Kia EV9 GT-Line 2025 Review

The 2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line is the highest trim level (until the GT arrives in December) in a three-tiered model line-up that includes the Air and Earth.

The EV9 GT-Line starts at $121,000 (all prices exclude on-road costs), in Red Flare paint at no extra cost, but add $990 for one of the other eight colours.

Kia’s seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty covers the EV9 for all but the battery, which is under a separate seven-year/150,000km warranty. The EV9 will cost owners $1997 to service on a pre-paid plan over seven years/105,000km of ownership, with 12-month/15,000km intervals.

Like most premium EVs, the 2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line is all about tech and lushness. For the price of entry you receive 21-inch alloy wheels (but only an inflation kit as there is no spare wheel), privacy glass, digital side mirrors, dual tilt and slide sunroof, LED lights all around, retractable door handles and a powered tailgate.

Then there’s a heated steering wheel, power-adjustable, heated and ventilated front seats (driver’s with two memory positions), a vehicle-to-load (V2L) charging function, artificial microfibre suede roof lining, two-tone artificial leather seats, a head-up display and digital side and rear-view mirrors, There are also heated and ventilated rear outboard seats.

There are nine airbags packed away in the 2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line: dual front, front and second-row side, side curtain (covering all three rows) and finally a front centre airbag.

The EV9 has a five-star ANCAP crash test rating from 2023, where it scored from highest to lowest 87 per cent for child occupant protection, 85 per cent for safety assist features and 84 per cent for adult occupant protection. The vulnerable road user score was 76 per cent.

Active safety includes autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with junction crossing, lane oncoming and lane change side, blind spot detection and rear cross traffic alert, highway drive assist, lane keep assist, lane follow assist, traffic sign recognition, safe exit warning, safe exit assist, forward attention monitoring and adaptive cruise control.

Headlights are projector-type LEDs, with dusk-sensing and high beam-assist capabilities.

There are also front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera and tyre-pressure monitoring. If you’re fitting child seats, there are four ISOFIX attachment points on board – each located on the outboard seats of the second and third rows – as well as five top-tether strap points.

The dashboard in the 2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line is dominated by a long screen encompassing a 12.3-inch instrument cluster, a 5.0-inch climate control touch screen and a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen.

Onboard connectivity includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless phone charging (plus six USB-C ports and a 12-volt outlet), satnav and 14-speaker Meridian audio. There’s also Kia Connect smartphone connectivity and over-the-air (OTA) updates, with the OTA software being free for the first seven years.

The 2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line has a 99.8kWh battery feeding a dual-motor powertrain providing drive to all four wheels. Kia says that maximum outputs for this powertrain are 283kW and 700Nm.

The result of using all the available power is a 0-100km/h time of 5.3sec.

The 2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line has a claimed combined energy consumption of 22.8kWh/100km and a 505km range (WLTP figures).

We averaged a low figure of 19.6 kWh/100km energy consumption on test, with mostly ‘Normal’ drive mode selected and much of it with regen braking set to level three. This was for the first 200km, with 291km of range remaining. Because we tried various power modes after that, the average crept up to 21.5kWh/100km.

It takes a claimed nine hours to charge from zero to 80 per cent when plugging into a 7kW AC connection. That time frame drops significantly while using a 350kW DC fast charger, which takes a claimed 24 minutes. Using a more typical 50kW DC public station, the EV9 takes 83min to go from 10 to 80 per cent.

According to Kia, the EV9 is compatible with both 400V and 800V charging, plus it has vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality to run small electric appliances.

This is an EV that you really need to have access to a wall charger at a minimum. Using 240v 10A AC power, we bumped up the charge by just 25 per cent to 84 per cent over 16 hours. The display gave an estimate of a further eight hours to reach a full charge.

First impressions are that the 2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line is a vehicle on the large side, and that’s because it is.

While ‘only’ about 5 metres long and, at a touch, less than 2m wide, its dimensions can start to seem big on narrow streets and within city car parks. Once familiar with its size – helped by good sightlines out of the cabin – it becomes easier within the CBD, but the outer ’burbs and highway is where this large SUV feels more at home.

The relatively unusual digital side mirrors – or screens, really – are worth mentioning. At first, they are distracting and feel unnatural to use, but you do become accustomed to them.

The instant EV motors’ torque thrust at low speeds is only marginally less obvious at highway speeds. This is an easy to drive, predictable and fast SUV.

In the main the ride is composed and supple, but on some rippled street surfaces the EV9 jiggles at slow speeds. At a faster clip it is more compliant, and it does knock the abruptness out of sharp bumps well. Steering has decent directness and handling is composed, but the EV9 never feels light when pushing through corners. With a 2634kg kerb weight, there’s no surprise as to why.

The electronic safety aids work seamlessly in the main, with a few exceptions. Rear and side auto braking is a great idea, but when reserving out of a driveway and a car approaches, even if it has stopped for you to complete your manoeuvre, the auto braking keeps slamming on the brakes.

Kia’s speed sign recognition and overspeed warning chimes have been discussed in many recent tests from the Korean brand. We won’t go over it again, except to say they are still sometimes inaccurate and always annoying.

Lots of soft-touch materials inside give the 2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line a premium feel in a cabin with ample space for all occupants.

There are many places for drink bottles and other storage compartments on offer, which is what you expect in a large family SUV.  The seats are very comfortable up front, while the rear two rows can feel a bit like you are sitting on them, rather than in them.

The second row is easy to access though. And like up front, there’s an easy, high hip point to slide on to the seat and wide-opening doors. The second row’s auto-fold operation to get into the third row is good, too, as adults do not need to perform gymnastics to get in or out with the access space provided.

Third row legroom is a bit tight for grownups, but subteens should be happy and there’s always the second-row fore-aft adjustment to compromise on legroom between the rows.

With the rearmost pews in place there’s 333 litres of cargo volume, but with it dropped to the floor, you have a solid 828L of cargo volume. That grows to 2318L with both the third and second rows laid flat. The ‘frunk’ has a 52L capacity and a 20kg rating, with the bonnet released by the key remote.

The 2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line has the cosseting luxury finish of a six-figure luxury SUV with the features and technology to virtually match its competitors, as well as a well-rounded performance, range and ride/handling package.

Aside from the relatively minor niggles mentioned above (such as speed warning chimes and auto-braking, fussy low-speed ride and no spare wheel), the question is, to whom does this vehicle appeal?

It’s not going gangbusters in sales (less than 30 a month on average this year, according to VFACTS figures) and its styling is not ‘luxury conservative’ by any measure. Yet it’s hard to deny the EV9’s overall appeal, for those wanting a competent, luxe and aesthetically interesting seven-seat SUV with EV propulsion.

2025 Kia EV9 GT-Line at a glance:
Price: $121,00 (prices plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Two asynchronous electric motors
Output: 283kW/700Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 99.8kWh lithium-ion
Range: 505km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 22.8kWh/100km
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2023)

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