Between being unveiled in concept form in 2021 and reaching production, Hyundai’s newest SUV grew. Not literally but figuratively: the Seven became the Hyundai Ioniq 9, an adjustment intended to crown the large six- or seven-seater as the flagship of the Korean firm’s electric range (and possibly to ensure parity with sister brand Kia’s related EV9…). Given how many car makers have tripped over their own nomenclature when trying to add EVs into their already bulging line-ups (yes, Audi, we’re looking at you), credit to Hyundai for the pre-emptive minor course adjustment. And in its size, ambition and lashings of premium splendour, this car feels every inch the king of Hyundai’s ‘chess piece’ Ioniq family. So given how big it is in terms of size, ambition and battery capacity, can Hyundai's newest EV tempt buyers away from premium brands such as Audi, Range Rover and Volvo? Hyundai's 'chess piece' design concept for its electric Ioniq sub-brand refers to its determination to give each model a distinct character. Sure enough, park the Ioniq 9 next to the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 and only the badge and details such as the pixel light graphics would give away how closely related they are. It's definitely a car that looks better in the metal than it does in pictures. The proportions make more sense the more you look at it, and there are so many intricate details to take in: the hidden patterns behind the ‘grille’, the wheels that look like they’re off a ’70s Alpina (but they’re 21in rather than 15in) and the way the back looks like a time-travelling Mk2 Volvo V70. In this age of amorphous electric blobs, the Ioniq 9 has a style of its own. It’s definitely an SUV, but there are distinct notes of MPV and estate in its side profile and rear design. Look closely and you will spot a sculpted underbody, active air shutters, a wake-reducing rear end, aerodynamically honed alloy wheels and a Formula 1-like Coke-bottle design. All this means the Ioniq 9 has a drag coefficient of just 0.26 (0.27 if you opt for actual door mirrors rather than digital items, as most buyers are likely to), which is impressive for a car of this size. For comparison, that's better than both the smaller Ioniq 5 (0.29) and equivalent Kia EV9 (0.28). Of course, it's an enormous car with lots of surface area, so a windknife this is not. The Ioniq 9 is based on the Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP platform, and while there will be three powertrain options at launch, all will be fitted with the same 110.3kWh battery (whose total and usable capacities are slightly bigger than those of the EV9). The entry-level car has a single rear motor with 215bhp, the AWD version adds and 89bhp motor on the front axle for a total of 303bhp and the Performance AWD has a pair of 211bhp motors for a total of 422bhp. The platform has an 800V electrical architecture, so the battery can be charged at speeds of up to 233kW, and there’s a vehicle-to-load outlet in the boot for powering external devices. We will get to what the Ioniq 9 is like to drive, but this car is at least as good to be driven in. No matter what position the front seats are in, room in the back is huge, and it comes with all the amenities (such as heated and cooled seats) you could want. A bench is standard but in top-spec Calligraphy trim you can opt for a pair of captain's chairs that can swivel 180deg when stationary to turn the rear into a proper mobile lounge. Mind you, actually swivelling those big chairs is a little awkward: they need to be in the right position, the door needs to be open and if the third row is up, legroom is not great. Still, the seats have lots of adjustment and are very comfortable.   Entry-level Premium gets wool-blend fabric seats. Neither the material nor the seats themselves feel as posh as in a Volvo, but they're very pleasant nonetheless and much nicer than the faux leather you get in many new cars.Illya VerpraetRoad Tester Yes, promising an EV with a ‘mobile lounge’ interior has become a bit of a car-design cliché, but the Ioniq 9 really does get close to it. In fact, the word that comes to mind is 'palatial' – a description reinforced by the marble-effect panel in the dashboard. Elsewhere, there are quirky shapes and patterns and so many cubbies and trays. This is the opposite of those generic Chinese EVs that are just a big screen and acres of fake leather, and it is all the better for it. Of course, the materials aren’t on the same planet as those in an EX90, but we prefer the Ioniq’s copious buttons and near-faultless usability to the Volvo's fiddly user interface. On both counts, it feels like a step up from a Volkswagen ID Buzz. Adults can just about squeeze themselves into the third row, but as in most seven-seaters, they will be pretty cramped. However, this is one of just a few seven-seat SUVs with Isofix points in the third row, so you can actually park a pair of children back there safely. Even with the rearmost seats in place, there’s a large, 338-litre boot; fold them down and there’s a 908-litre cargo bay; but fold down the second row as well and you get a van-like 2419 litres. There's a small frunk too: 88 litres in the single-motor version, 52 in the dual-motor ones. And unlike