Affordable luxury: Kia EV9 GT-Line S

For those of us who’ve been watching the progress of Kia Motors over the decades, the arrival of the EV9 feels like something of a culmination, if not vindication.

The massive EV9 is in fact the biggest Kia ever to be offered on the British market, and it’s also an impressively advanced design – all-electric, enormously quick (at least in a straight line), super-comfortable and, you’ll agree, very strikingly styled.

For a firm that started out in the UK in the early 1990s with the little Pride hatchback, a hand-me-down Ford, there is no brand that’s made more progress than this one, technologically and commercially. Once a fringe player, and a little disdained, Kia has already sold more than 100,000 units this year – around the same name number as Peugeot and BMW badged cars.

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The EV9 is something of a showcase, even a “halo” model at the top of the range. For a start, it has great presence. Admittedly the look of the vehicle is a bit of a ripoff of a variety of traditional chunkadelic Jeep and Land Rover styling cues, and even a bit of Volvo with that strong “shoulder line” along the rear lights, but it’s a skilfully executed blend nonetheless.

The detailing around the distinctive strip LED headlights and those stunning 19” or 21” alloy wheels are nicely done. It’s big but not vulgar, which is quite an achievement for an SUV with “premium” pretensions.

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Its finest quality is its comfort. The headrest, for example, is more of a pillow than a mere restraint, so cosseting and lovely that you find yourself sinking into it. “Bio polyurethane” filling I believe – recycled plastic. No matter. I think I enjoyed the same sybaritic thrill in a Rolls Royce or a Range Rover some year ago. Such opulence can now be had in a Kia, and it’s a small but telling example of how aspirational the brand now is.

As a Kia, albeit a relatively expensive one, it offers the full suite of luxury features, including multi-zonal climate control, soft faux leather, two 12.3” screens for the dash and touchscreen controls, a 14-speaker Meridian sound system, and electric front seats with an extendable squab for added leg support – and obviously, there’s a massage function thrown in as well.

The only quibble I have with the interior is that the trim only comes in mostly dark, subdued shades; aside from some bright highlights on the seating, it’s a sombre sort of tone, a little out of keeping with the otherwise upbeat adventurous vibe.

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The pliant ride completes the limousine-like feel, along with some excellent intuitive driver assistance. Some might find the EV9’s warning systems, such as for speed limits and straying out of lane, a bit irritating, but I really don’t mind anything that helps keep me safe and lowers the risk of a speeding ticket.

Audible warnings for exceeding speed limits are mandatory now, in any case, which is fine except that the Kia’s system for detecting them isn’t 100 per cent accurate – and I know this because it told me I could do 80 through Inverness, which is unwise as well as illegal. The Kia, by the way, is hardly alone in this – I’ve driven a Mazda, Volkswagen and Lexus, to name a few, with the same bad habit. (When linked to an automatic speed limiter, it can occasionally lead to rapid unplanned deceleration, which is actually quite dangerous.)

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I should add that the heads-up display, which projects basic information such as speed readings and satnav instructions onto the windscreen, works very well – you don’t take your eyes off the road, and if you find it offered as an option on any car it’s worth taking.

Technologically, the EV9 is as advanced as anything this side of a Tesla, but it can’t defy the laws of physics. Available as a rear-drive or four-wheel drive, in sport mode it can accelerate to 60mph in under six seconds – not bad for a near three-tonne machine. It will do all that with considerable aplomb – no sense of lack of control – and the suspension deals with the sheer bulk flying around a corner pretty well, too. Perhaps most pertinent for many buyers will be the 300-mile-plus benchmark range.

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But the key to, and penalty for, that range of ability is the size of the battery pack, a near 100kWh unit, which makes up much of the car’s bulk. As I was running it through the twistier roads around the Moray Firth I was acutely conscious of one of the few things I can remember from school physics: Force = mass x acceleration, and what putting your foot down in an EV9 at the wrong juncture could yield for anything that got in the way.

More prosaically, cars such as these do hammer roads and old bridges and shed an unhealthy amount of tyre particulates into the air.

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Overall, though, the EV9 is an endearing affair, and a versatile one. Unlike the Jeeps and the Land Rovers, it ain’t a true off-roader, but it does have decent ground clearance and settings for mud, snow and sand that should help it survive in the countryside.

It comes with three rows of seats, with six- or seven-seater configurations and the middle row can be rotated to face the rearmost, though not very comfortably. The back row can fold flat for a longer loadspace.

The best of the EV9 range is the “base” rear-drive model with “Air” trim, which gives you the best features for the least money. That comes a little later, next year. It’s not cheap, but it looks and feels more expensive than it is. For all its move upmarket, Kia still gives good value. That’s comforting too.