Kia EV9 vs Volvo XC90: Who makes the coolest family SUV?
Full-size electric 7- seat SUVs are something of a rarity with the Tesla Model X now leftand drive only your options for now are the vastly expensive Mercedes eqs SUV a van type EV or this the new Kia ev9 with six or 7 seat layouts nearly 350 Mi of electric range
And prices from 65 to 76,000 it is a bold new design and a bold new price range for the Korean brand but there is another rival that might peque your interest if you’re after an electrified fullsize 7 seat family SUV and that is this the Volvo XC90 now this is not a
Full electric car this is a plug-in hybrid but it has just been updated so you now get up to 41 Mi of pure electric running and it’s also now got a Google based infotainment system and it will be on sale for the foreseeable future even though the XC90 has been around for a
Long time and even though Volvo is introducing an all new pure electric 7- seat SUV this year called the ex90 which will also be a rival to the Kia but that new ex90 is going to be a lot more expensive than the Kia a lot plusher and
Uh so for the Fable if you want a 7 seat Volvo well this is the one for you with a full EV and a plug-in hybrid we are no doubt comparing apples and oranges here but the Volvo cost a similar price at7 to £83,000 Across the range and if you
Want all the seats and all of the luxury in an electrified SUV then these are likely to be the two options on your rather short list the v9 is of course the new Contender Base air models get 200 brake horsepower and rear wheeel drive for an official range of 349 Mi
While the rest of the range including the range topping GT line S that we’ve got here gets all-wheel drive 379 brake horsepower and Rings 313 mi from the 99.8 KW battery as for how it looks well Kia describes the ev9 as having Rock Solid geometry complete with a distinctive upright headlight design
That’s dubbed the digital tiger face I’d describe it as obnoxiously modern really and that is definitely something that you’re either going to love or you might hate the one good thing about the Kia being so massive is that you get loads of space inside which really let’s face
It is why anybody’s going to buy this car so it is of course a seven seater as standard or you can have this is in a six- seat layout as well we’ve got the seven seat version here um and as you can see the boot is absolutely vast it’s
Quite a high load lip I will say that but there’s masses of space in there for everything and you got these very fancy uh seats here electric adjustment and even with these seats up you’ve got 333 lers of space which for some context is bigger than quite a lot of super Min
Boots so it’s like having a whole car boot in the back there even with seven people satting there so you got space for a buggy and some soft bags it’s really useful and you’ve got a cubby under the Bonnet of the car too which is ideal for storing your cables but of
Course the main reason that most people go for a huge seven seater like this is because they’re going to use those seats a lot so what is it like in that third row of the Kia ev9 well access is good cuz you’ve got an automated system here
Which slides this seat right forward so there’s loads of space to get in and when you’re sating here do you know what it’s really not bad you’ve got cup holders there’s even a light up here which is great and air vents that’s really important and there’s even a charging Point too so it
Is really comfy you do have to sacrifice a bit of leg room in the middle row to have enough knee space back here I would say that um but generally do you know what I think if you need to carry seven adults the KY is one of the best SUVs
Out there the middle row of seats slide and recline and give you absolutely tons of space even if the seats have been slid forward it really is a very spacious place to be plus there’s charging points and climate control for those in the back too equipment in the
Kia really is very generous even in the entry level model uh you still get vehicle to load charging so that you can charge all your devices from the high voltage battery if you want to uh plus you got loads of other equipment basically everything that you want even
In the entry-level car uh including heated seats in here and in the middle row which is great but I think most people are going to go for the GT line because you have to go for that if you want four-wheel drive plus you get your bigger Wheels sort of upgraded styling
And if you go for the GT line S the top spec car that we’ve got here well that gets you the panoramic sunroof the head-up display uh upgraded uh seat adjustment loads of stuff so I think that’s probably still going to be the most popular trim not only that but of
Course you also get a really impressive Ive infotainment system in every ev9 so you get 12.3 in screen behind the wheel gives you all your readouts you can change the layout of that too plus you’ve got your main 12.3 in touchscreen in the center here that’s got all of
Your features on here that you want Apple carplay and Android auto are standard but they’re not wireless so you’ll have to remember your cable you do get satnav Bluetooth and all the other features that you expect plus the very smart touch sensitive short cut Keys beneath the main screen we actually
Found it a bit confusing to get used to the system in the K initially the system in a Tesla or even the system in the Kia ev6 is a bit more intuitive but with time you do get used to it and you don’t have to rely on that climate control
Screen to change the temperature because you’ve got voice commands or there are some excellent straightforward buttons on the dash so the Volvo XC90 well this thing has been around since 2015 so that’s quite a long time for a new car model but it is Testament to the
Original design that I think this still looks really fresh it has had a couple of of facelift really mild sort of tweak to the design but I still think it looks really smart very clean I think arguably boring maybe compared to the Kia which is sort of really sort striking and
