Kia announces first Europe pricing for EV9, and it’s more than we thought
We’ve now learned initial pricing for Kia’s upcoming EV9 three-row SUV in one European market, thanks to a price list on Kia’s Belgian website.
So far we’ve had to speculate on pricing for the upcoming EV9, as Kia hasn’t announced US pricing yet. With deliveries starting in Korea last week, we know what domestic Korean pricing is for the EV9 – it starts at around $60K. But things can change when cars get exported, so European pricing gives us a little more of a hint as to what the car might cost overseas.
Now, thanks to a Belgian price list, we know that the base model “Earth launch edition” spec of the EV9 starts at €74,990 – definitely a higher price than we initially expected. “Earth” in this instance refers to trim level, as Kia is wont to use environmental terms to describe its trim levels (“wave,” “wind,” etc.). The only separately-priced options we see are for swiveling second-row seats and metallic or matte paint. Otherwise, all customization comes through the two trim levels (the higher “GT Line” trim costs an additional €8,900).
However, there are some caveats. These prices include Belgian taxes, which stand at 21%. The pre-tax base price is €61,975, which translates to ~$67.5K at current exchange rates. This, we think, is the closest idea of what US pricing might look like for the upcoming SUV.
However, this is the 99.8kWh “large battery” version. We haven’t seen pricing for the “standard” 76.1kWh version anywhere yet, but we imagine that would account for a nice chunk of a discount. For comparison, the EV6 comes in 58kWh and 77kWh versions, and that 19kWh difference will cost you $6,100 more. So the 23kWh difference between the EV9’s two models should probably cut a similar amount off of the price.
So the base price of the standard-battery model, once that comes around, could be closer to $60K again. This is still more expensive than the Korean pricing, since Korea gets the large battery for around $60K, so it looks like we’re seeing maybe a 10% or so increase for foreign models.
It also starts the EV9 near the top of pricing for the EV6. The EV6 starts at $42K but goes up to $61K for the highest-end configurations. So Kia is building a price ladder here, with the bigger car occupying the top rung of it (personally I think smaller cars are better, but I guess I’m the weird one).
Comparing to other offerings on the market, this is a big chunk more expensive than Kia’s gas-powered SUV, the Telluride, which starts at $35k, or €34k in Europe. That massive almost-100kWh battery doesn’t come cheap.
While EV price differentials can often be made up by subsidies, the EV9 won’t qualify for the US EV tax credit, due to being assembled in Korea. However, US buyers can get around this restriction by leasing, where Kia currently offers a $7,500 lease deal on its current models by passing along the commercial EV tax credit to the lessee. Kia hasn’t confirmed that this deal will apply to the EV9, but as it applies to its other EV models, we suspect it will – though maybe not immediately at launch.
But looking at pricing of some other three-row electric SUVs, this price would put the EV9 about mid-pack. If we assume an eventual ~$60K base for the standard model, that’s more than the Tesla Model Y and Mercedes EQB which both start at around $53K with their anemic rear seats, approximately in line with or a little less than what we expect from the spacious three-row ID.Buzz, and quite a chunk less than the Rivian R1S and Volvo EX90 which are in the 80K range.
We’re seeing more sightings of the EV9 in the US (we just saw a video of one in Palm Springs, see below), so launch is imminent. We’ll surely get real pricing soon, but until then, what do you think about the likely ~$60K base price in the US for the standard-battery EV9? Or $67K for the large battery? Let us know in the comments.
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Tesla (TSLA) is no longer confidently stating growth in its automotive business for 2025, and it has delayed updating its guidance until the next quarter after a disappointing performance in the first three months of the year.
2024 was Tesla’s first year in a decade where its vehicle deliveries went down year-over-year.
Just a few months ago, in January, Tesla was confident in predicting that it would return to growth in 2025:
“With the advancements in vehicle autonomy and the introduction of new products, we expect the vehicle business to return to growth in 2025.”
Today, Tesla released its Q1 2025 financial results, confirming that it had its worst quarter in years to start 2025.
The automaker is now clearly not as confident about returning to growth in its automotive business this year.
Tesla updated its “outlook” section this quarter to highlight the potential impact of trade policies and now no longer discusses automotive growth in isolation. Instead, it bundled automotive and energy businesses together and said that it will “revisit its 2025 guidance” next quarter:
It is difficult to measure the impacts of shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains, our cost structure and demand for durable goods and related services. While we are making prudent investments that will set up both our vehicle and energy businesses for growth, the rate of growth this year will depend on a variety of factors, including the rate of acceleration of our autonomy efforts, production ramp at our factories and the broader macroeconomic environment. We will revisit our 2025 guidance in our Q2 update.
Tesla’s vehicle deliveries are already down about 50,000 units so far this year compared to last year.
It will be challenging to catch up in the current macroeconomic situation.
Tesla again guided the start of production of “new affordable models” in the first half of 2025, which could help the automaker to deliver more cars.
