How Fast Does the 2024 Kia EV9 Charge?

If you’re a shopper considering Kia’s EV9 all-electric three-row SUV, a primary consideration is likely “how fast does the EV9 charge?” Kia has its own estimates, of course, but we’ve put over 5,000 miles on our long-term 2024 EV9 Land with all-wheel drive and have dozens of recorded charging sessions to provide you with actual real-world data to give you a better idea of how fast it charges and what that can mean for your ownership experience.

Related: How Long Does It Take to Charge an Electric Car?

Know Your Limitations

The first thing to know is that the EV9, like any electric vehicle, has its own charging limitations. With a gas-powered vehicle, your fill-up time is affected by the size of the gas tank and the flow rate of the pump. With an EV, battery size and charging-equipment charge rate (flow) affect overall charging time, but so too does the maximum charge rate that the EV itself can accept, which may be lower than what the charging equipment can provide.

The EV9 has either a 76.1-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery, which goes in the base Light trim level, or a 99.8-kWh battery, which goes in all other trims (note that this is total battery capacity; usable capacity is always slightly lower, but Kia doesn’t publish that figure). The EV9’s maximum DC fast-charging rate also varies depending on battery size; the smaller battery has a peak DC fast-charging rate of 235 kilowatts, while the larger battery accepts up to 210 kW. The maximum AC charging rate for all EV9s is 10.9 kW.

How Fast Does Our Kia EV9 Charge on Level 2 Charging Equipment?

Most of our editors have home charging equipment, and Level 2 charging has been a frequent source of juice for our EV9. We’ve averaged about 0.4 mile per minute with Level 2 charging, and we’ve been plugged in for an average of 434 minutes per charging session, or 7 hours and 14 minutes. That’s almost enough time to watch the extended versions of the first two Lord of the Rings movies. A more typical way our staff has spent that time has been sleeping, as the EV9 is most often plugged-in overnight then unplugged the next day when it’s either reached 100% state of charge or it’s time to drive again. (Since not every charger accurately states when charging actually stopped, our mile-per-minute number is a rough estimate.)

How Fast Does Our Kia EV9 Charge on Public DC Fast Chargers?

While our EV9 can accept up to 210 kW when charging on a DC fast charger, not every station can deliver that much power. Some 350-kW stations can deliver more than that, but, again, the EV9 will not be able to accept more. Rather than break out each DC fast-charging session by the charger’s stated power — from 50 kW to 350 kW — we’ve kept them together because every fast charger you encounter will likely not all be operating at the same power level. Our practice when fast charging is also usually to stop the session when the battery reaches 80% state of charge — both because the charging speed is throttled dramatically after 80% and because it’s better for the health of the battery.

On DC fast chargers, we’re averaging 5.6 miles per minute, a 1300% increase compared to Level 2 charging. For these sessions, our average charging time is around 33 minutes, and our range-added average is slightly more than 181 miles. On 50-, 100- and 150-kW DC fast chargers, we’ve observed peak speeds that matched or were very close to the charger’s stated speed. On 350-kW chargers, we’ve seen peak speeds at or near the EV9’s max of 210 kW. It’s worth noting that these are peak speeds rather than constant ones, but so far, it doesn’t seem like there has been excessive throttling at these public stations when charging the EV9. A possible exception might be our lone session at a 250-kW Tesla Supercharger with a Magic Dock adapter, which peaked at just 88.2 kW.

What Can You Learn From This?

The main takeaways from our experience thus far are that charging at home remains the easiest and most worry-free method of charging an EV, and that public DC fast-charging stations seem to be getting better about delivering their stated charging power — or as much as your EV will allow. We’ve yet to spend a winter with the EV9, when range and charging will be adversely impacted by the cold, but it’ll be here soon enough, and we’ll be keeping track of how it goes.

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• How Well Does the Kia EV9’s Digital Key Work?
• Long-Term 2024 Kia EV9 5,000-Mile Update
• How Well Does the Kia EV9 Handle Family Duty?
• What to Know Before Purchasing an Electric Vehicle: A Buying Guide

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