so it’s like you’ve been plugged into the car’s frame and your latissimi dorsi are in command.

You can tighten your line by easing off the throttle (halleluja!), but pressing on leads to understeer. And not just from the front axle: it feels like all four wheels start to slide as Newton’s first law takes its course. Which is disconcerting.

The ride is solid however you tune the suspension. There’s constant movement around your hips, and things get really lively over dips and crests. Another reason to rein it in, then. This is not a car for the countryside.

No, the trick to navigating a twisty road in this is to scrub off speed nice and early, hold the throttle as you turn, and then gently open it up as you exit. And breathe. Or gasp, because now you’re being fired towards yet another hawthorn bush.

And the point of all this is… what exactly?

Well that’s the million Won (circa £500) question. Not satisfied with the 380bhp of the normal twin-motor EV9, the combined output here is a dizzying 501bhp and 546lb ft. All of which comes together for 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds, and – seeing as you’re here – a top speed of 136mph. Which seems utterly pointless for a six- slash seven-seat school taxi.

The 99.8kWh battery is the same as you get in the regular car, though WLTP range takes a minor hit at 316 miles. Think 230 miles on a warm-ish day, and more if you’re not testing its limits for your favourite automotive website.

There are normal, eco and sport modes, plus GT and MyDrive settings – accessible via that shiny button on the steering wheel – the latter of which lets you fine-tune the motor response, steering and suspension, plus the degree to which the stability control and limited-slip diff will act as a comfort blanket. There are four levels of regen, adjusted by the paddles when the virtual gear shift isn’t on duty. Mud, sand and snow modes complete the offering.

That brings me on to the elephant in the room…

The price?

The price.

You’ve got to laugh, haven’t you? I can remember when BMW used to struggle above £100k, and here we are in 2026 with a Kia that costs £82,845 and isn’t a gag for April Fool’s Day. The six-seater (pictured) is another grand on top.

Playing devil’s advocate, the most comparable car to this is the Volvo EX90 Twin Motor and that spans £73k-£94k depending on how opulent you want it. An ID. Buzz GTX with seven seats is £69k, but that’s more minibus than SUV. An Ioniq 9 – cut from the same cloth as the Kia – is mid 70s easily and doesn’t have anything like the power.

And when you consider the unsportified EV9 GT-Line S is only (!) five thousand quid less than this, it doesn’t take much mental parkour to convince yourself that the GT is actually a relative bargain; a sensible way of showing angry tailgaters that you won’t be bullied just because you’re at the helm of a de facto MPV.

Unless it comes with belt buckles made of Adamantium, it’s categorically not a bargain.

I’m with you there. There’s little to differentiate the GT visually outside, save for the brakes and the patterned miniature LED lights (see image six up top)... which you get the privilege of paying extra for. Inside the kit list is exhaustive, with heated and ventilated sports seats finished in suede and artificial leather, that three-spoke wheel and a 14-speaker Meridian sound system among the highlights.

But does that transform it into an indulgence? No. Not when Kia’s mostly stuck with the hard-wearing but unlikely-to-appear-on-a-Bentley materials of the regular car. It’s difficult not to conclude that the South Korean firm has overstepped its territory this time.

That’s probably why it exists though. By having a flagship that’s a bit out there it makes the standard EV9 look… sober. And dignified. And capable of more than you’re ever likely to throw at it.

Quite the magic trick. And like all magic tricks, ultimately harmless fun.