Styling
Accepting that automotive styling is ever and always subjective - so what we think is questionable, others might find thoroughly delightful, for example - we remain to be convinced by the look of the Hyundai Ioniq 9. There's no arguing it's imposing, because it is absolutely vast and makes no effort to hide that with the various tricks of the design trade which would potentially minimise its visual bulk. But it's as if Hyundai couldn't decide whether to make the 9's appearance all blocky and 'pixellated', just like the
Ioniq 5, or EV-range-boosting-smooth and aerodynamic as with the
Ioniq 6.
And so we reckon it is stuck between two stools when it comes to kerb appeal. There are lots of good bits on it, sure, and we're definitely not saying the huge Hyu is in any way ugly. But we're not as blown away with it as we were with the boxy Santa Fe (notwithstanding that SUV's controversial bootlid detailing). Also, something about the arched swage line on the Ioniq 9's flanks, plus the vertical tailgate and that huge black panel on the leading bumper, all combine awkwardly so that - when you view the Korean machine from the front three-quarters - a
trompe-l'oeil makes it appear like the nose of the Ioniq 9 is rearing into the air all the time. As if someone has loaded half-a-tonne of cement into its boot and then forgotten about the cargo thereafter. Ho-hum.
Interior
We've no such qualms about the interior of the Hyundai Ioniq 9. This is a most splendid cabin. Beautifully built. Intelligently laid-out, with a smart mix of useful physical switchgear (including for the climate) and wonderfully integrated, graphically clear technology. Loaded with goodies. A superb driving position, with impressive visibility out in all directions. And gorgeous, plush, accommodating seats that might be getting somewhere up close to
Volvo levels of comfort.
Yes, the passenger compartment of the Ioniq 9 can generally be considered a comprehensive winner and one of its strongest suits, especially as it comes with Hyundai's majestically easy-to-operate shortcuts for the most annoying ADAS functions, such as lane keep assist and overspeed warning: to deactivate the former, you simply press and hold the relevant button on the left-hand pad of the steering wheel; while to silence the latter it's the same haptic process but holding in the volume rotary dial on the right-hand spoke instead. Two longer presses each time you get in the SUV and you're done, although it's a shame the over-zealous driver monitoring system of the 9 is buried several layers deep within submenus on the 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen.
Practicality
Another area where the Ioniq 9 aces it. We'd say seats six and seven in the third row are still for smaller people on shorter journeys, but they're not merely token gestures and, even with them in place, the Hyundai offers 338 litres of cargo capacity; that's genuinely brilliant. Good configurability of the seating and masses of room elsewhere for human occupants are further (and major) plus points for this electric SUV, but the crowning glory is the number of cupholders this thing has. There are big storage and stowage compartments and solutions dotted all around the Ioniq 9's interior to help out with the grind of daily life, but if your (large) family are all particularly thirsty people, this is undoubtedly the machine for you. It has
eleven cupholders. Eleven! There are two in the front, six in the second row (two in each door and then another two, just for good measure, in the drop-down armrest), and a final three moulded into the side panels at the very back of the cabin. We think that is what you might legitimately term a 'surfeit' of cupholders, to be fair.
Performance
There's a five-strong family of Ioniq 9 models to go at, although all of them use the simply goliath 110.3kWh battery pack, of which about 106kWh is usable. A solitary, single-motor rear-wheel-drive Ioniq 9 kicks off the range and possesses 218hp, but from thereon in all these Hyundai EVs are dual-motor, all-wheel-drive variants. There's just the one Ultimate, which is what we're testing here, with 307hp/605Nm, but if you need a bit more than that (in terms of opulence and speed), then you'll want one of the three iterations of the Calligraphy flagship trim. There's a 307hp choice again, but the other two use an enhanced 427hp/700Nm set-up for swifter performance. The difference here is that one of the two comes with seven seats, or alternatively six... but for more money. That, of course, is because in the top-dog Calligraphy as specified, the middle three-seat bench is replaced by a couple of sumptuous captains' chairs instead.
You probably don't need the 427hp Ioniq 9, though, because this 307hp Ultimate AWD is a fine thing to drive on the roads. Judgement of both the throttle and brake pedals, the latter with four various modes of regenerative deceleration to go at (including a one-pedal-drive setting), is perfectly sweet, and something this big capable of moving from 0-62mph in only 6.7 seconds is more than rapid enough, thank you very much.
