BIGand bold the EV9 is the latest offering from Kia and the seven-seat fully electrified SUV has been collecting numerous awards since its recent launch.

It is available with a choice of trim levels and rear or all-wheel drive and it takes the Korean manufacturer into competition with the luxury European brands.

Prices start from £64,995 for the entry-level EV9 Air model, rising to £73,245 for the GT-Line specification and go up to £75,995 for the flagship GT-Line S. If you want to personalise your vehicle you can spend an extra £1,000 to have six seats rather than seven.

All models share a 99.8kWh long-range battery pack whichgives theentry-level car a range of 349 miles. while the AWD cars have a reduced range of313 miles.

I sampled the EV9 in GT-Line specification with seven seats and it came in at £73,275. At more than five metres long and almost two across, it is a very substantial car with lots of road presence.

The design is boxy but nice lights front and rear help itslooks as do the roof rails, flush door handles, privacyglass and large 21-inch alloys.

Kia has also taken the cabin quality up a notch and it features a lot of recycledmaterials and a huge amount of tech andkit.

The comfortable seats are powered and can be heated or ventilated and the steering wheel can also be heated to make things feel good even in very cold mornings. Second row passengers are also spoiled with heated and cooled seats.

A three-screen layout that merges into one includes a 12.3-inch driver display, a 5.3-inch climate control touchscreenand a 12.3-inch touchscreen navigation system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Thankfully switches are provided for the temperature controls.

An eight-speaker sound system features Bluetooth with voice recognition, a digital key, fingerprint recognition, ambient lighting and OTA software updates as well as three-years free audio streaming via Kia Connect Store.

The huge cabin offers stacks of space for driver and passengers and all the controls, dials and readouts are perfectly positioned for ease of use. The high driving position provides good all-round visibility and cameras mean there are no blind spots.

While the entry Air has a single motor and develops 200bhp and 350Nm of torque for a 0-62mph sprint time of 9.4 seconds, the higher grades gain an extra motor for AWD and produce 378bhp and700Nm of torque.

That means the sprint time is reduced to 5.3 seconds with a top speed of 124mph. That is impressive for a huge SUV that weighs in at 2.6 tonnes.

The EV9 is a comfortable and quiet motorway cruiser but it does feel very large in town centres where the many parking assist systems become very useful. Four levels of regenerative braking can be controlled from steering wheel paddles and make it possible to achieve single pedal driving.

The single-speed automatic transmission is smooth and responds quickly and provides rapid injections of pace when you need to overtake. Surprisingly agile for its size the EV9 offers a selection of driving modes called Eco, Normal, Sport and My Drive. And there are also modes to tackle more challenging conditions named Snow, Mud and Sand.

Very practical for family use the EV9 offers 333 litres of luggage space even with all seven seats in use. An additional 52 litres is available under the bonnet and this is an ideal spot for charging cables. The tailgate is powered and there is a huge amount of storage space inside the cabin with many neat features.

Six USB ports along with a wireless charging pad up front mean smartphones and otherelectronics can stay charged during journeys to keep all the family happy.

When it comes to charging the 99.8kWh battery, it can be boosted from 10 to 80 per cent in 1 hour 23 minutes if using a 50kW charger or in just 24 minutes via a 350kW unit if you can find one. Home charging obviously takes a lot longer.

All the latest safety systemsare standard and include the likes of blind spot collision warning, rear cross traffic alert, dynamic brake control, trailer stability assist, forward collision avoidance assist, parking collision avoidance and much more. This means the SUV has a five-star NCAP safety rating.

This flagship model with greatperformance and crammed with technology and practical features along with a more than decent range takes the Korean brand to a new level.