Should you buy a big, fast Korean electric SUV instead of a posh European one? I spent a week living with one to find out

The Kia EV9 GT is a mind-boggling car. I mean, at what point have you sat down and thought ‘You know what’s missing from my life? An all-electric SUV that’s fun to drive, keeps up with a sports car, looks like a Sci-Fi prop and costs as much as a BMW or Audi.’

Well, Kia’s engineers certainly have, because that’s exactly what they’ve cooked up with the EV9 GT. The question remains, why?

I couldn’t settle on ‘why not,’ so I decided to live with one for a week to see if I could make sense of it. Spoiler: I couldn’t, but it’s an impressive piece of kit nonetheless – and it’s a lot more fun than I was expecting.

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For starters, I love the way it looks. Yes, it’s the same size as Madagascar and no, it isn’t practical to drive around my suburban North London roads, but every time I got out of it I couldn’t help but smile. I’m a massive nerd, so having the real-world equivalent of a Star Wars Trexler 906 Armoured Marauder parked outside my house left my inner child feeling giddy.

The normal EV9 is already pretty intimidating, but the extra LED ‘grille’, lime green accents (tacky, but fun) and massive, twist-design wheels give the GT version a suitable extra dose of menace. Pretty? No. Cool? Very.

I’m not as keen on the EV9’s interior, especially with the extra splash of lime green theme on the inside. Yes it’s very spacious and the cool-looking seats are brilliantly supportive across all three rows, but the bright colours are a bit naff here, and though plush, the Alcantara inserts and leatherette just aren’t as luxurious as inside the similarly-priced Volvo EX90.

Not that the Volvo can compete on outright space, as the EV9 GT is palatial inside. I tested the six-seater version, which doesn’t make as much real-world sense as the seven seater but bestows middle-row passengers with two very comfortable captains chairs. Practical? No, but again, they’re cool. Can you sense a theme here?

Boot space isn’t a concern either, because I severely doubt you’ll test the EV9 GT to its limits. A Peugeot E-5008 or Skoda Peaq may have more outright capacity, but if you regularly carry more than 828 litres of luggage (that’s about 11 pieces of carry-on luggage) you really ought to buy a van – such as the excellent Kia PV5 Passenger.

As mentioned above, the enormous EV9 GT is an unwieldy beast at times. If you buy a five-by-two-metre SUV expecting manoeuvrability and agility then you deserve all of the hardship that comes your way, but nonetheless, the bulbous corners mean it’s a particularly tricky car to thread through tight car parks.

That’s true of all the EV9 variants, though, as well as the mechanically-identical Hyundai Ioniq 9. The trade-off is the supreme motorway comfort, with the body weight and steam-roller tyres smoothing out rough roads at high speeds – even if the sporty tyres mean a fair amount of road noise.

Now, does sticking a ‘GT’ badge on a 2.7-tonne bus make it a sports car? Absolutely not. The tank-like Kia is pretty far removed from other cars wearing those esteemed letters, but 502hp, four-wheel drive, grippy tyres and simulated gearshifts – a la Hyundai Ioniq 6 N – make this a strangely fun car to hustle down a country lane.

I won’t give you the usual journalist spiel of the big Kia ‘shrinking around me,’ because that would be a lie. Oxfordshire’ twisty roads have never felt narrower than when I was behind the wheel of the EV9 GT, but that’s part of its charm. It really does feel like a hot hatchback trapped in a seven-seater body, albeit very, very deep down.

Drop a couple of ‘gears’, press the silly green ‘GT’ button on the steering wheel which relaxes the traction control (only if you’re confident, please) and slingshot the massive car out of a quick bend and you’ll end up with a smile on your face.

For the charm factor alone, the EV9 GT is remarkable, not to mention it’s no less practical than any other EV9. Unfortunately it’s also pretty uncomfortable around town, thudding its way through potholes, the real world range is pretty poor (240 miles by our calculations) and you’ll pay an eye-watering £83,000 – at a minimum.

You’re better off buying an entry-level EV9 through Carwow at under £61,000 and spending the leftover on a used Volkswagen Golf GTI, but I suppose I’m biased.

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*Savings are made up of the maximum dealer discount off RRP – subject to dealership, location and trim. Prices correct at the time of writing.