Kia America confirmed on Wednesday that the starting price of the 2024 EV9 will be just over $56,000. 

That’s for the EV9 Light, in single-motor rear-wheel-drive form, seating up to seven in three rows. The Light starts at $54,900, Kia says, but it hasn’t yet confirmed an exact destination fee. Assuming $1,365, that amounts to a total of $56,265.

With the Light, you also get a heated-and-cooled power driver’s seat, vinyl upholstery, 19-inch alloy wheels, a full suite of driver-assistance features, a next-generation version of Kia’s interface with dual 12.3-inch screens plus a small climate-control screen, and a digital key system that lets you use an NFC smart card or your phone to unlock and drive. Kia has noted that all three rows get cupholders and USB-C ports, and even with all three rows up in place there’s a bit over 20 cubic feet of cargo space—plus a small frunk. 

The key difference for the base Light will be its 76.1-kwh battery pack. A 99.8-kwh is available on the single-motor Light and included for the rest of the dual-motor all-wheel-drive lineup, including Wind, Land, and GT-Line models. 

The EV9 Light at this base price is expected to offer about 225 miles of EPA range, according to Kia, while the single-motor Light with the big battery will top the lineup in range at around 300 miles and the rest of the lineup should land in the range of 270-285 miles. All these are estimates as of yet, and they’re all aided by a remarkably good coefficient of drag—0.28 for the top GT-Line.

Kia has already confirmed that the EV9 will be the first EV with automaker-approved bidirectional charging applying both to home backup and vehicle-to-grid functionality. That applies to all versions of the EV9, and while it might take the larger battery to get all-wheel drive, the smaller battery is just fine for bidirectional charging. 

Wallbox Quasar 2 with Kia EV9

The EV9 will also be the only three-row electric SUV offered in the U.S. with 800-volt charging capability. The base EV9 will charge from 10-80% in 20 minutes (at a peak 236 kw), according to Kia, while the larger pack will take 24 minutes (at a peak 215 kw). The 11.5-kw onboard charger allows a full charge from a 48-amp, 240-volt home wallbox in 6.75 hours for this base model, or 8.75 hours with the larger pack.

At about 197 inches long, 70 inches high, and 78 inches wide, dimensions are close to those of Kia’s Telluride gasoline SUV, but it rides on a long 122-inch wheelbase. Consider it longer than the two-row BMW iX or Cadillac Lyriq but shorter than the Volvo EX90, among other three-rows. 

2024 Kia EV9 prototype drive

As Green Car Reports recently noted in a first review of the 2024 Kia EV9, this model will be a standout in the EV market, sized and priced unlike anything else available now. In this price range, shoppers can choose from many two-row electric crossovers with racy rooflines; and on the other hand, there is a group of three-row electric SUVs—including the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, Rivian R1S, and Tesla Model X, but all of those have luxury price tags. 

Initial EV9 deliveries won’t be eligible for the EV tax credit, as they’ll be shipped from South Korea. But starting in calendar year 2024 Kia will be building them in Georgia, so expect it to qualify for some or all of the $7,500 credit soon after that.