{"id":241148,"date":"2023-04-06T16:41:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T20:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=241148"},"modified":"2023-04-06T16:42:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T20:42:08","slug":"qa-kia-ev9s-design-chief-kurt-kahl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2023\/04\/qa-kia-ev9s-design-chief-kurt-kahl\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Kia EV9\u2019s Design Chief Kurt Kahl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kia scored big a few years back with the introduction of the Telluride SUV which, among awards, was named North American Utility Vehicle of the Year. Now, the South Korean carmaker hopes to repeat that success \u2014 but in the fast-growing battery-electric vehicle market \u2014 with the launch of the 2024 Kia EV9 SUV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kia's
Kia EV9 design chief Kurt Kahl walks TheDetroitBureau.com through the evolution of the automaker’s second all-electric model.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Roughly the same size as the Telluride outside, it offers substantially more room inside, and plenty of new, high-tech features, including a hands-free driving mode. Making its official debut at the New York International Auto Show, the Kia EV9 also features a striking exterior design that takes the brand\u2019s \u201cOpposites United\u201d design theme to new levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TheDetroitBureau.com met up with Kurt Kahl, the veteran stylist who led the development of the new, three-row EV SUV to learn more about what\u2019s behind the EV9\u2019s design \u2014 and how the project not only continued through the early days of the COVID pandemic, but also made it to production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TheDetroitBureau:<\/strong> You originally introduced an edgy concept version of the EV9 at the LA Auto Show in 2019. How did that evolve into the production model you revealed in New York today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> We actually started the production car and then made the concept and then continued with the production car. So, it wasn’t exactly like we had a concept we had to translate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> But there were some early models that were harder, more angular. And this isn\u2019t meant as a slight, but almost a little cartoonish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2024
The 2024 Kia EV9 made its public debut at the New York International Auto Show and is already drawing big interest.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> Sometimes we come up with these amazing ideas and try to get the essence of that into the model. What you\u2019re seeing there is the concentration of a theme. As it gets productionized we know it’s gonna get, I wouldn’t say watered down, but it’s not gonna be as clear as that initial\u00a0theme. But if the initial theme is that strong, it’s still a really strong concept, an idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> We\u2019re in a transition period and I often ask people in the business what it\u2019s like to make the transition to EVs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> It\u2019s an opportunity. We had a lot of (old design) parameters with ICE vehicles. You have a traditional grille and things (limited by)\u00a0the platform. It\u2019s exciting now that EVs have come along because we have this little battery pack and a flat floor. We can have longer wheelbases (and) push the wheels out to the corners. So, it’s offered a lot of flexibility. Also, we can come up with new creations about what the front looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> You have opportunities to create new proportions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> Yeah, that’s true. You have more flexibility in general, I think. But, of course, there are constraints at the same time. Aerodynamics are even more important than it used to be because it really dictates your range. So, there’s pluses and minuses but it\u2019s a great challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2024
The new EV9 adheres the brand’s new-ish “Opposites United” design language, which encourages the use of the hard lines and smooth shapes.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> Aero is everything here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> it is. The easy way with (the EV9) three-row SUV would have been to make it super slippery. But we didn’t think that was necessarily what the customer wants. We wanted a more authentic SUV feeling (with) some of the ingredients of Telluride, this bold, boxy, capable, rugged shape. We could have done a really fast (ed: steeply raked) windshield angle, for instance. But I like a little bit more of a commanding view through a more upright windshield. And the front end of the vehicle, it’s pretty upright. You want to feel like (EV9) could go up the mountains and get into bad weather and do some off-roading. So, we had to manage that versus what we needed to do with aero to make sure we got good range. I think we came into a good place where we kind of managed both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> Designers like you seem to be moving away from the early, eccentric EV designs. But the Kia EV9 is still pretty striking. Among other things, you bring together smooth surfaces and very sharp angles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> I’m really happy with the way we have used (Kia\u2019s) \u201cOpposites United\u201d design philosophy bringing two contrasting things together, creating some harmony, but also some tension. You can see how we expressed that in the body side. There\u2019s a human feel to it, almost looks like it’s been massaged. And then you’ve got these almost crystalline, angular fender elements that creates this feeling of capability and ruggedness and balances the soft shapes nicely to create this dynamic tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2024
The EV9 is designed to be able to handle all of the demands of a Telluride-style SUV.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> That had to be difficult to get right. Did you run into resistance from the folks who had to manufacture this design?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> Doing (a) model we learned ways to get it into production. And we have great engineers. That really helped on things like the stamping on this. Also, we’ve got these deployable flush door handles. These take up quite a bit of depth. We don’t have a normal high shoulder that comes out and gives a lot of room to the door handle. So those kinds of things are really hard to engineer but our engineering team did an amazing job on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A unique look<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> Some of the most distinctive features of the EV9 are its lighting. You even have reprogrammable bulbs hidden in the sealed grille.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> Lighting is really exciting space to play with because everything’s getting smaller. We used to have big bulbs and now we can use these little teeny cubes. (In back), we have this three branch LED signature like a star map, a constellation almost. And on the front it has animated lighting. That was to create this perfect kind of seamless blend with the small LED headlights. That was an early idea and engineering was able to find a solution on how to do it. The whole lighting signature is evolving and it offers so much flexibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kia
Designing the EV9 was a team effort, and show was introducing it at the NYIAS 2023 this week.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> One thing that took me by surprise was that the exterior was done in the U.S. and the interior was done in South Korea. I thought it had become more the norm for everyone to sit together. This wasn\u2019t just separating the design studios, but keeping them an ocean apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> Well, it’s true the initial theme and a lot of development was done in the States. We always do development in Korea also at some stage, you know. So, there’s a lot of coordination that had to go into doing the interior one place, the exterior another place. But we’re so unified now virtual reality and digital communication. It makes it a lot easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> You had to do a lot of work on EV9\u2019s design during the early part of COVID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> As a designer, I was always in the studio, and then I would go home and, I’m like, I can’t take my work home because I’ve got a giant computer (at the studio). Then, during the pandemic we were forced to rethink the way we were working and you know, start doing virtual meetings, and using (VR) goggles and other new technologies to facilitate working from home, but bringing us together in virtual space. So, it doesn’t matter if I’m in Orange County, or in Korea. We can have the same meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> It seems like, in a way, COVID may have helped you all to learn how to work more cooperatively going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl:<\/strong> That’s not untrue. Even as we go back to into the studio, which we’ve obviously doing a lot more of, we maintain some of these working practices, because they’re better. We’re doing a real hybrid kind of work environment. Some meetings are better in person, some are better virtually. In virtual meetings you can actually draw on each other’s work, which is hard to do in person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kia EV9 Design Chief Kurt Kahl sat down with TheDetroitBureau.com to discuss the development of the new all-electric crossover. Find out more about the new model at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3531,6,7,8,5,1164],"tags":[7493,10444,10445,3615,808],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241148"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241341,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241148\/revisions\/241341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241148"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=241148"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=241148"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=241148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}