Kia K9 (known as K900 in the overseas markets) flagship luxury sedan facelift prototype continues testing, and while we wait for reveal, here you have more pictures of Kia’s flagship sedan courtesy of SHM Studio. The K9 facelift is expected to be released in May.
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What we know so far?
Despite was launched 2 years ago, the pictures showed a pair of K9’s under camouflage caught in a petrol station in South Korea courtesy of K8 King Club. The second generation K9 (codenamed as RJ) is already available with two V6 gasoline engines, 3.3 Turbo GDi and 3.8 GDi with 370 and 315 hp respectively.
It is also still available with the 5.0 V8 Tau gasoline engine, that delivers 425 hp (depending on the market). The second gen Kia K900 have suffered low sales around the world. Kia recently discontinued the K9 in the US-market alongside Cadenza. It is not a surprise that Kia discontinued this slow selling sedan, but at the same time you need to know that the enemy is at home, and its called Genesis.
During 2020, the K900 (K9) sold only 305 units in the US market. Compared to the Stinger (12,556 units), which had relatively sluggish sales, there is a big difference. In the case of Genesis, the G90 outsold both the Kia Cadenza and K900 together with 2.056 units while the recently released G80 accumulates 3.359 units.
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As in these spy pictures the Kia K9 facelift is covered by camouflage, we cannot say to much about what changes will have. Looking at the pictures we can expect a massive front and rear facelift in order to improve the image and change its fate. The facelift looks more elaborated and extensive than for example the Stinger.
It is still unkown what changes Kia will make in the powertrain, but as being the flagship model we expect to apply the latest engines and eco friendly technologies. Will Kia take advantage of this facelift and include the 3rd gen platform to have Hybrid or Plug-in Hybrid variants? Apparently not, latest spy shots shows that Kia still uses the 3.8 engine.
The Kia K900 facelift should receive latest safety pack, as well as new IT system and latest technologies we already have seen in models like G80. Kia’s new brand image including the new logo is already included in this prototype. Recently the 2021 K9 was launched in South Korea, with several updates and a higher quality interior.
