Jeep Wrangler vs Kia EV9

What's the difference?

The changes to this updated Jeep Wrangler are small but meaningful. The inclusion of airbags, the updated media screen, and a feisty engine which suits the plucky nature of this off-roader make it a better Wrangler than ever.  

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Kia EV9 GT-Line earns some serious family points with its practical and luxuriously appointed cabin. Each row enjoys ample amenities and space and you can’t discount the ability to fit five child seats!

That’s where similarities with its Carnival sibling end because the driving performance is too mixed for my liking. Some of its safety features don’t react well in real-world situations but if you’re looking for an electric car that will fit a big family, this ticks that box.

My son thinks the EV9 is really cool with the ambient lighting and two sun roofs. He also loves having his own climate control and sun-blinds, so he gives it a 10/10.

The Jeep Wrangler looks like a cartoon of a four-wheel drive, that’s how familiar and well-known the design is. It’s almost generic, like the word Jeep.

You could say the design is iconic, given that the roots of this SUV stretch back to the little Willys off-roader built for the US army in World War II. And to this day the slotted grille, pronounced wheel guards, short and upright windscreen, even the removable doors are still with us in this latest incarnation.

That’s why each generation of the Wrangler only sees very subtle tweaks to famous shape and look, in much the same way a Porsche 911’s design changes at the rate of dripping water reshaping a rock.

Changing the styling completely would destroy the look which connects the Wrangler to its past and the nostalgic appeal would be over. 

So, this update sees more than subtle styling changes in the form of a tweak to the grille with the addition of a metallic-look trim around each of the slots while the mesh insert now has larger openings.   

Along with this there’s a new front bumper. The Wranglers we tested had the optional heavy duty steel front bumpers.

There’s also some interior changes in the form of a new dashboard trim, horizontal air vents and then there’s the 12.3-inch media display which goes a long way to making the cabin look more modern.

Still, the interior is busy with buttons and switches in a design that seems to mix the look of heavy machinery controls with a prestige car. The Nappa leather of the Rubicon grade lifts the quality feel higher.

All Wrangler interiors also have an internal roll-over cage which covers the entire cabin, for the fixed metal roof and removable roof body style which are standard on the Overland and Rubicon.

Only the Rubicon is offered in a two-door and a four-door, while the Overland and Sport S are four-door only.

The Rubicon two-door looks cute and fun to my eyes, while the four-door versions look a bit more serious and beefy, but both definitely still give off tough and adventurous vibes.

The wheelbase difference between the two is as giant as it looks. The Rubicon two-door’s wheelbase is 2459mm while the four-door Rubicon’s, along with the Sport S and Overland, is 3008mm.

The Wrangler ranges in length from 4334mm for the Rubicon two-door to 4882mm for the four-door Wranglers. Width is the same for all Wranglers at 1894mm and the height ranges from 1879mm in the Rubicon two-door to 1901mm in the four-door versions.

To be frank, the EV9 resembles a Lego car on steroids, but it turns heads. I’ve had more looky-loos peeking into the windows this week than any other car I’ve driven.

Once you get over the (very) square shape, there are some awesome design aspects to be had.

Like the flagship exclusive Matrix LED headlights and 'Ocean Blue Matte' paintwork that feels velvet-like under your hands. The black 21-inch alloy wheels and their aerodynamic covers look futuristic and cool.

The pronounced nose looks wide-set because of the positioning of the tall headlights separated by a strangely blank panel in the middle.

In fact, the whole exterior incorporates a slew of blank panels which reinforce the square look.

The flush auto door handles, big windows and dark roof give some cool-kid cred. The digital side mirrors are not for everyone but as a driver, you get used to them. The tech looks as though it's come straight out of sci-fi movie!

The interior is downright plush with the premium-looking upholstery and customisable 64-colour ambient lighting.

The dashboard has floating panels which create a cool 3D effect and even the badge on the steering wheel is illuminated.

There is a plethora of soft touchpoints throughout and the black headliner helps make the cavernous cabin feel almost cosy.

When we review most SUVs practicality is scored on things like legroom, storage space and boot size. But in the case of a vehicle with removable doors and roof, and a cabin that has one-way drainage valves so you can hose the interior out, practicality takes on a different meaning.

The Wrangler’s practicality seems focussed on serving adventurous folks in search of a muddy off-road expedition and, so, while there is storage it’s mainly nets for door pockets, moulded wells on top of the dash, and smaller hidey holes to makes sure loose items don’t get flung around the cabin.

Given the roof can be removed there’s also a lockable glove box and centre console storage box.

When it comes to cabin space the Wrangler’s interior feels a bit cramped. The footwells up front don’t offer much space and headroom throughout is restricted by the roll cage which stretches from the front to the boot.

