Hyundai is leaning into the pixel theme in a big way, with the brand’s eight-bit-inspired design language dominating its latest electric vehicle (EV).
If the award-winning Ioniq 5 ushered in the pixel era, the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9 shouts about it from the rooftops. While it lacks its hatchback sibling’s retro styling, this three-row SUV has dots for days. It also happens to have a massive battery pack that should provide plenty of emissions-free range.
Pixelation Sensation
The dits and dahs that make up the Morse code-like motif are absolutely everywhere the eye can see — and even some places it can’t. Whether or not it’s excessive is a subjective matter, but it could be enough to leave at least some onlookers seeing spots.
The rear end in particular is lit up like a float in Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade, with no less than 118 individual pixels on the hindquarters alone. Lighting elements aside, there are shades of Volvo’s wagons from the early part of this century here, with the same subtly flared shoulders that tie into the tail lights.
The overall shape is a little unconventional for an SUV, electric or otherwise, although Hyundai claims it slips through the air rather smoothly. The drag coefficient registers at 0.26 with the camera-based mirrors that aren’t available in this part of the world — not much worse than the sleek Ioniq 6 sedan with the same setup (0.21). The automaker calls the styling aerosthetic, a portmanteau of the words “aerodynamic” and “aesthetic,” with the sweeping roofline bolstering both function and form.
Less flattering are the bizarrely shaped wheel arches. While they don’t stand out as much in uniform body-colour paint compared to a contrasting gloss black finish, the misshaped panels around the wheels are an outright miss in what’s an otherwise cohesive — albeit properly polarizing — design.
Emphasizing Space
The pixel theme continues inside, with even the bottoms of the cup holders featuring tiny textured squares. More generally, the Ioniq 9 has been designed to emphasize the space inside. The flat floor throughout the cabin, for instance, allows rear-seat occupants to stretch out in ways they wouldn’t otherwise be able to in a gas-powered SUV this size.
At 3,130 mm (123.2 in), the wheelbase is the longest of any Hyundai product, and stretches even longer than the one the closely related Kia EV9 rides on. The same lounge-like first- and second-row seats are available here, with extendable legrests, but in a unique twist the captain’s chairs in the back can rotate 180 degrees. According to Hyundai, the feature will be available in “select markets only” — it’s unclear whether or not Canada is among them — and can only be spun face rearwards when the Ioniq 9 is parked.
When facing forward, second-row legroom can reach a maximum of 1,086 mm (42.8 in), which is the same as what’s in the EV9 and slightly more than the gas-powered Hyundai Palisade has to offer. Likewise, the Ioniq 9 has the same 813 mm (32.0 mm) of third-row legroom as its cousin from Kia, which is a bit more than Palisade’s 798 mm (31.4 in).
With the third row in place, there’s 620 L of cargo room compared to 573 L in the EV9 and 509 L in the Palisade. That expands to 1,323 L with the rearmost seats folded — again, more than what’s in the EV9 (1,233 L) and Palisade (1,297 L). Seating capacity is seven or six, depending on trim.
Beyond the overall space inside, the Ioniq 9 has been outfitted with a few standard and available tricks, including a power-sliding centre console that can shift as far as 190 mm (7.5 in) rearward for easier access from the second row. What’s more, the space inside can be accessed via a dual-hinged lid, or a drawer down below.
There are 100-watt USB-C charging ports in all three rows of seats, and Hyundai says those run off the EV’s traction battery instead of the 12-volt accessory battery. There’s also the same vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality found in other Hyundai Group EVs, which allows small appliances to draw power from the big battery, too. And for those with aspirations to do a little car-camping, the climate control system can be isolated to the back half of the vehicle to limit energy use.
Promising Components
While the Ioniq 9 rides on the same platform as the EV9, it uses a bigger battery that should presumably provide more range. While official numbers weren’t available at the time of writing, the 110.3-kWh lithium-ion pack that’s standard across the Ioniq 9 lineup is estimated to offer about 540 km on a single charge with a rear-wheel-drive configuration. That’s about 50 km more than the single-motor EV9 is rated to travel with its 99.8-kWh battery.
Every version of the Ioniq 9 uses a 160-kW electric motor in the back — presumably the same one that’s available in the EV9. It generates 215 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque on its own, while it can be paired with a smaller 70-kW motor that’s good for 94 hp and 188 lb-ft of torque, all of which is sent to the front wheels. Meanwhile, another all-wheel-drive version is equipped with twin 160-kW motors. Total output for that model is 422 hp.
According to Hyundai, the benchmark 10-to-80 per cent boost to the battery pack should take 24 minutes in ideal conditions when hooked up to a 350-kW DC fast-charging station. That’s the same amount of time Kia estimates the EV9’s battery can be charged in the same circumstances. The Ioniq 9 is set to come with the so-called North America Charging Standard (NACS) port, which means it can access Tesla’s network of chargers.
Final Thoughts
A full breakdown of trims and features will be released closer to launch, but the preliminary list looks promising. Twin 12-inch displays, one for driver information and the other infotainment, Apple CarPlay (and, in all likelihood, Android Auto), heated and ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel and second-row seats, and a robust advanced safety and driver-assistance suite have all been teased here.
Pricing remains the biggest question mark, with nothing to report as of this writing. Since it skips a smaller battery like the 76.1-kWh unit offered in the cheapest EV9 — and uses an even bigger one than its corporate cousin’s larger pack — it’s safe to assume the Ioniq 9 will start closer to $65,000 before freight and taxes than the $59,995 Kia is charging for the cheapest version of its electric SUV.
The 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9 is set to go on sale in early 2025.