Standout design the Volvo You could argue It’s claria You could argue it’s boring it’s really a case of opinion isn’t it it’s whatever suits you but certainly I think the Volvo looks pretty smart to my eyes anyway uh not only that but it’s also actually still really good
Inside as with the Kia the Volvo has got a massive boot that will serve even even the most outdoorsy family well but next to the KY there is a fraction less space behind the third row still pretty good though and absolutely huge plus a completely flat load bait if you drop those back
Seats so let’s find out what it’s like in the third row of the Volvo so you do have a nice easy manual adjustment for the seat there but there is nowhere near the space to get into these back seats that you get in the Kia access is much
Harder in the Volvo but when you’re back here you know what it’s really not too bad you do have enough leg room if you’re a sort of average sized adult like me I’m 5′ 7 it’s not too bad and you’ve got your air vents got a little
Cup holder here um there’s no charging port like there is in the Kia and I have to say in truth they’re just the narrower seats back here there’s not quite as much Headroom it all feels a bit more enclosed really in this car these feel like kind of occasional seats
That you going to want to put the kids in an adult will be fine for a short journey in the Kia it feels like you can do seven adults up for a long journey and they’ll be absolutely fine back here so definitely if you want seven adults regularly the Volvo probably isn’t the
Best SUV out there there’s not much to complain about in the Volvo which also gets a huge amount of space for the middle row occupants not quite as much as in the Kia but still plenty by any standards plus the seats slide and recline individually and you get climate
Control and heated outer seats I absolutely love it up front in the Volvo but I would add that if I were to pay a car manufacturer to design and furnish my living room it would be Volvo cuz I just love the materials they use I love
The colors and the textures and I just love that sort of unmistakably Scandinavian finish that you get it’s just lovely even though the XC90 is quite an old car it doesn’t feel old and I would also add that I think the Volvo’s got the more comfortable seats than the Kia four-way adjustable Lumber
Support as standard and it’s just really nice ergonomically so I think it’s lovely driving position really nice materials that definitely feel a bit classier than in the Kia and uh yeah the interior is definitely a big selling point for the Volvo you also get really good equipment comparable to the Kia
Which is not bad at all so whichever of the trims you go for in the Volvo or the Kia you’re probably not going to add too many options if there is anything that dates the Volvo it’s probably the infotainment system the Google based software on the Volvo is a real crowd
Pleaser with all the straightforward usability of Google Maps that most of us have used to the screen is fast to respond and has good graphics too but the menus aren’t always that easy to find and to be honest the system is one of the things that does date to this car
Compared to the K so enough of the practicality stuff let’s talk about how these cars drive and I’m going to start with the Kia uh right you’re talking about a 2.6 ton car that has got 700 newton meters of torque here uh it is very powerful and it will
Do not to 62 in 5.3 seconds it is not slow and you get a real slug of power it’s quite in congruous it doesn’t feel like this car should have that much power but it does and it’s quite fun in its own way even if I’ll be honest I
Don’t really think it needs that much power and I think you’re very rarely going to use it cuz this is just a car that’s much more at home kind of mooching about really being nice and relaxed and nice and chilled and uh that’s where its real strength is it’s
Got air suspension around I have to say the road surface on this road is really terrible you can probably hear it thumping away most of the time this car is really quite quiet suspension and otherwise um and that sort of refinement is a real specialty it’s just really
Nice and relaxing sedate I like the fact that the brake regen is very adjustable control it with the paddles here you can have it adaptive or not that’s great I think K have nailed that um nice Progressive throttle response there is quite a lot of body movement um but
Actually I think this is probably better controlled than in the Volvo the Volvo is slightly more wallowy which is surprising uh the K actually controls itself reasonably well in Corners it’s not a car that you’re going to really want to drive in a very sort of uh spirited fashion but it does a
Reasonable job when you do so I think the Kia does a really good job really for a car this enormous it controls itself very well as for charging in the ev9 this gets an impressive 800 volt electrical system so that you can charge at 210 KW for an 80% charging under 25
Minutes despite the huge battery however despite the standard heat pump in Winter you should expect to see around 220 M to a charge if our experience of the ev9 in crispy winter conditions is anything to go by do expect that to climb up to around 260 to 280 m per charge in the
Summer so the Volvo then do you know what this is really lovely to drive it’s quite a different thing to the Kia so obviously this is a plug-in hybrid so we know that it’s got a petrol Engine 2 L 4- cylinder supercharged and turbocharged plus of course you’ve got
That battery and the electric motor which is mounted on the rear axle so short of uh having you know some kind of enormous fan on the back of this car this car is pretty much force induced in every possible fashion it’s quite cool and we’re in electric mode at the moment
And it really does sort of hum along really nice and quiet and there is nothing about this car the way it drives that makes it feel old I do think that’s quite impressive it’s just lovely really chilled as with the ev9 actually it’s not a car that you want to drive quickly
Even though you can I mean this thing’s got over 400 brake horsepower and will do n to 62 in much the same time as the ev9 so 5.4 seconds not bad is it and interestingly if you do wake up that petrol engine it’s uh it makes a fantastic