The four-door Wrangler has five seats and good legroom in the second row, even for me at 189cm tall. As mentioned above, headroom is limited in places because of the safety structure. Boot space behind those rear seats is 898 litres.

The two-door Rubicon has four seats. The back ones aren’t the most spacious and the boot behind them is almost too small to mention at 365L, Two pieces of carry-on luggage wouldn’t fit back there and we had to put our bags on the rear seats.

The rear tailgate for all Wranglers is side-hinged (opening left to right) and splits to allow just the window section or lower part to open separately.

For charging and powering devices all Wranglers have two USB ports up front (one -A and one -C) and four USB ports in the second row (two -A and two -C). There are also two 12V outlets on board (front and rear).  

There are two cupholders, seatback map nets and directional air vents for the second row.

The Wrangler sits high and climbing into the rear seats might be a challenge for smaller kids or even fully-grown humans, but there are chunky handholds at the pillars for extra help.

So, the Wrangler has excellent practicality, but this is geared more to its intended purpose of adventuring off-road rather than the city commute and school pick-up.

It’s large and you have ample space throughout the car. Even third rowers don’t miss out.

It feels quite van-like with the high seat positioning and extending centre console but you get a great view out of the massive windows.

The electrically-adjustable front seats are very comfortable but the mesh ergonomic headrests are a little too comfy!

The boxy steering wheel is nice to use but cut into my vision of the climate control screen from my driving position. I felt like I was looking around it a lot.

Individual storage is fantastic in all three rows. Up front you get a little pocket in the armrest and a huge shelf underneath the centre console.

The glove box is large, but curiously, has a small aperture. There are retractable cupholders in the centre console utility tray and drink bottle holders in each door.

The middle row has two drink bottle holders, four cupholders, two map pockets and a deep but narrow storage cubby at the back of the centre console.

Third rowers are not forgotten, either, with four cupholders and directional air vents to enjoy.

Amenities are great throughout the car and my son loves having the retractable sun-blinds and his own climate control in the middle row. It’s also an easy car to get in and out of, which we both enjoy!

The middle row's 60/40 split is a practical touch and they can be shifted manually or electrically with a one-touch button for access to the third row.

Speaking of which, there is an okay amount of room for my 168cm (5'6") height in the third row (if you push the middle row forward a smidge). And it doesn’t feel claustrophobic thanks to the wide windows.

If you have a pile of kids to shove in this car, you’ll be happy that this row also features two ISOFIX child seat mounts and two top tethers.

I wouldn’t want to be climbing into the third row to buckle in a kid, so reserve these seats for older kids.

The technology looks good but is simple to use which is always a good combination. There are plenty of charging options to choose from with each row getting two USB-C ports, while the front also enjoys a 12-volt socket and a wireless charging pad.

The touchscreen multimedia system is responsive and easy enough to use but the controls on this panel can be difficult to see and use. They’re not always responsive.

I like the satellite navigation and the way the head-up display pulls through the directions. There’s wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, too.

The digital instrument cluster is mildly customisable and easy to read. There is a little control panel on the driver’s door which houses the buttons for most of the added seat functions. But it’s hard to read as all the buttons are almost identical.

The boot is a good size when all seats are in use at 333L, which is plenty for my day-to-day errands, but pop the third row down and that jumps up to 828L.

Not as big as you might expect in a car of this size but that’s the compromise of going electric. The batteries have to go somewhere.

You do get a 52L frunk at the front, for cable storage. The loading space is level and you only get a tyre repair kit rather than a physical spare but it’s handy having the powered tailgate.

There are three variants for the EV9 and our test vehicle is the flagship GT-Line model that will cost you $121,000, before on road costs. That makes it the most expensive Kia to date, with the top-spec Carnival Platinum diesel only costing $67,580 (MSRP).

However, it’s nearest rival, the Mercedes EQS450 SUV, sits at $194,900 making the EV9 look downright cheap with the $73,900 price difference.

Yes, you could argue the badges would always offer a little price difference but Kia has made a true flagship model in the GT-Line because it is stupidly well-specified. It’s almost a case of what doesn’t it come with!

In terms of luxury appointments, occupants enjoy two sunroofs and two-toned synthetic leather upholstery. The electric front seats feature heat and ventilation functions, adjustable lumbar support and the driver gets a massage function.

The front seats have a relaxation mode, which I liken to the reclining seats in business class (someone send me on a trip to confirm!).

If you recline, add the sounds of nature feature and pop on the massage function, it’s like you’re in a day spa. Delightful.

The middle row outboard seats are also heated and ventilated which adds a lot of comfort and there’s a heated steering wheel, too.

Other standard equipment includes 21-inch alloy wheels, flush door handles, digital side mirrors, privacy tinted rear glass, pixel matrix LED headlights, 14-speaker Meridian premium sound and remote parking assist.

