Overview

Hyundai’s Ioniq 9 is the Korean brand’s biggest electric car yet. It’s designed to be a large, grand and spacious family SUV that also happens to be an EV, using much of the same technology shared with the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6.

The seven-seat electric family car is a body style that is growing in popularity. The charge has been started with cars like the Kia EV9 – another large electric SUV from Hyundai’s sibling brand – and the Volvo EX90. For the Ioniq 9, Hyundai aims to offer something that looks distinctive, but also proves to be extremely useful for everyone inside. To the point that some of the car’s positioning and aims also put it against cars like the Range Rover – particularly the upcoming electric model due by the end of 2025.

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Hyundai is offering a range of different power options, and plans to offer a group of trim levels when it launches later in 2025. Both rear- and all-wheel drive versions will be available, and we’re certain that – when the car officially launches – even the most basic of trims will include a huge amount of standard equipment.

How does the rest of the Ioniq 9 stack up, though? We’ve driven one in Korea, navigating the busy streets and highways of Seoul as well as the surrounding countryside.

What’s it like inside?

The interior of the Ioniq 9 is arguably the car’s biggest and best asset. Plenty of thought has been put into the interior, with a great mix of physical switchgear and digital technology. Most of the cabin trim feels solid and soft to touch.

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The dashboard itself has a single, wide and curved panel mounted on it that includes both the drivers’ instruments and central infotainment display. Welcome menu buttons and climate dials rest below for you to help navigate the displays, but the system is quite menu-heavy and not the easiest to navigate. Below the climate controls you have storage areas and, depending on spec, you can even equip a UV light storage area that’s supposedly meant to decontaminate your phone.

Splitting up the front seats is the new ‘Universal Island’ storage area. As well as some controls for driver aids and modes, this is where you’ll find cupholders, phone storage, drawers both at either end as well as a vast central storage area. It also slides fore and aft, providing you with the ability to make it more accessible for those in the second row.

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Space is very impressive, allowing adults to sit in all three rows. The standard car will feature a seven-seat layout with the second row featuring an adjustable bench seat; optionally available is a six-seat layout that replaces the second row with two full-size chairs. Even in the third row, there’s enough room for adults to handle moderate-length journeys, and everyone inside gets at least one cupholder and a charging port available to them. As you’d imagine, boot space is plentiful at 620 litres with all seats up. With all of them down, the 9 can act like a small van.

Electric powertrains

Full specifications aren’t confirmed yet, but Hyundai has revealed the power options available for the Ioniq 9.

Every Ioniq 9 comes with a 110.3kWh battery pack, making this one of the biggest batteries to be fitted to a production car on sale in the UK and Europe. Three power versions are confirmed for now: Long Range RWD, Long Range AWD and Performance AWD. The entry-level Long Range RWD model generates 217hp from a single electric motor; Long Range AWD makes 313hp; Performance AWD develops 435hp.  

Range and charging

Every Ioniq 9 is capable of a massive 350kW charging, due to the same technology and platform that underpins many of Hyundai and Kia’s electric cars. That allows for the huge battery to be charged very quickly – but we’ll have to hang on to find out exactly how fast.

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Claimed range information is patchy at the moment, too, as the car makes its final tests for the European market. For now, Hyundai is targeting a 385-mile range for its Long Range RWD model.

What’s it like to drive?

We tested a Performance AWD model while in Korea. Despite the name, though, the Ioniq 9 in general is designed to be a large and comfortable family bus.

It’s a broadly comfortable car in most situations. The ride quality has an edge to it, where it will thud over large bumps, but at motorway cruising speeds or even in town driving over smaller bumps, the Ioniq 9 handles them well and absorbs the jolts impressively. By comparison, a Kia EV9 (particularly in GT Line trim) feels crashy and jittery more of the time when you’re behind the wheel. We wouldn’t mind if the 9 had a smidge less body roll as it can lean into corners, but this is a tall and heavy car – some concessions will need to be made.

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The amount of power from this top-spec AWD Performance model is plentiful. Even by EV standards, Hyundai’s nailed the smoothness of power delivery, without any twitchiness from the throttle and a well-defined ramp-up of power as you build speed. Frankly, this model is a little much, to the point we’d suggest just sticking with the Long Range AWD model instead – it’s still got plenty of power but can potentially achieve an even better range and we’d argue wouldn’t overwhelm the physical brakes so much.

At speed, the low amount of road noise is impressive. We’d likely need more time to discern if windy days have a particularly big effect – our time in Korea was during a calm, wind-free climate – but what did impress was the distinct lack of tyre noise, even on rough tarmac. The ability to have a conversation with those even at high speeds could be done without shouting.

What else should I know?

We haven’t got official confirmation on price yet, but Hyundai has told Parkers that it plans to sell the Ioniq 9 at a similar pricing structure to the Kia EV9 – i.e.: from £65k and topping out at around £80k. That makes the Ioniq 9 significantly cheaper than the Volvo EX90, which puts it on a good footing even before it goes on sale later in 2025.