Testing the 2024 Kia EV9’s Range While Towing

Editor’s note: This story was updated Sept. 18, 2024, to add the recommended trailer weights in each of the EV9’s trailer modes.

Recently, I hitched 2,000 pounds to the back of our long-term, all-electric 2024 Kia EV9 to see how the three-row SUV’s driving range and performance were affected by towing a trailer. This wasn’t an instrumented test like our comparison of the electric F-150 Lightning versus the gas-electric F-150 hybrid, which has great insights into towing with an electric vehicle, but, rather, these are my observations after towing a small trailer 100 miles from the Chicago suburbs to our family’s vacation home along Lake Michigan. I have experience towing with trucks and SUVs, as well as reviewing and driving electric cars, but this was my first time towing with an EV, and the experience definitely threw me a few curveballs. There’s a lot to know if you’re planning to tow with the EV9, so let’s get into it.

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EV9 Towing Capacity

Our long-term EV9 Land has the optional $1,500 Towing Package that includes a tow hitch and self-leveling rear suspension that increases the maximum trailering capacity from 3,500 to 5,000 pounds. Like many car-based SUV platforms, the maximum capacity comes with an asterisk; the 5,000-pound capacity is only when the trailer has its own brakes to help slow the vehicle/trailer combo. The EV9 Land is only rated to tow a maximum 1,653 pounds when the trailer doesn’t have its own braking system, a rating I exceeded by 267 pounds because the appropriately sized trailer for my cargo didn’t have trailer brakes. (The measured weight of the trailer was 1,920 pounds when loaded, according to a certified truck scale.) While I chose to exceed the non-braked trailer rating and see how the EV9 handled the weight, you should really work within the specs of the car for the safest towing experience.

An important component of towing is calculating tongue weight (the downward weight of the trailer on the hitch ball). A good tongue weight for this trailer would be 192 pounds, or 10% of the trailer load, and 10% is also the recommended maximum tongue weight outlined in the EV9’s owner’s manual. I struggled to get an accurate reading on our pedestal-style tongue weight scale, which does great with 700-pound tongue weights but is flimsy in the 100-pound range. I placed the cart backward on the trailer so the heaviest bits (battery and motor) were closest to the hitch ball to optimize tongue weight. And while the EV9’s rear-axle scale weight was 280 pounds heavier with the trailer connected (a potential 14.6% tongue weight), some of that weight was from tools and parts I stored in the cargo area.

At a measured 6,320 pounds with a 180-pound driver, I was well within the 7,011-pound gross vehicle weight rating, according to the door jamb placard for weight capacities. All together, my golf-cart-trailering combo weighed 8,240 pounds — still lighter than a GMC Hummer EV SUV by itself. So with everything measured and hooked up, it was time to hit the road and see how range and efficiency were affected.

How Much Range Did We Lose While Towing?

The EV9’s owner’s manual says towing could decrease driving distance up to 50%, depending on the shape and weight of the trailer. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy to calculate in the moment because the range estimator, a crucial component of knowing how far you can go, proved not very helpful on my drive. Honestly, some of that came down to me not knowing about the EV9’s available trailering modes and how they affect range prediction. Here’s what happened and what I learned while towing with the EV9:

I started the trip with the battery at 98% state of charge, and as soon as I plugged in the trailer harness (via an adapter required to mate the EV9’s 7-pin connector to the trailer’s 4-pin connector), the indicated range dropped from 345 to 129 miles, a whopping 216-mile drop (63%) even before moving an inch with the trailer. Note that 345 miles of range is an impressive number when you consider our EV9 is EPA-rated at 280 miles, but our EV9 with 3,500 miles on its odometer has also never gone anywhere near 345 miles without recharging.

Having only 129 miles of range with the trailer connected was disheartening considering I wasn’t even towing half the SUV’s maximum capacity. Why did the range drop so drastically at first? Kia spokesman James Hope says the EV9 assumes a default load of 5,000 pounds, its maximum capacity, in its auto-sensing mode, but the distance-to-empty estimation can be adjusted depending on the weight of the trailer. Tow mode engages once you plug in a trailer harness, while Trailer mode settings are available in the touchscreen under Drive Modes. The default Auto trailer mode assumes 5,000 pounds until it corrects while driving, but Heavy, Medium, Light and Off trailer modes can also be selected. These trailer modes “maintain the driving performance,” according to the infotainment system owner’s manual, as well as distance-to-empty calculations. I missed these during my drive because it’s not clear that these exist once you plug in a trailer, nor is it clear what they do because there’s not much documentation from Kia.

