2026 Hyundai IONIQ 9

Folks craving a family-friendly electric vehicle get a new option next year: the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9. Expected to arrive in spring 2025, the new Ioniq 9 has three rows of seats and plenty of range and utility.

Smooth on all sides

The current Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 clearly share retro-futuristic styling, but the new Ioniq 9 moves in a different direction aesthetically. The only bridge between the new SUV and Hyundai's current Ioniq models are the pixelated detailing in the lighting and some parts of the interior. Aside from that, this three-row SUV has flair all its own.

The SUV's nose wears a completely smooth plastic cover (since you don't need any cooling via a grille) and the back glass appears to blend into the liftgate without interruption. The sides of the Ioniq 9 have some sculpting and a bit of cladding that clearly is meant to tell customers, "Even though I am sort of shaped like a minivan, I'm all SUV, baby," and a curious bit of trim at each wheel that Hyundai calls an "eyelash."

The roof tapers down as it moves rearward and gives the Ioniq 9 an aerodynamic shape, with a sleek coefficient of drag (0.27) to match. You might think the design would have an impact on headroom, especially in the third row, but when we explored the Ioniq 9 in person, that wasn't the case.

Family-friendly confines

Inside, the Ioniq 9 offers room for adults across all three rows; you could easily fit three 6-footers sitting behind each other. There will be both six- and seven-seat versions of the Ioniq 9 available, with higher trim levels offering captain's chairs that come with footrests and the ability to recline quite far. This allows multiple people to relax while the Ioniq 9 might be at a charging station or while you're waiting for soccer practice to finally end. However, there won't be much flexibility when it comes to trim level; Hyundai says the more expensive versions will all have six seats, and the lower-spec cars will have a second-row bench.

Though the outside of the vehicle looks like nothing else in the Hyundai lineup, the inside will be familiar, as the Ioniq 9 shares many of its features with the redesigned Santa Fe SUV. No complaints here on the familial resemblance; the Santa Fe's interior is a gem. You'll find a center console that can open forward or backward so it can be accessed by passengers from both rows, and there's an available UV sterilizing tray. A pair of 12.3-inch screens house a gauge cluster and multimedia display.

But the Ioniq 9 does have a few new tricks up its sleeve. On more expensive models, that floating center console has 7 inches of travel, to move it closer to the front or rear passengers. There are tech improvements as well, including a better EV route planner and a revamped voice recognition system that can handle a much wider range of queries. The charge ports also get a boost — they all draw from a shared 100-watt power supply so you can charge a laptop or tablet quickly. And this will also be the first Hyundai to offer a store in which to buy different theme packages or LED animations to further customize your vehicle.

How fast and how far?

The Ioniq 9 will be offered in single-motor rear-wheel-drive and dual-motor all-wheel-drive versions. Power output starts at 215 horsepower for the single-motor vehicles, then jumps to 303 hp with AWD and 422 hp with the Performance AWD setup. Hyundai is estimating a wide range of 0-60 mph times, with the slowest being 8.4 seconds and the quickest at 4.9 seconds. While we don't know which exact trims will get the different configurations, Hyundai did confirm the top trim level will be a Calligraphy and it will come with the more powerful AWD system standard.

All Ioniq 9s will get a 110.3-kWh battery pack, which is a bump of about 10% compared to the pack on the Hyundai's corporate sibling, the Kia EV9. That's part of the reason why the Ioniq 9 should come with more estimated range than its Kia counterpart. Official EPA estimates are not yet available, but Hyundai says it's targeting 335 miles of range for the rear-drive version and that all trim levels should offer over 300 miles on a full charge. The EV9 GT-Line went well over its EPA estimate on the Edmunds EV Range Test (306 miles of range vs. an estimated 270 miles), and we wouldn't be surprised to see the Hyundai do the same.

Speaking of charging, the Ioniq 9 should be able to juice up from 10% to 80% in just 24 minutes thanks to its 800-volt architecture, and all Ioniq 9s will come with a NACS charging port standard, giving it access to Tesla's Supercharger network.

American-made

We won't have official pricing information until next year, but Hyundai told us the Ioniq 9 should start just under $60,000 and that all of the Ioniq 9's trim levels should qualify for the full federal tax credit of $7,500, under the current set of constraints, since U.S.-spec versions will be built in Georgia. Loaded Ioniq 9s should be priced just under $75,000, putting it close to the Kia EV9's MSRP. But given the extra interior room and range you get with the Hyundai, that looks to give the Ioniq 9 an edge over its Kia twin.