2025 Kia EV9 Problems: 11 Known Issues

On the 2024-2025 Kia EV9, a recurring EV9 pattern distinct from the well-known 12V/drive-power failure story: the vehicle refuses to begin, or silently drops out of, an AC Level 2 session at home while DC fast charging on the same car remains completely normal. The EV9 has no separate onboard charger — the AC rectification stage lives inside the ICCU alongside the DC-DC converter — so a partial ICCU failure can kill only the AC path and leave the high-voltage DC path intact. Owners describe overnight sessions that stop after a few minutes or hours, the EVSE reporting a vehicle-side stop, charge scheduling and departure timers not triggering, and the car charging normally at a public DC station the next day.

On the 2024-2026 Kia EV9, eV9 owners report the 12V auxiliary battery going flat repeatedly while the high-voltage pack is nearly full, leaving the vehicle completely dead - doors, screens and the start button unresponsive, and no way to enter Ready mode no matter how much range is showing. NHTSA has 6 logged 12V auxiliary battery depletion complaints on the 2024-2025 EV9 and the owner forums carry far more. Crucially this is not always ICCU failure: a large share of these cases show a healthy ICCU and no 'Check Electric Vehicle System' warning, and the cause is parasitic draw from body or telematics modules that fail to go to sleep. The most repeatable owner-identified trigger is a Digital Key phone or fob left within range of the parked vehicle overnight - typically a garage adjacent to the house - which repeatedly wakes the welcome/approach logic and drains the small AGM battery. Repeated deep discharges then permanently damage the 12V battery itself, so the car keeps dying even after the software cause is addressed. Because the 12V is what closes the main HV contactors, a flat 12V immobilizes the vehicle completely and requires a jump at the underhood terminals.

On the 2024-2026 Kia EV9, as a new electric vehicle, the Kia EV9 has experienced typical first-generation software issues including infotainment freezes, occasional display glitches, OTA update failures, and EV charging session interruptions. The dual-screen display setup occasionally desynchronizes, and some owners have reported inaccurate range estimation in extreme temperatures. Kia has been actively pushing software updates to address these issues. These are expected growing pains for a new EV platform.

On the 2024-2025 Kia EV9, on EV9s built 9/25/2023 through 10/15/2024, one or more mounting bolts securing the second-row and/or third-row seat frames to the floor pan were never installed at the factory, or were installed without being torqued. Kia recalled 22,883 vehicles (NHTSA 24V-962). A seat that is not fully bolted to the structure may not restrain an occupant in a crash. Owners typically notice the defect first as a rattle, a shift, or side-to-side looseness in a rear seat when it is loaded or when the vehicle goes over bumps — the seat can be rocked by hand.

On the 2024-2026 Kia EV9, eV9 owners using Highway Driving Assist 2 report the vehicle wandering rhythmically from one lane edge to the other instead of tracking the lane center, a behaviour owners call ping-ponging. The pattern described is Lane Following Assist going dormant while the camera still sees both lane markings: the car drifts until Lane Keeping Assist catches it near the boundary, nudges it back, and the cycle repeats, producing a slow side-to-side weave with intermittent steering-torque corrections. It is markedly worse on pavement with longitudinal rain grooves, and much of the reporting comes from owners who moved from an EV6 and found that car's lane centering noticeably steadier, which argues this is an EV9 calibration issue rather than a normal limit of the technology. The risk is twofold - the weave is fatiguing and unnerving to passengers, and drivers who have learned to trust the system on other Hyundai/Kia products may not have hands ready when the correction comes late near a lane edge. As of the owner reports gathered here, no OTA update had been released that resolves it, and safety systems are the second-largest NHTSA complaint category on the EV9 (36 complaints).

On the 2025 Kia EV9 Dual-motor e-AWD rear gear drive unit, dual-motor e-AWD EV9s built at Kia Georgia between 10/11/2024 and 12/19/2024 received rear gear drive units (GDU) whose motor shaft was improperly welded by the supplier. The weld can fail in service, damaging the shaft inside the rear GDU and cutting rear-axle torque. Kia recalled 342 vehicles (NHTSA 25V-115) and estimated roughly 4% actually carry the defect. Front drive units are not affected, and single-motor RWD EV9s are outside the recall population.

On the 2024-2026 Kia EV9, the EV9's motorized charge port door is a recurring owner complaint in two distinct failure modes. Electrically, the release actuator does not wake with the vehicle — the door will not pop when pushed or when commanded from the fob or screen, and owners sometimes hear the motor run without the door releasing, consistent with the internal gear slipping. Mechanically, the recessed groove around the flap packs with snow and slush that refreezes, and the release mechanism itself has been found excessively tight from the factory, so in cold weather the door will not open at all. Owners report Kia denying some of these claims as 'outside influence' rather than a warranty defect.

On the 2024-2025 Kia EV9, owners report the tailgate releasing its latch when the license-plate button, fob, or interior button is pressed, but the power struts never lift it — the gate pops an inch and stops, leaving it to be opened by hand. In some cases the gate also refuses to power-close or reverses partway. The 40A power liftgate fuse in the rear fuse box typically tests good, pointing at the liftgate drive motor/spindle or the power tailgate module rather than a supply problem. Kia's documented reset procedure often restores operation only for a day or two before the fault returns, which is the tell that the hardware, not the calibration, has failed.

On the 2024-2026 Kia EV9, a large number of EV9s — heavily concentrated in the 2024 launch year but still appearing on later builds — were delivered with rear toe and camber outside specification. Combined with roughly 5,900 lb curb weight, instant torque to the rear axle, and factory tires that start at only about 9/32 in of tread, the rear tires scrub away on the inner shoulder. Owners on the Kia EV forums report rear tires down to the wear bars between 2,000 and 10,000 miles, with fronts following shortly after. Kia's 8,000-mile rotation interval is too long to mask it, and dealers frequently blame driving style before anyone puts the vehicle on an alignment rack.

On the 2024-2025 Kia EV9, the most-reported non-recall driveability complaint from EV9 owners is a persistent vibration felt through the steering wheel, and often through the center console and floor, that appears above roughly 60-65 mph and holds steady on smooth, newly paved road surfaces. NHTSA has logged this under both steering (16 complaints) and suspension/wheel categories for the 2024-2025 EV9, and it is discussed extensively in owner forums and Facebook groups. The pattern points at the wheel-and-tire assemblies rather than the steering rack: many owners report multiple dealer visits where a standard spin balance fixes nothing, then have the vibration disappear or drop dramatically after a proper road-force balance, and in a number of cases after the dealer replaced tires for excessive radial force variation. The EV9's mass (over 5,500 lb) and its large-diameter low-profile tires make it unusually intolerant of the residual imbalance and out-of-round condition a conventional static balance leaves behind. This is a rotating-assembly uniformity issue and is separate from a rear alignment fault; it typically presents from delivery or within the first few thousand miles.

On the 2024-2026 Kia EV9, on EV9s equipped with power second-row seats and the one-touch easy-entry function, the seat control module loses its stored 'seat limit position' parameter. Once that happens the third-row easy-access button on the seat shoulder stops responding entirely, and the second-row fold-flat buttons in the cargo area stop working too - the seat either does nothing or starts moving forward and halts partway without folding. Owners also report a touchscreen prompt asking them to verify the driver seat position when they press the control, which is the module refusing to run the motion because it has no valid travel limit stored. On a three-row family SUV this is not cosmetic: it blocks third-row access for children and blocks the seat fold needed to load cargo, and there is no manual override on the powered seats. This condition is distinct from the SC329 missing seat mounting bolt recall, which is a structural fastener defect rather than a control-module memory fault.