2026 Kia EV9 Problems: 7 Known Issues

On the 2024-2026 Kia EV9, on April 29, 2025, NHTSA opened Preliminary Evaluation PE25004 after receiving five owner questionnaires alleging that windshield wipers stopped while 2024-2025 EV9 vehicles were being driven with snow or ice accumulated on or near the bottom of the windshield. At opening, NHTSA reported no crashes, injuries or fatalities and had not determined a root cause or defect remedy. NHTSA closed the investigation on March 11, 2026 after Kia committed to a Product Improvement Campaign for about 47,000 2024-2026 EV9s that replaces the passenger-side wiper arm with one shaped to clear the cowl, plus a separate campaign (PI2502) adding cluster warnings when the wipers are obstructed.

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, owners on EV9 forums report that the center touchscreen freezes, stops responding to touch, or reboots by itself. One thread links the freezes to an infotainment update, and one owner reported a head unit that failed outright. Owners also mention over-the-air (OTA) updates that fail to install, charging sessions that drop at public chargers, the two dash screens getting out of sync, and range estimates that are off in very hot or cold weather. The most serious related fault is in the driver's display (the instrument cluster). On some 2024-2025 EV9s it can stay blank at startup, so the driver can't see the speedometer, odometer, turn signals or warning lights. Kia recalled more than 14,000 EV9s for this under NHTSA recall 24V-757 (Kia campaign SC326). Kia's release notes say the fix is a software update to the infotainment controller logic. Cars.com's long-term test EV9 had the blank display on occasion. Blank driver displays come up again and again in EV9 electrical complaints on CarComplaints, and several owners there say the display still went blank after the recall update was installed.

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 2024-2026 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 2024-2026 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 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.