For enhanced safety, the front and second-row seat shoulder belts of the Kia EV9 have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Jeep Wagoneer doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row seat belts.
Both the EV9 and Wagoneer have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The EV9 has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Wagoneer’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The EV9 has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The Wagoneer doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
In a Vehicle-to-Vehicle Frontal Crash Prevention 2.0 test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Kia EV9 achieved a “Good” rating - the highest possible - in forward collision warning and automatic braking systems, outperforming the Jeep Wagoneer which scored only an “Acceptable” in these critical safety features.
Both the EV9 and Wagoneer have rear cross-traffic warning, but the EV9 has Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Wagoneer’s Rear Cross Path Detection doesn’t automatically brake.
For better protection of the passenger compartment, the EV9 uses safety cell construction with a three-dimensional high-strength frame that surrounds the passenger compartment. It provides extra impact protection and a sturdy mounting location for door hardware and side impact beams. The Wagoneer uses a body-on-frame design, which has no frame members above the floor of the vehicle.
Both the EV9 and the Wagoneer have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available around view monitors.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does 40 MPH moderate front offset crash tests on new cars. In this updated test, results indicate that the EV9 is much safer than the Wagoneer:
|
|
EV9 |
Wagoneer |
| Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
| Structure |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
| Head/Neck Rating |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
| Chest Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Thigh/hip Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Leg/foot Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Restraints |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
|
Rear Passenger Injury Measures |
|
| Head/Neck Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Chest Rating |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
| Thigh Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Restraints |
GOOD |
GOOD |
The Kia EV9 has achieved the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) highest rating of “Top Safety Pick Plus” for the 2025 model year. This distinction is based on its exceptional performance in IIHS’ rigorous battery of safety tests. Specifically, it earned a “Good” rating in the latest, more stringent moderate overlap front crash test, a “Good” result in the updated side impact test, and a “Good” score in the revised pedestrian crash prevention test. The Wagoneer is not even a standard “Top Safety Pick” for 2025.