Hyundai goes big with a seven-seat electric flagship that majors on practicality and long-distance refinement
Hyundai’s American proving ground in the Mojave Desert, where we’ve had an early taste of the new Hyundai Ioniq 9, is all about big: big skies, big temperatures and, erm, big tacos at the canteen.You could fit the entirety of LAX airport within the boundary of its high-speed oval, the mercury reliably tops 40deg C in summer and there’s mile after punishing mile of test track where the Korean firm can easily subject each of its new models to the most extreme and arduous conditions they will face in customers’ hands. This top-secret facility, best imagined as a sort of Millbrook Proving Ground on steroids, is where Hyundai’s engineers are in the final stages of development of the new flagship of the Ioniq EV range – which, with a kerb weight of around 2700kg, nearly 400 miles of range and well over 400bhp in its most potent form, is also a big old thing to wrap your head around.Based on the same E-GMP platform as Hyundai’s other Ioniq EVs and closely related to the same-sized Kia EV9, the Ioniq 9 will go on sale in mid-2025 with a choice of single- and dual-motor powertrains, either six or seven seats and a whopping 110.3kWh battery in its floorpan – larger than that of any EV currently on sale in the UK.Prices are expected to range from around £65,000 to nearer £80,000 for the range-topper, giving the Ioniq 9 a slight price advantage over its Kia cousin and a massive one over the Volvo EX90, which currently starts at nearly £100,000.