Owners have filed 212 complaints on the Kia EV9, covering 2024–2025. The system named most often is Electrical System (94 reports). Worst years by volume: 2024, 2025; cleanest: 2025, 2024. 1 reports describe a crash, 2 a fire. On average the car was 0.4 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Kia EV9
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 212 EV9 complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Electrical System 94 Read
Component: Electrical System / Instrument Panel Speed at time of failure: [Insert typical speed, e.g., 65 mph] Description of Incident: My vehicle is suffering from an intermittent but total loss of the instrument cluster functionality while in motion. The display goes dark and is replaced by a "No Signal" message.…
The car died in my garage after only owning it for 4 weeks
The vehicle has a 12v battery that runs accessory systems that is charged by the main battery. The vehicle has an issue where the main battery does not charge the 12v. Nothing on the vehicle will function and you can not enter the vehicle. You can also not charge the vehicle. This is a known issue and numerous owners…
Suspension 17 Read
The contact owned a 2024 Kia EV9. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, several warning lights illuminated, and the vehicle lost automotive power. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed with a failed rear inverter. The contact was informed that the rear inverter needed to be…
The whole car vibrates at highway speeds. You can feel it in the steering wheel and the center armrest console. Dealer has balanced wheels twice and performed alignment but nothing will fix it
At highway speeds, the SUV experiences significant body sway when hitting a bump, causing it to rock side to side in an unsettling manner. This issue makes the vehicle feel unstable and nervous, requiring the driver to slow down to regain control. The excessive body roll presents a potential safety hazard, as it could…
Steering 15 Read
Within six months of purchase, the power steering on my 2025 Kia EV9 failed while I was driving, creating a sudden and dangerous loss of steering control. I brought the vehicle to the Kia dealership for repair, but it was returned to me without the problem being resolved. On the very first drive after service, the…
Vehicle consistently vibrates at highway speeds, feels like a driveline vibration, wheel, tire or suspension issue. Almost feels like a tire is wobbling
The lane assist feature will not turn off. It also behave erratic. Today on the highway it lurched me towards an empty flatbed semi. It will also pull towards oncoming traffic and scares me to drive the car
Seats 11 Read
Seats allow drivers to save seating positions for different drivers. Seats automatically return to the last used saved position when the vehicle is turned on. This seat movement cannot be stopped or overridden without finding and activating the seat position controls on the left side of the seat base. If the driver…
When operating the vehicle the driver seat will move diagonally from the right rear to the right front and back. This is sometimes accompanied by an audible clicking noise, other times not. We have been informed by our Kia dealer (Kia Englewood in Englewood, NJ) that the noise and movement are cause by a plate in the…
The drivers side seat has a broken part in the right back. The part makes noise when turns make the body shift right. Also, it feels like the seat back is partially disconnected, and some times during drives, it feels like it shifts back into the correct position
Power Train 10 Read
The Kia EV9 Wind I bought several days ago worked fine for a couple of days with a slight vibration, but yesterday I experienced 3 incidents. 1. As I was coming to a full stop at a stop sign, there was a mild grinding noise from the rear of the vehicle. 2. I continued for 100 yards and came to a stop light and the car…
The vehicle unexpectedly accelerates in multiple situations, all related to “iDrive” (one pedal driving), either failing to engage, or unexpectedly disengaging. It almost hit something while parking, and it started accelerating into oncoming traffic from a stop sign. I’ve driven the car for 60 miles. I suspect there…
My family and I were driving down a busy highway at speed in the middle lane, the vehicle suddenly jolted forward and lost power. Dashboard reported electrical system failure, contact service. Vehicle was recovered to dealer who has been unable to resolve issue and KIA unable to diagnose the root cause of the problem.…
Visibility/wiper 9 Read
We just left the dealership in our new 2026 Kia EV 9 with 14 miles on it and as we were driving home the passenger windshield wiper started to make a loud banging sound when it would return to it ‘a starting position. We turned the wipers off and then turned them back on just to have the passenger one go half way a…
This car is unusual because the wipers are located in a crevice far below the top of the hood where it meets the windshield. The first time we had an issue, it had snowed and snow collected in the crevice area. The wipers were turned on, but the drivers side one didn't move in sync with the passenger side one. They…
There was 1/4" of slush on the roof of the EV9 when starting an in-town trip. On a back road when decelerating, most of the slush slid forward and down the windshield. It was very wet but frozen enough to create a lump under the wipers. It seems the EV9's wipers will completely stop if they are unable to fully return…
Vehicle Speed Control 7 Read
While using adaptive cruise control on the highway, my car almost rear ended the car in front of me when it surged ahead around a slight curve in the road. I was travelling approximately 5mph below the set cruise speed due to the traffic ahead. It appears that my vehicle lost radar sight of the car in front and tried…
When in Highway Drive Assist mode, where the system controls the speed and lane keep and lane change, the system can disengage without any visual or audio warning. This causes dangerous scenarios where the driver believes the car is in control but it is not
Cluster behind the steering wheel was blank, has happen twice within the last 30 days. This is an issue since I had no speedometer and had to use WAZE to guess how fast I was going. It resolved itself after turning off the EV9 for about 45 - 60 mins. First time it happen on Sept 27, 2024, and then it happen again…
Seat Belts 5 Read
We were rear ended on the freeway by a vehicle going 75 mph. The impact pushed us into the vehicle in front of us.The airbags were deployed but the front and rear passenger seat belts did not lock. My husband flew forward onto the dashboard and cracked the windshield. My daughter who was behind him flew forward into…
The third row seatbelt is malfunctioning doesn’t work at all. I have 4 kids and that seat can’t be used at all so I don’t risk my kid safety. Contacted Kia and they were pushing at least 4 weeks
Drivers seat moving diagonally back and forth left to right when your make left and right turns. The force the car makes, forces the drivers seat to shift. Its a huge safety concern, everyone that has an EV9, a crash can result in the driver being killed because if the seat moves left to right forward and back under…
EV9 years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Electrical System,unknown Or Other | — | — | |
| 2024 | Air Bags,structure,service Brakes | 1 | 2 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 54 |
| Average complaints per series | 3.9 |
| Worst single series | 11 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 0.4 years |
A model average of 3.9 hides a worst series at 11. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
- Full research report as a PDF for the pre-purchase inspection
- No ads, on every page
- No ads, no tracking — and much more
How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the EV9?
By complaint volume, 2024, 2025 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which EV9 years are the cleanest?
2025, 2024 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Kia EV9 have?
212 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2024–2025. Of those, 1 describe a crash and 2 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.