Kittens snoozing in a basket. The inside of a bank vault at midnight. Marcel Marceau doing karaoke. All as hushed and silent as can be.
Yet none of these compare to Hyundai’s new, all-electric Ioniq 9 three-row SUV cruising on I-75 at 75 miles per hour. It’s like driving while wearing Bose noise-canceling headphones. With earplugs.
The folks at Hyundai have done a spectacular job at heightening the hush by cramming every orifice with sound-deadening padding and adding acoustic glass, active noise-canceling acoustic trickery, and triple door seals.
I’ve driven my fair share of Rolls-Royces and Bentleys over the years, but this Hyundai EV is more quiescent than them all. Silence is golden, right?
Quite rightly, it’s the new flagship of the Hyundai auto making juggernaut, a step above the Palisade and a head-to-head rival to the likes of Tesla’s Model X, Rivian’s R1S, Cadillac’s Vistiq, and even the box-on-wheels Volkswagen ID.Buzz.
If there’s a two-ton elephant in the room, however, it’s price. While a base Ioniq 9 stickers for $60,555 including a lofty $1,600 destination charge, the top-of-the-line Ioniq 9 Performance Calligraphy Design AWD I’ve just spent a week piloting came with a $79,540 price tag. Yikes, $80-grand for a Hyundai.
And, courtesy of that Big Beautiful Bill, the much-appreciated $7,500 federal EV tax credit for this Georgia-built EV will vamoosh at the end of this month.
Yet after one drive, somehow the lofty sticker seems kinda justified. Here is simply one of the best family haulers around, with its massive interior space, up to 335-mile range, and head-spinning design inside and out.
Just look at the thing. It’s as if a station wagon, low-riding SUV, and family-friendly minivan were thrown into an automotive blender and this is what came out.
I love that swept-back windshield, the funky wheel arches, and blunt front end with its multitude of pixel-like LED squares. One click of the key fob lock or unlock button, and they deliver a light show worthy of the Eiffel Tower at night.
Inside it’s just cavernous. So much of the focus here is on the second-row seats—either twin business jet-style captain’s chairs or a bench—with stretch-out legroom and towering headroom. Even the third row is adult-sized.
Up front, the dashboard features a pair of 12.3-inch screens set under a single curvy glass panel. And, round of applause please, there are real buttons, knobs, and switches to control the main features.
As you’d expect of an $80-grand Hyundai flagship, the quality of materials, the fit and finish, and the design are top notch.
And to drive an Ioniq 9 is to love it. While the base S model comes with a single 215 horsepower electric motor, rear-wheel drive, and a 335-mile range, our Calligraphy Design tester is the one you’d want.
Here you get twin motors to deliver all-wheel drive and a combined 422 horsepower and honking 516 pound-feet of torque. While range drops to a claimed 311 miles, the bonus is slingshot acceleration, with 0-to-60 miles per hour sprinting in a mere 4.9 seconds.
Show it a curvy backroad and with all that weight from the battery pack set low down, it corners like it’s running on invisible rails. Nice, precise steering too. This is one agile, fun-driving SUV.
Hyundai has also recently adopted the NACS charging port so you can supposedly charge your Ioniq 9 at any Tesla Supercharger station.
My own charging experience, however, proved more frustrating. Connecting to our condo building’s ChargePoint charger, courtesy of the Ioniq’s provided adapter, and the Hyundai just wouldn’t accept the charge.
Then, on a road trip, when I tried to use a local Tesla supercharger station, again the Hyundai wouldn’t take the charge. A stop at a friendly Hyundai dealer drew a “but it should work” response.
Only a 350kW Electrify America station would connect and deliver a rapid charge. At a hefty cost.
Charging woes aside, this new Ioniq 9 is an impressive addition to the EV family with pace, space and a very cool face to set it apart.
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