A gargantuan set of power cells also equals an eye-catching range and, in the specification of our test car, Hyundai claims 376 miles. We didn't quite get there, but we did achieve an excellent 301 miles between charges, with almost all that distance done on the motorway. Mind, eliciting an indicated three miles per kilowatt-hour from the Ioniq 9 in such circumstances required us to crawl down and back up the M1 (to and from Heathrow) with the climate off and doing a radar-cruise-mandated 62mph; and, for one extended period, slipstreaming a Flixbus heading south, all the way from Northampton to the M1/M25 interchange, in order to eke out the reserves.
Nevertheless, across 495 miles of mixed-roads testing overall, a commendable 2.9 miles/kWh was recorded and the Ioniq 9 always did the miles it claimed on its distance-to-empty reading in the cluster. It also charged quickly, twice, at an InstaVolt DC unit near our base, both times sucking down electric at a steady 120kW even in cooler conditions. So despite the fact its battery pack is more than twice the size of that of the
44kWh Citroen e-C3 Aircross which kicked off our 2026 road-testing year, it was charging at four times the rate that the smaller EV was managing on exactly the same supply unit. Thus, we spent a lot less (wasted) time at the charger in the Ioniq 9, waiting for it to hit 80 per cent indicated - validation for the Hyundai's advanced 800-volt architecture.
Ride & Handling
A mega battery like the 110kWh lump fitted to the Ioniq 9 means mega range... but also mega weight. Tipping the scales at approaching a scarcely believable 2.75 tonnes in certain specifications, there's not much to note about the humongous Hyundai's handling other than it is clean and it is acceptable. But you're honestly not going to hustle something of this epic scale about in the corners, even if the steering is nice, there's loads of grip and the traction plus instant hit of 605Nm of torque means you can fire the Ioniq 9 out of corners at a relatively indecent pace. No, otherwise, there's a pervading air of lots of mass permeating everything the Hyundai does on the move, while body roll is quite pronounced
in extremis because the suspension on the SUV is pretty soft in the reckoning.
That, though, leads onto its forte, which is quite supreme rolling refinement and comfort. On its 20-inch alloys and trying to corral the heft of 2,700kg-plus, the Ioniq 9 is by no means universally flawless in this department, but the occasions of lumpy wheel control and muffled thumps from the suspension towers bleeding discernably into the passenger compartment are few and far between, and the Hyundai certainly had to soak up some truly tragic road surfaces during its week on test with us. On better surfaces and at speed (i.e., cruising up and down the M1 in the aerodynamic wake of a service bus), the Ioniq 9 is utterly imperious. And, at the end of the day, when it comes to sizeable seven-seat SUVs like this, having exemplary ride comfort and being subdued at pace is far preferable to any sort of kinematic acuity in the corners. It's therefore a glowing report for the Hyundai from us in this department.
Value
As much as Hyundai has made significant leaps and bounds forward in terms of its perceived prestige and the undeniable ability of many of its products, you're still going to have to fend off incredulous 'how much?!' queries when you reveal the list price of your Ioniq 9. The range starts from - starts, mind - £64,995 for the solitary single-motor RWD Premium, with an AWD Ultimate slathered in a £1,250 matte-effect paint like our tester tipping in at more than 73 grand. The Calligraphy, meanwhile, is £75,795 in 307hp format, £77,595 with the power ramped up to 427hp and seven seats, and £78,595 in the sybaritic six-chair configuration.
Thus, despite the fact that there's simply oodles of kit fitted to the Ioniq 9 as standard, with the few cost options there are available at ordering time then you could feasibly end up with an £80,000 Hyundai when all's said and done. How comfortably that notion sits with you depends on how you view the Ioniq 9 in the framework of other seven-seat electric SUVs, because the
Kia EV9 ain't that much cheaper and the underwhelming yet ideologically similar
Volvo EX90 is a heck of a lot more. Or, indeed, whether you can shake off long-held, historical preconceptions of Hyundai's position in the marketplace, as this Korean manufacturer is no longer just a budget also-ran but arguably one of the leading lights in every sector of the industry it competes in. What we're trying to say here is that our test model didn't feel terribly overpriced at the figure previously discussed, essentially, although we're in no way about to christen it a 'bargain' as a counterpoint.
Verdict
It's another marvellous showing from Hyundai with the Ioniq 9, the company delivering a thoroughly likeable and classy-feeling big family SUV that's assuredly one of the finer EVs in the marketplace right now. It doesn't quite hit the highest peaks that this marque is capable of, for us, because we're not 100 per cent sold on the styling, its pricing (while reasonable in the electric landscape) cannot be ignored when the talented Santa Fe is around for a good chunk less cash, and the sheer weight of the thing does bring certain dynamic compromises to the fore. But if you're after a largely all-round brilliant electric family mover, you could do a lot worse than the charismatic Hyundai Ioniq 9 AWD, that's for sure.
