There's a new flagship EV SUV in town with a Hyundai badge on the nose: the IONIQ 9. An all-new three-row, seven-passenger SUV, the IONIQ 9 offers quite a bit of range, impressive space, and a luxurious vibe. To my eyes it looks like an SUV combined with a minivan in the best of ways.
It offers some of the modern-retro vibes that the IONIQ 5 and 6 designers cultivated with all sorts of pixelated design elements incorporated into the headlights, taillights, and even the charge-port door. Hyundai's E-GMP (Electric Global Modular Platform) provides the underpinnings for the IONIQ 9, the same platform that the Kia EV9 rides on. And, while these two three-row SUVs from the sister brands are similar, the new IONIQ 9 has some features that set it apart.
The IONIQ 9 has a massive 110.3-kWh battery (compared to the EV9's already-large 99.8 kWh battery) with an estimated range as large as 335 miles on long-range models.
According to Hyundai, the goal is for every IONIQ 9 to have over 300 miles of range – something that will certainly help it stand out in the class. It's admittedly a limited class of rivals with only a few three-row EV SUVs available, like the Rivian R1S , the Tesla Model X (and to some degree the Model Y ), and the aforementioned EV9. But the IONIQ 9 has an upscale feel from the jump and lots of impressive equipment, so it's poised to be a strong competitor from day one.
At launch, there will be two versions of the IONIQ 9: Long-Range and Performance. The Long-range .