We Bought a 2024 Kia EV9
2024 Kia EV9 | Cars.com photo by Christian Lantry
By Joe Bruzek
April 29, 2024
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The all-electric Kia EV9’s standard three rows of usable seating makes it one of the most family-friendly EVs yet. We’ve generally thought of electric cars as second cars that should complement a primary gasoline-powered vehicle, but the EV9 challenges that notion with a relatively conventional three-row SUV silhouette that you can also see in models like the Volkswagen Atlas, Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander and Kia’s own Telluride.
To best evaluate whether the EV9 can be a real-deal family hauler, we bought one for our editors to test with their different-sized families over the next year. You can expect road trips, towing, fast (and slow) charging, winter testing and more.
Related: 2024 Kia EV9 Review: The First, Best and Only Semi-Affordable 3-Row Electric SUV
What We Bought
We bought a 2024 EV9 Land with 280 miles of EPA-rated range, Ocean Blue Matte paint, 20-inch alloy wheels, all-wheel drive and 379 horsepower. The Land trim level, which is second-most expensive, is the only trim other than the most expensive GT-Line that has an available 5,000-pound towing capacity (when equipped with the optional Towing Package). The 5,000-pound towing capacity is in line with its gasoline-powered three-row SUV counterparts, and towing composure and the effect trailering has on driving range were both things we wanted to test.
1 / 762024 Kia EV9 | Cars.com photo by Christian Lantry
The Land also has 10 more miles of EPA-rated range than the GT-Line, which has higher combined torque output than the Land (516 pounds-feet versus 443 pounds-feet) and larger 21-inch wheels. The retail price of our EV9 Land is $74,305, and that generally knocks the wind out of people who’ve asked how much the EV9 costs, which we get. For being the first three-row electric vehicle from a non-luxury brand, the EV9’s price certainly stretches into luxury territory, but we didn’t pay the full sticker price.
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Not All Deals Created Equal
When we were shopping in early March 2024, Kia was knocking $5,000 off EV9 purchases thanks to a customer cash incentive, and there were also a few other customer and dealer incentives on the table — but not the $7,500 federal tax credit for which the EV9 isn’t eligible. On Cars.com, many EV9s were being advertised for well below their retail price. Because of that, I was surprised by what I found at the first dealership I contacted. It didn’t have its EV9 listed on Cars.com, and it had a number of add-ons tacked on to the $74,305 retail price. The most egregious included a $3,000 dealer markup, followed by a “required” $1,000 add-on package with vehicle-identification-number etching, nitrogen-filled tires and miscellaneous add-ons. In addition, the customer cash incentive was not factored in. This dealer’s out-the-door quote was near $85,000, including sales tax and dealer and registration fees. Wow.
Kia has reportedly warned dealerships about avoiding market adjustments on the EV9, but this dealer was not following any such advice. After stating I wasn’t interested in paying a markup or purchasing the add-on package, as well as asking about the customer cash whereabouts, a much lower quote came back around $73,000 out-the-door. Even then, the add-on package was reduced but not eliminated. Despite this dealership being in an extremely convenient location, I moved on.
Shoppers should know not to accept a dealer markup on the EV9 because we secured a better deal on an equally equipped car, and 30 days later, that EV9 is still on the dealership’s website, only now with a $7,500 discount (the current customer cash amount) factored into its list price.
It’s worth noting that when we buy cars, we try to get the experience of an average consumer versus someone employed by Cars.com. Only until we have an agreed upon the out-the-door price and intend to purchase do we disclose that we’re with Cars.com’s Editorial department.
How Much We Paid for Our 2024 Kia EV9
The EV9 Land we bought was advertised on Cars.com for $66,297, or $8,008 lower than the MSRP of $74,305 (identically equipped to the first EV9 we saw). It’s equipped with the $1,500 Towing Package, $995 matte-blue paint, $75 rear-bumper protector film, $225 carpeted floormats and a $115 cargo tray. I called to verify that the listed price was the “everybody” price, was assured this was the case and was validated by the requested out-the-door price quote that came back with no surprises. At 11% lower than its retail price, we felt good enough to continue with our trade-in, a 2021 Tesla Model Y Long Range All-Wheel Drive with 22,000 miles.
That good feeling didn’t last long.
Shop the 2024 Kia EV9 near you
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$73,490 MSRP $75,310
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$74,990 MSRP $77,240
View all 2024 Kia EV9 models for sale near 60606
New Model Y pricing has been a roller coaster since we bought our Model Y 2 1/2 years ago, and our resale value had tanked as a result. The best we could negotiate was $26,800 for our Model Y that cost $60,290 in July 2021 (without sales tax and other fees). Using the Model Y as a trade-in, however, lowered the overall purchase cost of the EV9, which lowered how much sales tax we paid. The end result was a transaction price that was $29,346 less than if we hadn’t had a trade-in. That amount was still higher than many of the outright purchase offers we received when shopping our Model Y around.
2024 Kia EV9 | Cars.com photo by Joe Bruzek
In the end, we paid $44,470.59 for our EV9, including discounts, trade-in, sales tax, and dealer and registration fees. The downside to this purchase was having to drive an hour and a half through a late-spring winter storm to pick it up versus around the corner for the first EV9. When we arrived at the dealership, the EV9 displayed 82% charge and 210 miles of estimated range, having just been taken off a charger before delivery.