However, as we have previously reported, these new vehicles are expected to be stripped-down Model Y and Model 3, which will cannibalize Tesla’s current sales and limit its growth to those products.
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US DC fast charging is becoming more reliable, and charging stations are getting bigger and busier, according to a new Q1 2025 report from the EV data analysts at Paren.
DC fast charging station reliability is on the rise
Paren’s latest US Reliability Index – “Can I successfully charge at this charger?” – increased from 81.2 points in Q4 2024 to 82.6 points in Q1 2025, a notable jump of 1.7%. According to Bill Ferro, CTO at Paren, “This continues a quarterly trend across the US non-Tesla fast charging infrastructure, which suggests that the ongoing efforts to replace or sunset older hardware are having a positive impact on station uptime. In addition, newer entrants into the field are bringing time-tested hardware along with enhanced driver experiences.”
Utah, Alaska, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Nevada were the top-ranked states for DC fast charging reliability in Q1 2025.
Growth slows, but charging stations are getting larger
New DC fast charging ports grew to 55,580 at the end of Q1 2025, up 3,667 from last quarter, with total stations reaching 10,839, an increase of 794. This is fewer new additions compared to the surge seen at the end of 2024, reflecting typical seasonal slowdowns due to winter weather. However, there’s a bright spot: the average number of ports per station among non-Tesla networks rose to 3.9, compared to 2.7 year-over-year. The Tesla Supercharger network now averages 13 ports per station.
Utilization rates reflect the urban-rural divide
Average utilization – that’s the minutes of a charging session as a percentage of time a station is open each day – dropped slightly from 16.6% in Q4 2024 to 16.2% in Q1 2025, following typical holiday travel patterns. But overall, charging use is climbing, especially in dense urban areas with significant rideshare and apartment communities that rely heavily on public chargers.
Early days for NACS transition
The Combined Charging System (CCS) remains dominant, with 59% of new ports, and the shift toward Tesla’s NACS (J3400) standard is still in its very early stages. Only 104 non-Tesla NACS ports were added this quarter at non-Tesla networks, so drivers of new non-Tesla vehicles need to use their adapters if they want to use Superchargers.
Fixed pricing prevails
Charging operators primarily use fixed pricing (80%), with Time of Use (TOU) pricing making up 16%. Pay-by-time options are rare, used only 4.2% of the time.
California is the only major state where TOU pricing surpasses fixed pricing, while many states, such as Oklahoma, Vermont, and Arkansas, almost exclusively utilize fixed pricing models.
As for the most expensive places to fast charge your EV? The top four metropolitan statistical areas are all in California, with average rates at $0.60 or $0.61 per kWh.
Rural and low-income areas at risk
The Trump administration’s cancellation of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program poses a significant threat to rural and low-income communities. Loren McDonald, chief analyst at Paren, cautioned, “Our data is a harbinger of less expansion in rural and lower-income markets as CPOs will increasingly focus on urban markets, seeing high utilization, often north of 30%, versus markets with less than 5% utilization.”
‘Charging 2.0’ – a new industry phase
McDonald summed up the report by marking 2024 as a pivotal year, stating, “2024 was a year of mixed news in the US DC fast charging industry, but it will be remembered as a pivotal turn to a new era we are calling ‘Charging 2.0’. Charge-point operators and new players in the industry are increasingly focused on creating a great customer experience, improving reliability of chargers, and reaching profitability – a shift from chasing the availability of incentives, racing to get chargers in the ground, and then crossing your fingers that utilization will grow over time.”
Read more: Trump just canceled the federal NEVI EV charger program
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Tesla (TSLA) released its financial results and shareholders’ letter for the first quarter (Q1) and full-year 2025 after market close today.
We are updating this post with all the details from the financial results, shareholders’ letter, and the conference call later tonight. Refresh for the latest information.
Tesla Q1 2025 earnings expectations
As we reported in our Tesla Q1 2025 earnings preview yesterday, the Wall Street consensus for this quarter was $21.345 billion in revenue and earnings of $0.41 per share.
The expectations had been significantly downgraded over the last month, as analysts were surprised by Tesla’s announcement of much lower deliveries than expected in the first quarter.
Did Tesla meet them?`
Tesla Q1 2025 financial results
After the market closed today, Tesla released its financial results for the first quarter and confirmed that it missed expectations with earnings of $0.27 per share (non-GAAP), and it also missed revenue expectations with $19.335 billion during the last quarter.
This is a big miss for Tesla despite the company admitting to selling a lot more regulatory credits this quarter.
At $595 million in credit sales, Tesla would have lost money without it in Q1 2025:
In short, Tesla is on the verge of being a money-losing company.
We will be posting our follow-up posts here about the earnings and conference call to expand on the most important points (refresh the page to see the most recent posts):
Here’s Tesla’s Q1 2025 shareholder presentation in full:
Here’s Tesla’s conference call for the Q1 2025 results:
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