According to Kia, here are examples of what kind of trailers should be used in the various trailer modes:

Light: Less than 2,000 pounds, Class B trailer

• 5-by-8 box trailer
• Jet Skis
• Riding-mower trailer
• Teardrop trailer

Medium: Between 2,000-3,500 pounds, Class C trailer

• 6-by-12 box trailer
• Small boat
• Side-by-side trailer

Heavy: Between 3,500-5,000 pounds, Class D trailer

• 7-by-16 box trailer
• Camper
• Large boat

After driving 10 miles, the EV9’s estimated range adjusted to 207 miles. According to Hope, the EV9 estimates the combined vehicle/trailer mass during acceleration to calculate predicted range, which is why it’s a delayed calculation. Then, something unexpected happened 30 miles down the road: The range suddenly readjusted from 170 miles to 100 miles. At this point, I wasn’t sure which number to believe. Was it self-correcting again? My best guess is that something glitched with the trailer harness and adapter since the connection triggers a range adjustment. The EV9 also kept telling me that the trailer lights weren’t working when they were, so communication between the SUV and trailer might not have been working properly.

With the actual range in question, I relied on the measured efficiency of the trip computer and battery capacity to estimate range. This method didn’t provide an entirely clear picture either, however, because the EV9’s 99.8 kilowatt-hours of rated battery capacity is the overall (gross) capacity and not the usable (net) capacity, which Kia doesn’t share. The 99.8 kWh extrapolated to a maximum 209.6 miles of driving range with the efficiency of 2.1 miles per kWh that I was seeing. I probably had around 200 miles total of usable energy.

Regardless, I felt comfortable knowing I’d have plenty of juice to get to my destination 100 miles away, which I easily did. The trip was mostly highway speeds that I kept to a maximum of 65 mph, and I averaged 32.1 mph. At the end of the journey, the EV9 estimated I had 81 miles of range left after traveling 96.2 miles and using 46% battery. I feel comfortable saying that I probably had around 200-210 miles of maximum range at 100% while towing this trailer. For the occasional tow that’s well within 200 miles, the EV9 can get the job done and manages to be relatively efficient while doing so. However, I wouldn’t want to drive with this particular trailer more than 120 miles at highway speeds to give me enough buffer for the distance between DC fast chargers on the road.

Another problem that could be potentially solved by entering the right trailer weight was how ineffective the trip-planning function was when the EV9’s navigation system thought I was towing something heavier than I actually was. The navigation system is supposed to plan a stop when it’s time to charge, ensuring you don’t run out of juice on the way to your destination. The navigation didn’t think I could get very far with an indicated 129 miles of range, and it tried to send me way out of my way into the city of Chicago for a charging stop.

Where’d the Torque Go?

To my surprise, the EV9 while towing felt sluggish from a stop and required more accelerator prodding to get moving than I expected. This experience bunked my initial thoughts that it would be a towing machine with 379 horsepower and all of its 443 pounds-feet of electric torque available at low speeds. I could also constantly feel the trailer tugging and pulling on the car when going over bumps, but that’s pretty typical with a unibody vehicle versus a body-on-frame truck or SUV. I never felt like the EV9 and trailer were out of control thanks to great lateral stability, but it was extremely apparent I was towing something — more so during acceleration and steady state driving on rough roads versus braking, which remained confidence-inspiring and natural.

Related Video:

EV9 Towing Takeaways

This was my first time towing with an EV, and it was certainly interesting to see the EV9’s real-time range adjustments as it sensed the load. Knowing what I know now, I’d for sure play with the Trailer mode settings to try and dial-in the range estimation. That said, driving the EV9 with a trailer isn’t exactly something I’m itching to do again, nor would I recommend it to someone who doesn’t know their way around “miles per kilowatt-hours” or how to find DC fast chargers outside of the EV9’s navigation system. It was a huge relief once I unhooked the trailer and got back to driving the zippy, entertaining (and unladen) EV9.

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• Shop for a 2024 Kia EV9

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