on many EVs, it's opened by pressing a button in the interior or on the key; there's no need to pull a lever and fumble for a bonnet catch. It’s plenty spacious and comfortable up front too. The driving position is commanding and high and, with the sculpted bonnet and flat rear end, visibility is good all round. The dashboard will be familiar to anyone who has driven a new Hyundai recently, with the touchscreen and digital instrument display complemented by a decent array of physical buttons and steering wheel controls. The infotainment system is the latest version of that offered on other Ioniqs, and it’s well thought through: particularly pleasing was the remaining range indicator, which showed average but also best- and worst-case scenarios. The built-in navigation is clearer and less distracting than Google Maps and has up-to-date traffic info.  There’s a large centre console between the front seats and plenty of storage space. The materials used for the interior trim all feel good quality, and there’s a fancy Bose stereo system that does sound good. Much like the EV9, you can see the Ioniq 9 turning some heads among potential buyers of more prestigiously badged SUVs. The entry-level Long Range RWD model uses a single 215bhp motor on the rear axle and offers a headline-grabbing official range of 385 miles. The Long Range AWD adds a 94bhp motor on the front axle, while the range-topping Performance AWD uses a pair of 215bhp motors, giving maximum system outputs of 429bhp and 516lb ft, for a 0-62mph time of 5.2sec and a range of around 315 miles. That's quite rapid for a large SUV that can carry seven people. Hyundai says the intent was to deliver a “luxurious and refined” drive, and it delivers well on that score. The Performance powertrain enables it to accelerate faster than you would expect of a 2.6-tonne car, and the power delivery is calm and linear. It's reasonably well-balanced, with that instant hit of torque that allows EVs to get up to speed quickly but without overdoing it like some rivals.  That kind of get-up and go is nice to have, of course, but the Ioniq 9 is a hauler of people and stuff, not a sports car, so we'd be perfectly content with the entry-level single-motor 215bhp version. Taking 9.4sec to 62mph, it's not fast, but not annoyingly so. The nice thing about EVs is that with no engine noise, it doesn't matter whether you're feathering or booting the accelerator, the experience is the same – and rather more relaxed than in a hybrid Santa Fe. The single-motor car is also a lot more efficient than the dual-motor one, giving it a longer range. As on other Hyundai and Kia EVs, the regen is very well managed. Steering wheel paddles allow you to cycle between freewheeling, regen, one-pedal and adaptive modes, conforming to the driver's preferences. They're all smooth and progressive, as is the brake pedal. There are also various drive modes, which alter the performance settings. When you floor the accelerator in Normal, the power actually builds up gradually, whereas it's more responsive in Sport. Apart from that, the modes make very little difference to the experience, particularly given that there's no adjustable suspension. The Ioniq 9 has a MacPherson-strut front set-up and a multi-link rear, with the suspension tuned for the extra EV weight. There are also self-levelling dampers and a chassis control system that features dynamic torque vectoring. However, this is where you notice why the Ioniq 9 is still a lot cheaper than the blue-chip luxury options. The Ioniq 9 doesn’t have air suspension or four-wheel steering, and it shows. With a 12.5m turning circle and 2.9 turns lock to lock, manoeuvring in a tight car park requires much circumspection. With no motor or driveshafts in the way, you would expect the single-motor car to have a tighter turning circle, but that isn't the case.   I confess I quite like how the camera mirrors give a much wider field of view than normal mirrors and draw helpful lines on the picture to show where you’ll end up if you change lanes. The eye strain and the cost mean I’d still go for normal ones, but they seem to be improving. Illya VerpraetRoad Tester The ride is always a bit lumpy too. Bumpy roads cause some head toss, and surface corrugations will send slight tremors through the car. Because the suspension is quite soft and the tyres have chunky sidewalls even with 21in wheels, the ride never gets grating, but it can't muster the kind of isolation some might hope for. Even so, settling for the single-motor Premium, which has 19in wheels, does improve the ride by a useful amount. Acoustic refinement on the motorway is fine, but it's otherwise unremarkable. That soft suspension and slow steering mean you shouldn't take Performance trim to mean it's engaging in the corners. It hangs on well enough, but there's a lot of pitch and roll if you try to drive it in a dynamic way. If anything, the single-motor version is the better handler. With no front drive to corrupt the steering, it's very smooth and progressive, and even has a bit of feel. Squeeze the accelerator out of a corner, and you feel a bit of gentle rotation, although the stability control is always very cautious. This isn’t a particularly dynamic car to drive, but it’s