A high performance 3 row SUV is ridiculous when you think about it. A vehicle large enough to comfortably carry seven or eight people and all their gear but reaching 60 miles per hour as fast as a two-seat sports car sounds impossible. But they have been common in luxury car classes for years.
Now it’s all about (somehow) affordable cars.
Kia will launch a high-performance version of its large electric three-row car in January, the company said. The Kia EV9 GT will do a 0-60 mph sprint in just four seconds. It comes standard with all-wheel drive (AWD). Kia says a “strengthened suspension” will help keep the SUV’s large body under control at these speeds.
Kia’s second electric GT model
The news came in a presentation to investors late last week. But it’s no surprise.
Kia has done the same with its EV6 two-row electric SUV. The standard EV6 is a sporty-looking electric vehicle (EV) that is well tailored to the needs of most drivers. Its EV6 GT variant is shocking, with a 0-60 time of under four seconds and the kind of handling that led Kia to give it to our Mike Danger to test on a track.
The EV9 is larger but shares many parts with its siblings. One of the most distinctive cars on the road, the EV9 features a stylish, edgy design and a plush interior with cool see-through headrests.
Electric vehicles enable easy conversion to high-performance vehicles. Gasoline engines build torque within a few seconds of acceleration, meaning they produce more power three seconds after you press the pedal than one second after. Electric cars generate 100% of their torque instantly. This allows engineers to get more acceleration out of them in a fraction of a second.
It’s easier to make a family hauler accelerate like a race car when it’s electric.
The price may not seem Kia-like
The hardest part might be keeping the price down. The EV9 starts at $56,395 in dealers today (including the $1,495 delivery fee) and goes up to the high $70,000 range when fully equipped. Because Kia builds it in South Korea, it isn’t eligible for the $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax rebate.
An EV9 GT would have to start higher. Many Americans would probably say that these are not Kia prices. Kia is generally an affordable automaker. But in terms of price, the EV9 already competes with luxury SUVs. Adding in the cost of huge power for faster acceleration and stiffening up to make a suspension system handle it well won’t hurt the sticker.
We may not know more until winter. Ho Sung Song, president and CEO of Kia, told investors that the vehicle will be unveiled next January. Automakers typically release details a few weeks before a big reveal.