The all-new 2026 Hyundai IONIQ 9 three-row SUV goes on sale in the United States very soon. I get an opportunity to drive it across South Korea to see exactly what it’s like on a long road trip, and how far it can go on a single change on a cold February day. Let’s do it!
The IONIQ 9 is the new flagship of the Hyundai’s electrified vehicle fleet. It’s a roomy three-row SUV with a plentiful cargo capacity and up to 5,000 lbs of towing capacity. It’s equipped with a 110.3 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that runs as high as 610 volts. The higher voltage is important for quick and efficient charging, as well as power delivery.
The IONIQ 9 that I am driving is a fully-optioned Calligraphy edition with a performance AWD powertrain. This includes a motor in the front and a motor in the back for a total 422 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. Hyundai says that a 4.9-second 0-60 MPH is possible, but I did not get a change to verify it. There is now question that it is a quick (nearly) full-size SUV. The IONIQ 9’s wheelbase is about two inches longer than that of a Chevy Tahoe. However, the overall length is about 10 inches shorter than that of a Tahoe.
Hyundai says that up to 335 miles of range is possible on one charge. The IONIQ 9 weighs a hefty 2.6 tonnes (around 5,700 lbs). I am driving it from Seoul, South Korea to Busan, South Korea. This route is approximately 260 miles long. What makes it a bit more challenging is that the ambient temperature is right around freezing (32 F).
We jump into the car in Seoul and the state of charge shows 93% (not 100%). This should be interesting. South Korea has a sophisticated highway system with many tunnels. Highway safety is taken very seriously and there are many speed-check cameras and average speed zones on every highway we drove. The Hyundai’s native navigation system knows where all the speeding cameras and speed zones are. It can automatically adjust the vehicle’s speed to make sure I observe all speed limits. The speed limits varied between 55 MPH and 65 MPH.
In the end, I am impressed that I got 4.9 km/kWh average efficiency after driving nearly 260 miles when we arrived in Busan. This is equivalent to around 3.04 mi/kWh. There is still 11% of battery remaining by the end of the trip. Basically, I used 82% of the battery to go 260 miles. It means, around 317 miles would have been my maximum driving range. This is pretty good, considering the cold conditions.
Near the end of the trip, the car was preparing itself for fast charging by preconditioning the battery. I didn’t want this, and I finally figured out how to tell the car to stop looking for chargers and to stop preconditioning the battery.
I didn’t need to charge during this trip, but if I did – the IONIQ 9 is capable of picking up 10-80% charge in around 24 minutes at a 350 kW CCS fast charger. If you are using a NACS (Tesla) v3 Supercharger, 10-80% charge would take about 38 minutes (according to Hyundai). I was unable to verify this.
How about that one IONIQ 9 feature that I have not seen in any other car or truck? It’s vibrating second-row captain chairs. That’s right. These seats have several level of vibrate function (not a traditional massage seat that you may have felt in some other vehicles).
The 2026 IONIQ 9 is being assembled at the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) facility in Ellabell, Georgia, USA. The current 2025 IONIQ 5 is already being assembled at this location. We do not have final U.S. pricing for the IONIQ 9 yet, but we expect it to be close to that of the Kia EV9 SUV (which starts at just under $55,000).
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