not really intended to be: the king is far from the most dynamic piece on a chess board, after all. We've found Hyundai's ADAS to be quite irksome on other recent models, but it seems to have been tamed better for the Ioniq 9. The adaptive cruise control still isn't the most responsive in the business, but it's liveable and actually quite smooth in stop-start traffic. The lane keeping assistance and overspeed warning can be disabled by holding the relevant steering wheel buttons, and we didn't experience any nagging from the driver monitoring system. The Ioniq 9 may boast quite a good drag coefficient, but it's also enormous, so its huge frontal area means it was always going to punch the air out of its way by force. We've also observed in other Hyundai and Kia EVs that its motor and inverter tech is falling behind on efficiency. The result is that the Ioniq needs quite a lot of power. The WLTP efficiency figures for the different versions are surprisingly close together: 3.1mpkWh for the single-motor car and 3.0mpkWh for the AWD Performance, so official range from that 110.3kWh battery spans from 373 to 385 miles. In practice, however, we've found them to be further apart.  We drove the Performance on a perfect summer's day and got only 2.7mpkWh. If we assume a usable battery capacity of 105kWh, that gives 284 miles of range, which isn't really good enough. The slower and shorter-range ID Buzz GTX won’t do any better, but the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV and BMW iX will both crack 3.0mpkWh and 300 miles in similar circumstances. When we later tried the single-motor version on a mild winter's day, we saw 3.0mpkWh. That's still not setting new standards but means the Ioniq 9 is capable of breaching the psychological barrier of 300 miles of range. The Ioniq 9's 230kW rapid charging is very good but no longer up there with the best: the latest 800V EVs get closer to 300kW. We've not done a rapid charging test yet, but it's likely it will perform similarly to the Kia EV9, which maintained over 200kW past 50% charge. AC charging tops out at 11kW, so that big battery will take a while to fill. To make sure the Ioniq 9 retains as much of its range as possible in winter, it is helped by both a new heat pump designed to recycle waste heat and an HVAC system that will automatically deactivate for the second and third rows if the car detects nobody is back there. In the UK, Hyundai offers three trim levels. Entry-level Premium costs £64,995, is very well-equipped and is always tied to the single-motor powertrain. One step up is Ultimate, which adds battery pre-conditioning, a head-up display and improved cameras, among other things. It always comes with the 303bhp dual motors. Finally, there's Calligraphy, which adds nappa leather, 21in wheels and the options of the six-seat layout, camera mirrors and the 421bhp Performance motors. Tick all the boxes and you're looking at a nearly £80,000 Hyundai. Then again, that's still less than the entry-level Volvo EX90. There’s still a dearth of options in the market for seven-seat electric SUVs, but the Ioniq 9 feels like it would be a strong contender even against a far more crowded field.  Returning to that chess piece analogy, it really does feel like a fitting king of Hyundai's bespoke electric Ioniq line-up: there's a majesty and prestige to it, and while it isn't the most dynamic of machines to drive, it scores really well in the aspects large SUV buyers will be looking for. It's subtle yet stylish on the outside and hides its sheet bulk well, while the inside feels bright, spacious and premium and is genuinely comfortable. The performance is absolutely enough for this sort of machine. The price point puts it in an interesting place. It is clearly a cut above the cheaper Peugeot e-5008. In its lower trims and power levels, its closest rival is the ID Buzz. At the same time, the Ioniq 9 strays close to the luxury segment. For the price of a Performance Calligraphy, you can just about get an iX xDrive 45 on air suspension with four-wheel steer, and that would be our recommendation if you're after luxury and three rows of seats aren't a requirement. If three rows are essential, the Ioniq 9 offers much of what the EX90 and EQS SUV do but for considerably less money. Particularly in lower-spec Premium trim, that gives this car very impressive breadth of appeal. As a road tester, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews and comparison tests, while also managing the magazine’s Drives section. Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s in-depth instrumented road tests. He loves cars that are fun and usable on the road – whether piston-powered or electric – or just cars that are very fit for purpose. When not in test cars, he drives an R53-generation Mini Cooper S or a 1990 BMW 325i Touring. James is Autocar’s associate editor, and has more than 20 years of experience of working in automotive and motorsport journalism. He has been in his current role since September 2024, and helps lead Autocar's features and new sections, while regularly interviewing some of the biggest names in the industry. Oh, and he once helped make Volkswagen currywurst. Really. Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets.