BEST LARGE CAR KIA EV9 - BEST SMALL CAR RENAULT CLIO

Us Europeans don't tend to think of Kia as a player in the large car market, which might be one of the reasons why the EV9 has made such a splash since its introduction to our shores at the beginning of this year.

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Elsewhere in the world, that's exactly what it is. North American Kia buyers know all about the Sorento-topping Telluride sevenseat SUV and the Carnival MPV. In Korea and elsewhere, there's the K9/K900 full-size executive saloon as well. And the firm is about to introduce a full-size pick-up truck, the Tasman.

Kia's designers aren't afraid of sheer scale, in other words. When it came to penning the EV9, how could they have been? There's a wonderful, totally prepossessing, take-me-as-youfind-me confidence about this electric seven-seat SUV. It's here to steal business from the European elites. Under the skin, it's good enough to do exactly that, and the square-featured, Imperial Stormtrooper-cool of the exterior doesn't care a jot who knows it.

Everywhere you take the EV9, people ask you what it is. Within a couple of years, there will be smaller EV3 and EV5 SUVs that look a lot like it, which should help to claim this new design language as Kia's own. For now, though, this is a like a car just landed from a sci-fi movie set. People stare at it on the street; they seek you out in shops and cafes to talk excitedly about it and to ask what it's like.