Practical features include a powered tailgate, extendable sun visors, retractable sun-blinds and three-zone climate control.

The technology is upmarket with dual 12.3-inch digital screens covering instrumentation and multimedia. There's also a 5.0-inch ‘quick-look’ climate control panel. A full tech run-down will come later.

One of the biggest changes Jeep could make to the Wrangler without causing complete mayhem for fans is to the engine and even then there will be folks who don’t like what they’re about to read.

Deep breaths, okay? Right, so, in this update the V6 petrol engine has been replaced by a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder. 

At 200kW the new four-cylinder makes a smidge less power than the V6 but more torque at 400Nm. An eight-speed automatic transmission shifts gears and sends the drive to all four wheels.

If you’re a Wrangler fan you’ll most likely know about this engine swap, but you’re wondering how this four-cylinder feels.

The answer is, really good. Jeep has got it right. It’s a torquey, responsive engine that feels energetic and suits the Wrangler's personality well.

In the short time I’ve spent on and off the road I’m convinced this turbo-four will be a good companion wherever you decide to go.

And go pretty much anywhere you can, with all Wranglers being ridiculously capable off-road thanks to their ladder frame chassis, high- and low-range gears, outstanding ground clearance (233mm-257mm, depending on variant ), excellent approach angle (41.4 to 44 degrees, depending on variant) and a departure angle to match (37 degrees for the both Rubicons; 36.1 for the Sport S and Overland).  

The Rubicon comes standard with Jeep’s 'Rock-Trac' on-demand four-wheel drive system and this update adds a full float rear axle. Sport S and Overland grades have Jeep’s 'Selec-Trac Active' on-demand 4WD set-up.

The EV9 GT-Line is a pure-electric AWD with dual motors, one located at each end of the car, producing a maximum power output of 283kW and 700Nm of torque. It has a lithium-ion battery with a big capacity of 99.8kWh.

Overall, the EV9 GT-Line is powerful and capable of sprinting from 0-100km/h in just 5.3 seconds. That’s impressive for such a heavy car with a 2500kg (braked) towing capacity.

The new turbo-petrol, four-cylinder means better fuel economy than the V6 it replaces. We have yet to test Jeep’s claims that after a combination of open and urban roads the four cylinder uses 9.2L/100km in the sport S and Overland grades and 9.9L/100km in the Rubicon.

In comparison, Jeep says the previous V6 uses 10.1L/100km in the Rubicon and 9.9L/100km in the Overland. Our own testing saw consumption closer to 13L/100km.

We’ll have the new Wrangler in our garage soon and we’ll be able to put the fuel consumption claims to a real world test.

In terms of range, the two-door Rubicon has a 61-litre fuel tank and in theory a range of up to 680km. The Sport S and Overland have an 81-litre tank and can get up to 880km, while the four-door Rubicon’s 81-litre tank should manage 830km.

Of course if you’re off-roading you’ll use more fuel and the range will drop accordingly.

It's a hulk of a thing to have to move around and the motors perform brilliantly, but my energy cycle figure surprisingly came out at only 21.4kWh, after mostly open-road driving.

The official combined energy cycle is 22.8kWh, so that's a solid result.

The driving range is up to 505km, which takes the sting out of any range anxiety.

The EV9 features a Type 2 CCS port as well as an 11kW AC charger and you can get from 10 to 100 per cent in just over nine hours.

On a 50kW DC charger, you’d see that time drop to just 83 minutes to get from 10 to 80 per cent and it will shrink to 24-minutes on a 350kW charger.

A cool feature is the vehicle-to-load capability, so you can charge and/or power larger appliances on the go. Hello camping!

Every one of the Jeep launches I’ve attended over the past 15 years has involved a pretty decent off-road component and it’s clear the company has a lot of faith in its product.

This Wrangler launch’s off-road test had been scaled back due to days of flooding rain beforehand, but the section that was passable was enough to remind us of what we already know and that is the Wrangler is formidable.

A Queensland bush off-road course full of steep, muddy hills, ruts, rocks, dirt and slippery descents was still all there for us to test the Wrangler Rubicon four-door.

Fun and comfortable are the first words that pop into my head when recalling how the Rubicon fares. This is a super-capable beastie that feels planted, secure and adept at all times.

We tested low- and high-range four-wheel drive, locked the rear differential and let the hill descent mode do its thing and get us down the sides of hills that felt so close to vertical all we could see through the windscreen was the ground.

What's also clear is the new turbo-petrol, four-cylinder feels well suited to the job, with plenty of torque along with a feisty and responsive nature that fits the Wrangler better than the old V6.

There was also plenty of time spent on the road in the four-door Rubicon and its smaller two-door sibling. And was here it was also super clear the Wrangler felt like we’d taken it out of its natural habitat.

