Hyundai's take on the Kia EV9 is almost here

It will rival the Kia EV9 and share its E-GMP underpinnings, and according to Korean Car Blog it could have up to 640km of range.

Autospy posted photos of the large SUV testing, and while the prototype is still wearing plenty of camouflage we can see its styling closely mirrors that of the Seven concept.

Korean Car Blog recently posted images of the Ioniq 7's dashboard, which closely resembles that of the new Santa Fe.

That includes a three-spoke steering wheel, column-mounted gear selector, digital climate control screen, and a similar dashboard design.

Korean Car Blog reports the centre of the steering wheel could feature a driver monitoring camera for Level 3 autonomous driving.

Spy photos suggest the Ioniq 7 could feature traditional door handles and not flush items like on the EV9, though digital side mirrors appear likely given they can be found on the Ioniq 6.

On all prototypes, we can see upright LED light stacks on the lower ends of the front bumper, and it's expected to feature a full-width front LED light bar similar to the concept.

Previous spy photos show the interior seating layout which suggests the option of six or seven seats. Historically, Hyundai Australia hasn't shied away from offering captains seats in the second row, whereas the Kia EV9 locally is only offered in seven seats.

Hyundai has indicated the Ioniq 7 will feature a 3200mm wheelbase. It's expected the Ioniq 7 will share its 800V ultra-fast charging capability like other vehicles on the E-GMP platform; Kia says 239km of range can be added to the EV9 in 15 minutes.

The EV9 is offered in Australia with either a 160kW/350Nm single-motor rear-wheel drive powertrain or a 283kW/700Nm dual-motor all-wheel drive setup, with range figures of between 443km and 512km on the stricter WLTP cycle.

The king-size Kia can also be used to power appliances thanks to a vehicle-to-load (V2L) function, which puts out up to 3.68kW of power.

Earlier this year, direct to consumer senior manager at Hyundai Australia, Andrew Stamatakis, told media the brand expects the as-yet-unrevealed Ioniq 7 to be on sale in Australia as soon as next year, and help to double the forecasted sales volume for Ioniq electric vehicles for this year.

Hyundai projects 6000 units of its Ioniq-branded electric vehicles for 2024, up from 3000 in 2023. The Ioniq 7 will also form part of Hyundai Australia's plans to offer an electrified option in all of its SUV segments by the end of next year, joining the Santa Fe Hybrid in the large SUV segment.

The brand's local division said earlier this year supply is opening up, meaning it no longer has to sell its E-GMP models in 'drops' as it has done with the Ioniq 5 in the past.

There's no more geofencing either, meaning anyone in Australia can now buy an Ioniq 5 or Ioniq 6 using the online sales portal, and take delivery from your preferred 'delivery partner'.

Content originally sourced from: CarExpert.com.au