Road Test: 2026 Kia EV9 GT

The Kia EV9 three-row electric SUV has been making waves and winning awards the world over. Judges love the looks and power, while consumers love the interior space, features and road trip-spec range. It’s been a bona fide success for the brand, and so for ’26, Kia is celebrating by adding a new top trim to the pile, one that almost feels like the engineers designed it with just a little wit.

How else would you describe the neon green highlights, the unique wheels or the fact it gets both an electronic limited slip rear differential, electronic self-adjusting dampers and the option to shift your own virtual gears that’s literally called “virtual gear shifting”? It’s as if they thought to themselves “hey! We’ve done pretty well with this thing. Now, let’s see what we can get away with!”

Styling

The “touch of green” starts as soon as you lay eyes on the EV9 GT, since that’s how they’ve painted the brake calipers on the larger, upgraded brakes. It’s the only place you’ll find the signature colour on the exterior (could have used a little more; on the tailgate’s “GT” badge, for instance) but does it ever stand out. Especially when contrasted against the “Panthera Metal” paint found on my tester. Usually, I prefer lighter-coloured cars and SUVs, but the contrast between the exterior colour and brake calipers just works here.

Other than the unique 21-inch wheels (which come wrapped in Continental performance tires as standard; my tester has winter rubber on it) and front lighting signature, the GT looks the same as the standard EV9. Which is no bad thing, because the standard car’s multi-bulb vertical headlamps, taillamps and the EV9’s overall posture is a good take that you don’t want to mess with too much.

Interior

It’s inside that you really start to see the GT diverge from other EV9s, even the former top-spec GT-Line model.

The GT gets more highly bolstered sports seats (sports seats! In a six-passenger EV SUV!) with suede trim and more of those ubiquitous green highlights. They also get synthetic leather headrests, while those on other EV9s are finished in a meshed fabric. More than just looking the part, the seats are comfortable and feature self-adjusting side-bolsters that will hold you more tightly in the more aggressive drive modes. They also come heated and ventilated and get a massage feature that can all be adjusted from a door-mounted button panel for extra convenience.

The digital gauge cluster and central infotainment display (as well as the smaller 5” climate control display between those) are mostly the same as a standard EV9, although the gauge cluster style will change if you select the unique GT drive mode. The steering wheel is completely different, however, eschewing the standard single-spoke affair with a three-spoke flat-bottom item with sporty enhancements like perforated leather at the nine- and thee-o’clock positions for better grip. The final unique touch is less obvious, but it’s a nice touch nevertheless: a suede dash insert with subtle GT badging ahead of the front passenger.

As neat as all that is, one of the great attractions when it comes to the EV9’s interior is just how roomy it is in all three rows. None of that changes here; there’s no seven-passenger option as second-row captain’s chairs are your only choice, but accessing the third row by passing between them is a piece of cake. The tall roof means that headroom is great in all three rows and while you wouldn’t want to shove adult passengers in the third row for too long, it shouldn’t be a problem for short or even medium-length drives. There are cupholders and USB-C ports in the third row to keep everyone happy.

The second row cupholders are actually mounted at the back of the front row’s centre console so they are a bit of a reach, but the ability to slide each second row seat forwards and back should help. The second-row USB-C ports are also technically found in the first row because they are mounted to the sides of the two front seatbacks.

Storage-wise, there’s a 50-litre frunk (being available only in a dual-motor configuration, the GT can’t be had with the larger frunk the rear-wheel-drive models get) while you can fit up to 2,134 L of cargo in back if you fold rows two and three. In short, there’s room for camping gear for a family of four even without using a roof box. Which you could do, because the GT comes standard with low-profile roof rails.

Tech

The dash is made up of dual 12.3” displays, with a five-inch item nestled in between. That’s for the climate controls and from there you can make minor adjustments or hit a button that prompts the full tri-zone climate control menu to appear on the central display. It’s also there that you find wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but there are also five USB-C ports if you’d rather operate that way. Audio comes courtesy of a very crisp, clear and strong Meridian 14-speaker system. It is a lovely piece of kit.

At first blush, the digital gauge cluster appears to be the same as that which is found in other EV9s – which it is. Until you hit the wheel-mounted (and green-coloured, of course) GT button. That brings up a special GT gauge style with more futuristic graphics and more – you guessed it – neon green. It also gets a band of icons across the top left corner that represent the motor, steering and suspension. That’s here because the GT is the only EV9 in which you can adjust those parameters to three levels apiece.

Power and handling

Those icons provide a nice window into what the GT version of Kia’s three-row EV SUV is all about: performance. The adaptive dampers are a first for a Kia SUV of any kind – EV, gas or otherwise – it makes up to 502 horsepower and can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in about 4.5 seconds. This is not some lightweight RWD sports coupe we’re talking about here or even a small performance crossover; this is a family hauler and, in that light, those figures are bananas.

And they make themselves felt, too – a quick bout of acceleration in GT mode was enough to have me thinking “you know what? I don’t think 4.5 seconds is so far off”. Even if you don’t set the “Virtual Gear Shifting” toggle to “on” and let the car do everything by itself, forward progress is of a level not often seen this side of an actual performance SUV from the likes of – I’m not exaggerating – Mercedes-AMG or the BMW M Performance division.

Of course, I would assume that if you’re buying a GT you like the option to shift gears on your own. I tried this feature and much like it does in the EV9’s Hyundai Ioniq 5 N cousin, it really does feel like you’re operating an actual transmission. Gear up, and the “revs” drop; gear down, and you get an “engine braking” sensation, achieved by changing the throttle response and using the regen feature to make it feel like you’re actually gearing down. It’s uncanny and while novel, it’s a hoot when used in small doses.

The adaptive dampers do a good job of reading the ground below and adjusting accordingly, but even in their most relaxed setting, the GT’s ride is firmer than what you get from, say, an EV9 GT-Line, which remains one notch below the GT (confused yet?) in the line-up for ’26. The damper settings and larger wheels play a part in that, but the bigger change is that the GT is not available with the self-levelling air suspension that the GT-Line gets.

Conclusion

That’s a shame, but at the end of the day with the GT, you get the “fun” in “functional”. When you’re done seeing how well you can clip an apex in your family hauler on a canyon road, you can explore the multi-level one-pedal drive system, the multitude of electronic driver aids and of course, all that interior space and storage. It’s quite the package, the EV9 GT and while you’ll have to lay out a little over 85 grand to get one, there’s a good chance you might have the most unique vehicle at the school drop-off.

Quick Specs
Price as Tested: $85,295
Freight & PDI: $2,150
Engine: Dual permanent magnet synchronous motors
Transmission: 1-speed manual
Drivetrain: All-wheel drive
Output: 502 horsepower / 546 lb-ft of torque
Battery Capacity: 99.8 kwh
Official Combined Fuel Economy: 3.0 L_e/100 km
Observed Fuel Economy: 4.1 L_e/100 km
Warranties: 8-year / 150,000-km (battery), 5-year, / 100,000-km (basic)
Key Competitors: BMW iX, Hyundai Ioniq 9, Jeep Wagoneer S, Rivian R1S, Tesla Model X
Website: Kia Canada