At 110km/h on the motorway the two door Rubicon feels light and floaty in its suspension, with steering adjustments having to be made constantly, like actors pretending to drive cars in movies, as the Wrangler wanders around in its lane. The Wrangler wander is a known trait and isn’t specific to this updated car. 

And even though our launch drive took us on some great winding country roads which would have been perfect for a Mazda MX-5, the Wranglers found the fast tight turns difficult to handle.

I’m sure I heard a sigh of relief from our Rubicon as we pulled off the road and selected low-range four-wheel drive before bouncing up what looked to be a sheer cliff, with ease.  

Of course, our Adventure Expert Marcus 'Crafty' Craft will put the Wrangler though its paces once we have one in the CarsGuide garage.

Strangely for a large SUV, this car feels most at home in an urban environment. It’s in the city where it feels nimble and easy to manoeuvre. Zippy even, and you don’t notice it’s size.

But it’s a different story on the open road. 

At higher speeds there is a lot of movement in the body and thanks to its floaty suspension the amount of roll in corners starts to make it feel cumbersome.

It has the power to handle mountain driving or overtaking, but remains a bit unsure of itself in these situations.

The steering is responsive and concise, which makes for a nice driving experience in the city and navigating a car park.

The cabin gets very little noise thanks in part to sound-absorbing acoustic glass and foam in the tyres. It makes for a fairly pleasant journey overall.

As a passenger, though, I began to suffer motion sickness thanks to the digital side mirrors! Not an issue when I’m driving, but even my husband, who has an iron stomach, commented on how distracting they are.

It’s nice having a column shifter, as it helps open up the storage in the centre console but it can make pressing the push-start button a bit awkward.

The EV9 has a decent 12.4m turning circle and is relatively easy to park. The 360-degree view camera system is clear and I love having the front and rear parking sensors on this big boy.

But to access the front camera, you have to be in Drive. You can’t select it on the touchscreen, which is a pain when you’re manoeuvring into a tight space.

If you’re not confident, the EV9 also features an updated park itself feature which means you can park it remotely from your key fob. 

The EV9 has an extensive safety list and the blind-spot view monitor, which pops a video feed of your blind spot onto your dash, is a stand-out feature.

Standard safety items include blind-spot monitoring, lane departure alert, daytime running lights, forward collision warning, side collision warning, rear-cross collision warning, rear cross-traffic alert, intelligent seatbelt reminders, a 360-degree view camera system, as well as front and rear parking sensors.

There are other items but I need to call out their sensitivity issues.  

The driver attention monitor doesn’t always activate when you have sunglasses on and alerts you via multiple warning sounds and alerts on the instrument cluster.

The lane keeping aid is rather aggressive, which makes for a jerky on-road experience, and the adaptive cruise control with stop/go functionality isn’t nice to use.

Even on the shorter distance setting, it slows down way too fast when approaching a car in front.

Also, annoyingly, this model features all the warning chimes and alerts that are linked to the traffic sign recognition tech.

Go over the speed limit by one kay, chime. Enter a school zone, several chimes. If the speed sign changes, chime. If the traffic sign changes, you guessed it, CHIME.

Suffice it to say I don’t like this feature.

There's an option in the car set-up menu that turns off the warning sounds but keeps the important sign information. However, it's not permanent and has to be selected every time you turn on the car.

In better news, the Kia EV9 has just been awarded a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating and features nine airbags which includes curtain airbags covering all three rows and side chest airbags for the second row.

Usually, you only see side chest airbags on the front row, so this is great! It also sports a front centre airbag to protect the front row from head clash injuries.

The EV9 has autonomous emergency braking with car, pedestrian and cyclist detection as well as junction turning assist.

It's operational from 10 to 80km/h but surprisingly, the car-to-car avoidance is only operational from 10 to 60km/h.

That upper speed figure usually sits closer to 160km/h. Unless there is a typo on ANCAPs website…

Families will rejoice that there is a total of four ISOFIX child seat mounts (two in the middle row and two in the third row) plus a total of five top-tether anchor points.

The car is large enough to accommodate five child seats and there’s plenty of room for front passengers when a 0-4 rearward facing child seat is installed on the middle row.  It’s pretty much a people mover at this point!

The Wrangler is covered by Jeep's five-year/100,000km warranty, which is off the mainstream market standard of five years/unlimited km.

Service intervals are recommended every 12 months and 12,000km and service prices are capped at $399. Jeep also offers lifetime roadside assistance if you service your Wrangler though Jeep. 

The EV9 comes with a seven-year/unlimited km warranty, while its battery is covered for seven years, 160,000km. It’s normal to see an eight-year battery warranty term for EVs, though.

You can pre-purchase a three-, five-, or seven-year servicing plan, priced at $706, $1351 and $1997, respectively.

The seven-year schedule costs an average of $285 per service, which is good, but servicing intervals are more in line with a fuel-based car at every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first.