Our 2024 Kia EV9’s Digital Gauges Keep Failing
Editor’s note: This story was updated Oct. 18, 2024, to add information about the related recall from Kia and NHTSA.
It’s not great when your car can’t tell you how fast you’re going, and it’s especially bad when an electric car can’t easily tell you how much battery life or range you have. But this is what we’ve been facing in our long-term 2024 Kia EV9 electric SUV, as its digital gauges have repeatedly failed on us in our 4,000 miles and six months of ownership.
Each time, the digital instrument panel (where the gauges are displayed) goes almost entirely blank. It’ll restart after the car sits while off, but we’ve had to drive without the instrument panel telling us how fast we’re going and whether the turn signals are on or off. We’re not the only ones to experience this problem, either; of the 48 complaints consumers have filed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the 2024 Kia EV9, over half are for the instrument panel going blank, and these complaints have been on the rise as of late.
Here’s the latest from Kia and NHTSA on a potential fix and recall, as well as what EV9 owners can do if this happens to them.
Related: Read More About Our 2024 Kia EV9 Long-Term Test Car
What’s Happening
On all occasions when this has happened in our EV9, the digital instrument panel has turned black, with the exception of the gear indicator showing D or P in the bottom center of the screen and the parking brake or auto-hold indicators when they’re active. The center touchscreen has been usable even when the instrument panel has not, and performing a reset of the center touchscreen (via the pinhole button next to the volume dial) proved ineffective in restarting the instrument panel.
What we found interesting is that even though the turn-signal sound isn’t working, the turn-signal lights are, which we confirmed before driving. It’s still wise to check the lights yourself if you run into this issue on the road since other EV9s could be affected differently.
The screen appears to be losing some communication with the rest of the car, too, because when the digital gauge screen is blank, the camera view that’s activated when you’re in Reverse doesn’t automatically shut off when you’re in Drive and moving forward. The odometer, however, appears to still be accumulating mileage when the screen is off. Changing drive modes, however, did not work for us; it was a bummer being locked into Eco mode when merging onto a busy highway where I really could have used more immediate acceleration.
Unfortunately, there’s no repeatable process to fix a blank instrument panel other than to turn the car off and wait for it to reset. The first time we experienced this, the screen restarted as soon as the car was turned off and back on, but this wasn’t the norm. The other times, it came back after sitting for an hour or more. Complaints filed to NHTSA indicate 30 minutes could be enough time for some instrument panels to reset.
What’s Being Done to Fix the Issue?
When this post was originally published, there was no fix other than to let the EV9 reset by itself, and Kia was investigating the issue. Kia spokesman James Hope provided the following statement in an email:
“Kia is aware of and is diligently investigating the intermittent operation of the instrument cluster display screen. We currently understand that the instrument cluster display functionality can be recovered by turning the vehicle off and turning it back on and that this condition does not affect any of the underlying systems. Kia is working towards a solution to address this issue.”
On Oct. 17, Kia and NHTSA issued a recall for the blank instrument panel display. You can find more details here.
What EV9 Owners Can Do Right Now
Until there’s a fix, EV9 owners can circumvent the lack of a speedometer display by using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto navigation apps, including Google Maps and Waze, that display real-time speed on the touchscreen. (Some apps may require a destination to be entered to show real-time speed.) Drivers can also download a GPS speedometer app on their phone, which may work with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
Battery percentage also goes missing from the instrument panel when the screen is out, but you can switch to the EV menu on the center touchscreen (and away from any real-time speed indicator via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto) to see battery percentage and distance-to-empty estimates.
We’ll be sure to provide an update on this issue at Cars.com/News once we learn how Kia plans to fix it, because we’ll be going through the repair process along with other EV9 owners.
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- 2024 Kia EV9 Review: The First, Best and Only Semi-Affordable 3-Row Electric SUV
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- Shop for a 2024 Kia EV9
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