Recently, South Korea's Kia Motors released its pure electric flagship SUV model - EV9. The starting price of the new car will be about 100%. Pre-sales will begin in the Korean market in the second quarter of this year, and will be available in Europe and North America in the second half of the year. market sales, and plans to introduce domestic sales in 2024.

You must know that, as the vane of the global smart electric vehicle market, competition in China's smart electric vehicle market has reached a fierce stage. If Kia wants to introduce EV9 to the Chinese market and still have a place in the global smart electric vehicle market, then Chinese new energy vehicle companies will become a strong enemy that it cannot ignore.

As the flagship model that Kia Motors has high hopes for, Kia EV9 represents the highest level of Kia Motors and even the entire Korean car company in the field of intelligence and electrification. So, what are the outstanding strengths of this model that can represent the destiny of Korean smart electric vehicles?

We can see from the rather avant-garde exterior design of the EV9 that Kia has clearly understood what a pure electric vehicle that represents future intelligence should look like. Overall, the overall shape highly restores the design style of the concept car, which is simple, tough and quite technological.

In terms of body size, the length, width and height of the Kia EV9 reach 5010mm, 1980mm, and 1755mm respectively, and the wheelbase reaches 3100mm. It is positioned as a medium-to-large pure electric SUV. The overall body size of the new car is similar to the domestic NIO ES8 and Lideal L8.

It is worth mentioning that although the Kia EV9 is quite tall and burly, it still takes into account the aerodynamic design. The new car's underbody fenders, aerodynamic wheels, and front bumper with spoiler wings all have aerodynamic effects. These designs allow the new car's wind resistance coefficient to reach 0.28Cd, which is basically the same as that of an ordinary family car.

In addition, the Kia EV9's burly body also brings spacious interior space and rich seating layout.

Kia EV9 not only comes standard with three rows of seats, but also offers 6- or 7-seat models. At the same time, the new car also supports traditional three-seaters, independent two-seaters, and independent two-seaters that can lie flat with the first row. , as well as 4 different second-row seat layouts including an independent two-seater with 180° optional options.

In terms of smart cockpit, Kia EV9 does not blindly pile up large screens like most high-end electric vehicles in China.

On its center console, there is only a set of dual 12.3-inch floating dual screens composed of an LCD instrument panel and a central control screen. Such a design is almost common in domestic mid- to low-end cars. Found everywhere.

In the professor’s view, Kia EV9 is equipped with high-level intelligent driving assistance technology, which is relatively good among foreign car brands. The HDP highway autonomous driving system equipped on the Kia EV9 GT-Line model can achieve L3 autonomous driving functions in areas where conditions permit.

You know, although Chinese car companies are at the forefront of exploring intelligent driving. However, perhaps due to the sensitive division of responsibilities after autonomous driving accidents, there are still only a handful of car companies that dare to claim that their models have L3 level autonomous driving capabilities.

Kia EV9 is equipped with 15 intelligent driving perception hardware to prevent potential collision risks by scanning and detecting objects from a 360° full viewing angle. Although Kia EV9 only has 15 intelligent driving perception hardware, it includes 2 expensive and more accurate lidar.

From a quantitative point of view, the perception hardware of Kia EV9 is not as good as that of some 200,000-yuan Chinese independent brand smart cars, but from a quality point of view, it consists of two lidar HDP highway automatic sensors. The driving system can indeed provide L3 level autonomous driving detection capabilities.

In addition, the powerful autonomous driving perception hardware also gives Kia EV9 many other functions, such as Remote Intelligent Parking Assistance System 2.0 (RSPA2.0). It is understood that this system can achieve automatic parking without driver intervention.

Of course, since the Kia EV9 has not yet been officially launched, its top-end model’s unique HDP highway autonomous driving system still has “future” attributes, so the actual strength of this L3 level autonomous driving system remains unclear. It remains to be tested.

In terms of electrification, Kia EV9 is built based on Hyundai Motor Group’s Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP). The new car uses fourth-generation battery technology and provides three powertrain configurations.

Among them, the Kia EV9 rear-wheel drive standard model is equipped with a set of 76.1kWh power batteries, and is equipped with a drive motor on the rear axle with a maximum power of 160kW and a maximum torque of 350N·m, 0-100km. /h acceleration time is 8.2 seconds.

The Kia EV9 rear-drive long-range model is equipped with a 99.8kWh power battery. Its motor power is reduced to 150kW, and the 0-100km/h acceleration time is 9.4 seconds. With the dual support of a larger-capacity power battery and a lower-power drive motor, the new car's endurance can reach 541km under WLTP conditions.

With the support of front and rear dual motors, the Kia EV9 four-wheel drive model has a total power of 283kW, a total torque of 600N·m, and an acceleration time of 0-100km/h in only 6 seconds; when equipped with the optional After the Boost function, the torque will be further increased to 700N·m, and the 0-100km acceleration time will also be increased to 5.3 seconds.

In addition, for a pure electric vehicle, energy replenishment speed and endurance are equally important. Thanks to the 800V electrification architecture of the E-GMP module platform, the Kia EV9 in ultra-fast charging mode can replenish 238km of driving range in 15 minutes.

To be honest, when the professor learned about the Kia EV9's model configuration layout and various electrification indicators, he had to admire Kia Motors' precise knife skills and at the same time lament the ubiquitous superiority of Chinese electric vehicles.

Since the professor has not actually tested the Kia EV9, he cannot evaluate its so-called L3 level autonomous driving capabilities. However, judging from Kia’s official electrification performance parameters, the professor believes that the performance and battery life of Kia’s flagship model are not outstanding among domestic models of the same level.

As for the market prospects of Kia EV9 after its introduction into the country, it depends on its final pricing.

This article comes from Professor Wanche, the author of Yichehao. The copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprinting.

The content only represents the author's opinion and has nothing to do with Bitauto