10 Things I hate about you… Kia EV9 gripe #1
After 8 months and 10,000 miles, I am extremely happy with my 2024 Kia EV9 GT-Line. Nothing is perfect, though, so I’ll walk you through my top 10 gripes with the EV9:
#1 Power On/Power Off & Authentication
This issue isn’t going to affect everyone the same way.
For me, the EV9 is my household’s third EV. We’re to the way Teslas work, and the Kia seems to have a fundamental issue. Want to start the car? You can authenticate with your key fob. Or an RFID card. Or your fingerprint. Or your phone on the wireless charger. Or your phone with the digital key active within your wallet. Or the Kia phone app. THAT’S SEVEN WAYS!
SEVEN, ffs
Guess what? Only the fob and the phone on the wireless charger are completely reliable. If you’re coming from a “regular” car, that’s probably just fine for you. If you’re used to just having your phone within the interior of the car (like with Telsa, and a few other manufacturers), expect disappointment. Inconsistent disappointment.
I think Kia knows about the issue, and they shipped the RFID solution to me post-sale. That was completely unsolicited. I would applaud Kia trying to go with the digital key industry standard, rather than a proprietary solution like Telsa…. but only is if actually worked. Maybe it’s a wallet issue (I use the Samsung Wallet on an S22), but my phone is supposedly supported. Considering you probably have the Kia Access app installed, I feel like some effort should be made to retrofit a more reliable authentication handshake into the vehicle firmware and the app.
Imagine that you’ve managed to unlock and enter your vehicle. You attempt to turn the vehicle “on”, and you’re now in Accessory Mode. Yes, somehow you were deemed safe enough to get in, but not legit enough to start the car. Annoying. Worse than annoying, though, when it’s very hot or cold in the cabin. And that’s made worse still because, once you’ve authenticated, you have to turn off and restart the car. There’s probably a technical reason why this is set up this way, like the role-based permissions are only read at system startup, but that reason is not good enough - whatever it is. Do better. It’s a terrible user experience.
Imagine you’ve gotten wherever you’re going, parked, and want to walk away. Put the vehicle in park, turn it off, get out, and lock the door. Completely reasonable - except for the fact that the standard-bearer in the EV segment allows you to walk away without explicitly turning the vehicle off. Or turning it on. Ergonomically, Tesla has this nailed. Kia feels like they’re trying to force elements of their gas-powered ergonomic concepts into the EV - and it’s ridiculous, since they could have just copied off of the other kid’s homework.
