SINCE its introduction to the UK market at the start of the year, Kia's futuristic looking EV9 has won bucketloads of awards, including World Car of the Year and UK Car of the Year.

Recently, I got to discover what all the fuss was aboutâ¦

The Kia is an incredibly important car for the Korean brand as it takes them into the large SUV sector for the first time.

In case you've missed all the fuss, the all-electric EV9 offers a choice of six- or seven-seat configurations, a choice of rear- or all-wheel drive powertrains, and three very well-equipped trim levels, starting in price from £65,025 on-the-road. The GT-Line S is the flagship.

At just over five metres long, it is also about the size of a small ship - around the same size as a Land Rover Defender 110, but lower and with a larger wheelbase.

There's just one battery size offered, a 99.8kWh unit, providing up to 349 miles of driving range.

The GT Line S adds all-wheel drive, with 380bhp and a stonking 700Nm of torque.

The bundle also comes with 21-inch alloys, twin 12.3-inch displays, six USB-C sockets - two per row - handy front and rear parking sensors, a powered tailgate, power-adjustable front seats with a massage function for the driver, two-tone upholstery, adaptive-beam LED headlights, a head-up display, 14-speaker premium sound system, and front and second-row sunroofs.

It is also the only version available with the six-seat layout, incorporating ‘captain's chairs in the middle row which, when the SUV is stationary, can be rotated 180 degrees allowing occupants in the back to face each other.

The 12.3-inch screens, one for the driver's instrument cluster, the other for the central touchscreen, sit on a shelf that includes a touch-sensitive panel in the middle housing various shortcuts for the infotainment system.

The screens are separated by another touch-sensitive panel for the climate control system. Happily, the latter is supplemented by a row of physical toggle switches in the centre of the dashboard.

Though the EV9's performance is hugely impressive, the emphasis has clearly been on comfort. It's a quiet and refined motorway cruiser with a soft ride quality though not overly so.

It may weigh in at 2.6-tonnes but the dual-motor version is no slouch as, in typical electric car fashion, its huge reserves of power and torque are available as soon as your foot connects to the accelrator. It will take off like a scalded cat and just keep goingâ¦

It will also put a smile on your face on a twisting country road or a rolling, single-carriageway A-road as it handles corners surprisingly well for such a big, heavy SUV, mainly due to strong grip and that big power.

As for charging, the EV9 uses Kia's industry-leading 800-volt architecture, so a 10-80 per cent top-up will take as little as 25 minutes using a rapid charger.

At a smidgeon over £77,000, the EV9 GT-Line S is the most expensive Kia there has ever been, and the quality of the interior reflects that. It might not line-up against the most premium German models (yet), but in terms of comfort, fit and finish, and technology, it's certainly not far off.

Without the optional ‘captain's chairs' the EV9 is also a genuine seven-seater. The middle row of seats can slide fore and aft to help free up extra legroom in the sixth and seventh seats.

This flexibility is enhanced by good shoulder room and excellent headroom across the cabin, even in the final row.

Anyone six foot or more - like me - will have no trouble fitting in the second row behind a similarly tall person in front.

Naturally, the EV9's boot is also large, with 333 litres of space in the seven-seat configuration. Drop the third row, and you'll have a plentiful 828 litres. Drop all the seats and there's a mighty 2,318 litres.

There's also the front boot or ‘frunk' which, in the GT-Line S model, will hold a further 52 litres.

Safety experts Euro NCAP awarded the EV9 the maximum five-star rating and it comes stacked with safety technology as standard, such as autonomous emergency braking, a lane-keeping system, blindspot monitoring and a driver monitoring system.

£77,025

378bhp, 99.8kWh electric engine driving all-four wheels via a single-speed automatic transmission

124mph

5.2 seconds

313 miles

50

0g/km

2%

7yrs/100,000 miles

4.5