The KIA EV9 is now open for booking as Dinamikjaya Motors, the Korean marque’s official Malaysian distributor, has announced. This piece of news follows the EV9’s double wins at the 2024 World Car Awards ceremony.

Held following the conclusion of the New York Motor Show on April 7th, the World Car Awards winners were selected by selected by a jury of 100 automotive journalists from 29 countries. There, the EV9 bagged the coveted World Car of the Year and World Electric Vehicle titles.

With the EV9 soon to be added as another fully electric feather in Bermaz’s cap, it will be joining previous award winner, the EV6, as well as the Niro EV in the local line-up. We’ll have more on this as its official launch date approaches, so stay tuned.

So far, not much is known about the EV9 in its Malaysian specification. Like the EV6 currently sold here and with which it shares the E-GMP platform, the EV9 could emerge as a single variant (GT-Line) model just as it is offered in Singapore.

There, it’s equipped with a ‘Long Range’ 99.8kWh lithium ion polymer battery and dual electric motors for all-wheel drive and a combined output of 385PS and 700Nm. That’s enough to shoot the 2.6 tonne EV9 to 100km/h in 5.3 seconds while range is estimated at 647km (NEDC).

We’re a little murky on pricing. Of course, given its position at the top of KIA’s fully electric pecking order, the EV9 will naturally land north of the EV6’s price tag of RM319k. In Thailand, the EV9 in GT-Line trim is sold for 3,899,000 Baht (around RM505k).

Identical to the locally sold EV6, however, the EV9 should be equally offered with a 5-years (or 150,000km) vehicle warranty and an 8-years (or 160,000km) battery warranty.

In terms of the competitive landscape in Malaysia, the EV9 shouldn’t have too many rivals to worry about as the majority of automakers are focused on smaller electric models.

The only large SUVs that fall into this ‘zero emissions’ category would be the BMW iX and Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV, though both of those only offer 2-rows of seating as opposed to the EV9’s 3-rows.