Noise in the background it’s not very iny face but it does really burble away so there’s character to the Volvo and it’s also quite gentrified it’s sort of got that kind of wallow to it and you know you just want to mooch along and enjoy yourself and not drive too quickly
And take life slowly and I think that’s exactly what most families will want from this car it’s really comfy really easy to drive you’ve got all all of the control over the hybrid systems that you want so you can have it in pure EV mode
You can leave it in hybrid and it does its own thing you can also tell it to charge the battery with the petrol engine but that will have a hit on economy of course um so it’s clever stuff it’s got all the features that you
Want um in terms of the kind of range you’re going to get from this car well I think in reality you’ll be very lucky to see you know 41 Mi out of it I think in practice more like sort of 28 up to about 36 mil is an absolute best in
Terms of economy this is the problem with plugin hybrids isn’t it because it’s how long is a piece of string it absolutely depends on how you use it if you charge this car regularly and only do shorter Journeys well you might see incredible economy you might barely ever
Need to use the petrol engine at all which means that you can use off peak electricity rates and have really really cheap running costs but if you do use it for high mileage which most plug-in hybrid drivers will then you’re actually probably not going to see much better
Economy than you’ll get in one of the mild hybrid diesels that you can get in in the XC90 it’s uh it’s a bit of a quandry in that respect with plug-in hybrid so for instance uh I had one of these previously and did a you know a
Drive of it’s about 100 120 Mi I think started with a full battery and I think we managed about 42 43 MPG and that’s not bad for a car with this sort of performance and you know this big this is still a it’s it’s 2.3 tons this car it’s not
Light but it’s good enough to justify the cost given this is a lot more expensive than a mild hybrid petrol or diesel equivalent well that’s really up to you your lifestyle and how you buy it even so I really like the XC90 and I really like the way it drives it’s a
Really nice thing I think actually it’s just as pleasant as the Kia if not a little bit more charging in the Volvo has been upped from 3.6 kW to just over 6 Kow as of the 2023 update so you can now charge the battery in 5 hours from a
Standard 7 Kow home charger it won’t charge any faster than that no matter how powerful the charger may be that you plug into as this is dictated by the hardware in the car so we’ve got to that point where we need to decide which one of these two
Cars is best but before we do that I want to talk about the money side of things because this isn’t really just a question of which of these cars better fits your lifestyle in terms of the powertrain it’s really about how you’re buying the car as well now retail buyers
Are almost certainly going to be paying monthly for these cars whether it’s leasing or PCP uh and it’s a big disparity in price on these two cars in that respect so the Kia even if you’ve got a £5,000 deposit you’re going to be paying around £1,200 per month it is not
Cheap the Volvo on the other hand well there are quite a lot of deals out there there’s some low interest offers or you can go for a more subscription based uh deal where it’s about under 900 deposit and then the same per month so there
Really is a big saving to go for the Volvo so if you’re retail buyer that might be a big incentive in favor of the Volvo however even more people drive driving these cars are probably going to be company car drivers and if you’re paying benefit in kind tax well the Kia
Is the much cheaper option so that is actually just over 500 per year in the tax year 23 24 for the Kia whereas the Volvo is 2,000 more than that per year if you’re a 40% taxpayer so there really is a big disparity depending on how
You’re paying so that may well be what clinches it for these two cars but if it comes down to Lifestyle well I have to say the KY really is the better of these two cars I really like the XC90 and I can absolutely see why you’d go for it I
Think Volvo is just it’s a master class in a sort of quality interior finish and classy understated design I love it but the Kia is so much more spacious inside in many ways and just a bit more versatile and easier to use the seats are a little bit easier to adjust and
Slide and tilt and all of that stuff the infotainment system’s better it feels much more modern so I do think that the Kia has got all of that going for it plus you might argue that the PV aspect makes it a bit more future proof but I
Can absolutely see why a lot of people might not yet be ready for the transition to EV and for that then the plug-in hybrid really is tempting so it really does come down to your lifestyle and how you’re buying both of these cars are great but if I had to pick one well
I would go for the Kia don’t forget to head to cargurus.com so that you don’t miss any of our videos
The all-new Kia EV9 is a fully electric SUV with six or seven seats and ultra-modern styling. It’s a great car, but for the same money wouldn’t you rather have a Volvo XC90 seven-seater?
That’s what Vicky Parrott sets out to answer in this CarGurus UK review, in which she compares the fully electric Kia with the plug-in hybrid Volvo. An apples to oranges comparison it might be, but with the recently updated Volvo offering up to 40 miles of EV range the theory is that could be enough for many families to do the majority of their driving on electric power.
In this video, Vicky compares the two cars for space and practicality, quality, technology and infotainment, driving impressions, performance, purchase price and running costs. There’s a strong case to be made for either, but which would you choose?
Search for a Volvo XC90 on CarGurus: https://www.cargurus.co.uk/Cars/l-Used-Volvo-XC90-d2484
Volvo XC90 review: https://www.cargurus.co.uk/research/Volvo-XC90-2015-mg346
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