Leaked: All new Kia EV9

"We have consciously not used piano black," explained Jochen Paesen, vice president of interior design at Kia. "We're using a middle gray; it's in both matte and gloss. But as you see, the combination between matte and gloss is what makes it feel refined rather than just having a lot of gloss material. So it gives you a modernity, we feel. The black gloss has had its time—we can do without it," Paesen told Ars.

Ev6fan said:

Huh? Did we watch the same video?

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You talking about the seat capacity? The videos show the 6-pass version (2+2+2 layout). The 7-pass version will have a 2+3+2 layout.

Huntsw1 said:

The number one reason the swivel seats will be a cool feature is easy loading of a baby into a car seat as the seat can face the open door.

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One thing I didn't see anyone mention so far is the mounting of the seatbelts inboard. That means, the seatbelt buckle is on the door-side so if you get the model without the swivelling seats, you can still buckle the seatbelt more easily as the buckle is in front of you.

knash said:

I'm getting the feeling this thing is going to be very expensive.

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Yeah, $70-$90k is my guess. I mean that's within the realm of a Suburban but still, that's hard to wrap one's head around.

HighFlyer said:

Seems to me even if they can go with 90-100kWh battery it will be tough to break the 300 mile range barrier in AWD with the typical SUV aerodynamics, which is an important barrier to break.

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Yeah. 300 miles EPA won't be 300 miles on the highway since it's a combined figure. But who knows, maybe they'll rate it conservatively given it's targeting families and not EV enthusiasts and therefore might win favours if they rate it conservatively.

michalf said:

Now what kind of trim is this? It's definitely different from all other spotted/reviewed ones.

It has

• different front bumper (more off-roadish)
• digital mirrors
• LIDAR on the front bumper?
• less chrome and more black exterior accents

Is it GT?

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Presumably the Lidar is for HDP.