Hyundai Ioniq 9: 422 hp, 539 km of EPA range, NACS port and Pikachu in the cluster

On Hyundai’s stand in Busan, the Ioniq 9’s digital side mirror shows no other cars and no lane markings — just Pikachu and Eevee. It’s not a camera glitch: the Pokemon figurines were placed next to the car on purpose so that they would fall into the Digital Side Mirror screen and instantly explain the main idea — Hyundai is trying to sell its EV not only on range, but on the digital experience as well.

The Ioniq 9 itself is anything but a toy. It’s the flagship of Hyundai’s electric line-up and the brand’s largest passenger EV: 5060 mm long, 1980 mm wide, 1790 mm tall, with a 3130 mm wheelbase. The wheelbase is longer than on many full-size SUVs, and the architecture here doesn’t come from the Palisade — it’s built on the E-GMP platform with an 800-volt system and a 110.3 kWh battery.

The exterior follows Hyundai’s Aerosthetic design language: thin LED bars, pixelated headlight blocks, an almost closed-off front end, chunky side sills and 21-inch Michelin Primacy Tour wheels. With the digital mirrors fitted, the drag coefficient is rated at Cd 0.259 — a strong number for a big three-row SUV, especially considering its near-1.8 m height.

According to 32CARS.RU, the model’s practicality isn’t for show. The third row is meant for more than kids: the seats have their own headrests and three-point belts, and access is arranged through the second row. There are two cabin layouts — a 7-seater with a bench and a 6-seater with two captain’s chairs. The BIMOS car was the 6-seat Calligraphy with individual second-row seats and power adjustments.

In the top trim, the front and second rows get Premium Relaxation Seats: the cushion slides forward, the backrest reclines into a relaxed position, and the passenger essentially sits as in business class. The seatbacks of the front chairs carry separate displays with OTT services including Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Wavve, TVING, Spotify and LG U+. For a family long-distance EV, that matters more than another tenth of a second in the sprint.

In front of the driver sit two curved 12.3-inch displays, with separate digital side mirror screens at the edges of the panel. Hyundai has kept physical buttons and rotary controls, and moved the gear selector to a stalk on the right behind the wheel, freeing the centre tunnel for cupholders and a wireless charging pad. The result is a cabin where there are plenty of digital screens, but the basic actions aren’t completely buried in menus.

A separate emphasis is silence. The Ioniq 9 is the first Hyundai outside Genesis with Active Noise Control: the system uses the speakers to cancel low-frequency noise in counter-phase. Acoustic windshield glass and sound-absorbing tyre inserts have been added. For a big electric crossover that’s critical: when there’s no engine, the tyres, wind and body boom start to define how premium the car feels.

There are three powertrain versions. The base S is rear-wheel drive, with 215 hp and up to 539 km of EPA range. The mid-spec SE/SEL trims get two motors, all-wheel drive, 303 hp and up to 515 km. The top Limited, Calligraphy and Calligraphy Design Performance push out 422 hp and 700 N·m, sprint to 100 km/h in around 5.2 seconds and cover about 500 km on the EPA cycle. DC fast charging tops out at 350 kW, with a 10–80% top-up taking roughly 24 minutes.

For the US there’s an important detail — a native NACS port from spring 2026. That means the Ioniq 9 can be charged at Tesla Supercharger stations without an adapter, and for the American buyer that’s now no less important than horsepower or cabin leather. Prices there start at $60,555 for the base S and climb to $79,090 for the Calligraphy Design Performance, before tax, delivery and dealer mark-ups.

Now back to Pikachu. In February 2026 Hyundai announced a collaboration with Pokemon Korea for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. For Korean ccNC-equipped models — the Palisade, Ioniq 9, Nexo, updated Ioniq 6, 2026 Sonata The Edge and Staria — it released two dashboard themes: Pokemon Pikachu Quick Attack and Pokemon Ditto World. The price is 29,900 won, around $21 at current rates, a lifetime licence through the BlueLink Store or MyHyundai app.

This isn’t just a wallpaper. The themes change the start-up and shut-down animations, the speedometer, the navigation and the overall visual style of the interface. The car on the BIMOS stand was running Pikachu Quick Attack — which is why Pikachu ended up not only next to the car, but also on the speedometer dial. Hyundai is openly playing to a generation for whom the car has become just another screen, and buying a digital look feels almost like buying a game skin.

The Ioniq 9 will compete with the Kia EV9, Rivian R1S, Volvo EX90, Mercedes EQS SUV, Cadillac Vistiq and big petrol three-row SUVs, for buyers not yet ready to switch fully to EVs. Hyundai’s strengths are the large battery, the 800-volt architecture, space, quietness and access to Superchargers in the US. The weak spots are familiar: real-world winter range, insurance costs, residuals and the dependence on the fast-charging network.

At BIMOS Hyundai showed that a flagship EV is no longer sold purely on kilowatts. The Ioniq 9 has to be big, quiet, fast and family-friendly — and at the same time digital enough that Pikachu in the cluster looks not like a random joke but like part of a new automotive culture.