Enlarge / The 2024 Kia EV9 takes many of the things people love about the Telluride but does them on one of the best purpose-built EV platforms in the industry. (credit: Kia)

American car buyers love purchasing way more car than they need. Have a kid and a dog? You'd better get a Suburban. Need to tow a Hobie Cat to the lake once or twice a year? Get a full-size diesel four-wheel drive pickup. Looking at an EV for your family? Well, it had better do 400 miles at a time and charge in 15 minutes, despite you having a six-mile commute. This mentality would make a cynic say that Kia's EV9 is a pointless exercise, but that cynic would be wrong.

The 2024 Kia EV9 is ostensibly a three-row, midsize electric SUV that in its most efficient form—the Wind RWD Long-Range trim—will do a claimed 304 miles (489 km) of range, but it's also Kia's flagship model and the vehicle that seems to give us the best look at the formerly cheap-and-cheerful brand's more upscale future.

The EV9 is the latest vehicle based on the E-GMP platform that underpins the Ioniq 5 , EV6 , and Genesis GV60 . Like those vehicles, it features a skateboard-style chassis and is available in rear- or all-wheel drive. Power ranges from 201 hp (150 kW) in the entry-level Wind RWD model to 379 hp (283 kW) in the Land AWD and GT-Line models. There are two available battery packs, with the smaller coming in at 76.1 kWh and the long-range pack rated at 99.8 kWh.

Enlarge / This image shows the Uni Wheel concept in three different stages of articulation. (credit: Hyundai)

We like weird new engineering ideas here at Ars, and today we have a particularly interesting one in the realm of electric cars. It's called the Uni Wheel, and it has been designed by Hyundai and Kia as a way to revolutionize the layout of an EV powertrain to more efficiently use space. In fact, the automakers say it's not just for cars—the new drive system works with wheel sizes as small as four inches to as large as 25 inches.

For EV enthusiasts of a certain bent, there's something a little inefficient about the way virtually every EV powertrain is laid out.

Not the battery in the middle, though—while it's bulky and raises the overall height of EVs, it makes sense for weight distribution, although people working on structural carbon-fiber batteries have some different ideas about that. The problem is the EV drive unit, a bulky thing that contains the electric motor, some gearing, and usually some power electronics. These take up room between the axles and have to be packaged around.

Enlarge (credit: The Washington Post / Contributor | The Washington Post )

After a viral TikTok trend spurred tens of thousands of car thefts this summer, cops in Washington, DC, started realizing that it was much easier to recover stolen vehicles that could be tracked with Apple AirTags.

Because of this, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) rolled out a pilot program this week, doling out free tracking devices to residents in DC areas where cops are seeing "the greatest increase in vehicle theft," according to a press release from the office of DC mayor Muriel Bowser.

Over the next few days, MPD will hand out the tracking devices—both AirTags and Tiles—at distribution events, where officers will help residents hide the devices in their vehicles and pair the devices to their phones. Residents will be able to choose whether they want an AirTag or a Tile, MPD said , and once the device is installed, only the resident will have access to tracking information as the sole owner of the device, but they will be required to share data with police if their vehicle is stolen.

Enlarge / Around the world people are asking for smaller electric vehicles. Someone at Kia has been listening and designed this car, the EV3. (credit: Kia)

Kia is staring down an ambitious goal. The company wants to increase its global electric vehicle sales to 1 million units annually by 2026, further ramping up to 1.6 million by 2030. New products like the EV5 crossover and EV9 SUV will certainly help with this push, but smaller, more affordable EVs will be crucial to Kia's success, as well. That's why, despite being called concept cars, the new EV3 and EV4 are thinly veiled glimpses into Kia's next round of production EVs.

Unveiled at Kia's EV Day event in South Korea this week, the EV3 and EV4 will arrive in the next few years. The company also spoke about an even smaller EV2 that will be designed for Europe and emerging markets, with the goal for that car being a super-low starting price—something around the equivalent of $30,000.

There's a strong family resemblance between the EV3, EV5, and EV9. (credit: Kia)

The EV3 and EV4 ride on the same E-GMP electric vehicle architecture that underpins the Kia EV6 and EV9, as well as sister vehicles like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 , Ioniq 6 , and Genesis GV60 . However, while the current crop of E-GMP vehicles are built with 800 V electrical architecture giving them fast charging speeds, the EV3 and EV4 will use a slightly more cost-effective version of this platform with a 400 V system. That's a bummer; one of the big highlights of cars like the Kia EV6 is its ability to charge at a max rate of 233 kW. With the EV3 and EV4, we could be looking at a maximum rate of 150 kW—or less.

Enlarge / This is a prototype of the new Kia EV9 electric SUV, which goes on sale in the last quarter of 2023. (credit: Kia)

Kia has announced pricing for its next electric vehicle as it gets closer to release toward the end of this year. It's the EV9 , a three-row SUV that uses the company's E-GMP architecture, also used to good effect in smaller EVs like the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 . When the EV9 arrives in showrooms, the range will start at $54,900 (plus destination charge).

"We knew we had to get the EV9 pricing right, and we believe today's announcement will be a wake-up call to the industry," said Kia America's COO, Steve Center.

"A well-equipped three-row SUV EV doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. It should offer the perfect balance of standard features, the ability to fast charge, and be equipped with the technology savvy EV buyers are looking for. The EV9 provides all of this, and we can’t wait for it to go on sale later this year," he said.