By Matt Busel, who built the apps, crates and game he writes about · every number links to its source and every dataset is downloadable (methods) · corrections · featured in Kirino, gamebiz, This Week in Rust, New Mobile Life, By-Press
Kia EV9 battery recall: 1 SUV. 16 owners already reported dead cells
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Short answer: Kia's EV9 battery fire recall, 26V431 (Kia code SC375), covers exactly one 2024 EV9 in the US, built on October 28, 2023. Before Kia filed it, 16 different 2024 EV9 owners had already told federal regulators their high-voltage battery was failing. The recall list came from supplier records, not from those owners.
TL;DR: Kia's Part 573 report, filed July 2 2026, lists 8 vehicles in total: 7 EV6s and 1 EV9, all with SK On cells that may have a misaligned electrode, a defect that can short and start a fire. We pulled every NHTSA complaint on the 2024 EV9 and found 16 battery failure reports filed between November 6 2024 and February 26 2026, 9 of them with a dash warning and 9 where the owner was told not to drive or got towed. Kia's own filing says the population came from "production and supplier records", so if your EV9 is one of the 16, the recall letter is almost certainly not coming to you, and the move is to get your own failure on paper now.
Key numbers
| What | Number | Source, checked Oct 28 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 EV9s in battery recall 26V431 | 1 | Kia Part 573 report |
| Total vehicles in the recall (EV6 + EV9) | 8 | Kia Part 573 report |
| 2024 EV9 owner complaints describing a failing high-voltage battery | 16 | NHTSA complaints API, our tags |
| All 2024 EV9 complaints on file | 210 | NHTSA complaints API |
| Days from first battery complaint to recall filing | 603 | NHTSA complaint 11623911 vs Part 573 date |
| Battery supplier named in the filing | SK On Co., Ltd. | Kia Part 573 report |
The recall is a list of serial numbers, not a list of symptoms
Most recalls name a production window and sweep up thousands of cars. This one names eight. Kia's report says the vehicles "were not produced in VIN order" and that the population was found "by a review of Kia vehicle production and supplier records".
The dealer bulletin for SC375 goes further: it prints a table of eight VINs and their build dates. The only EV9 on it was built on October 28, 2023. If your EV9 was built any other day, the recall does not cover you, whatever your dashboard says.
That is a clean way to run a recall when the defect is traceable to specific cell lots. It is a bad way to tell owners whether their own failing pack is the same problem, because nobody outside Kia and SK On can see those lot records.
16 owners said their EV9 battery was failing before Kia filed
We pulled all 210 NHTSA complaints filed on the 2024 Kia EV9 and read every one that mentions the high-voltage battery, the battery management system (BMS, the computer that watches each cell), state of charge or a cell. Sixteen describe a failing traction battery. We dropped screen blackouts and other complaints that only mention charge level in passing.
The earliest, complaint 11623911, was filed on November 6 2024: the car stopped charging at 69%, the owner heard "loud and repeated clicking from the undercarriage", and Kia sent an alert the next day. The latest was filed February 26 2026, four months before the recall.
The pattern repeats. One owner on August 28 2025: "Critical EV Battery Warning ... Car will not fully charge and is at risk of suddenly losing power and stopping, per the dealer." Another on May 13 2025: 49 days at the dealer for "a failed high-voltage battery, which the dealership and Kia confirmed must be fully replaced". Another: "The car battery cells are defective and would not charge above 60%."
To be precise about what the data does and does not show: none of the 16 complaints reports a fire, and we cannot prove any of these packs has the misaligned electrode in the recall. A failed cell can have other causes. What the record does show is that Kia's recall answers "which cells came off which line", while 16 owners were asking a different question: why is my battery dying?
603 days, and the clock that matters is yours
From the first owner complaint to Kia's recall filing took 603 days. Kia filed a general reimbursement plan on April 30 2026 and says it will repay recall-covered owners for repairs they already paid for. Owner letters were set for August 7 2026, 639 days after that first complaint.
None of the 16 owners reported a fire, and the filing lists no warning sign a driver would see before one. That is good news, and also why a tiny recall can be legally enough. A recall is triggered by a defect that creates a safety risk. A pack that dies quietly in a driveway is, under the rules, mostly a warranty problem, which means the burden of proof sits with the owner.
Who wins, who loses
Kia and SK On win: an 8-vehicle recall costs at most eight battery packs and makes no headlines. The narrow list is also honest about the specific defect, so nobody is hiding anything that the filing does not say.
Owners with a failing pack outside the list lose leverage. Without a recall number, every replacement is a warranty fight, and the 49-days-at-the-dealer complaint shows how long that fight runs. The complaints database is the only public place those failures add up, which is why it is worth filing in. NHTSA opens defect investigations when complaint counts climb; 16 on one model year is a signal, not yet a case.
For anyone shopping a used 2024 EV9, the read is simple: the recall check will come back clean on almost every car, and that tells you nothing about the pack. Ask for the battery state-of-health report and the service history.
We have been tracking this kind of gap all week: the Hyundai Tucson braking recall cited 4 crashes where owners reported 22, and the Honda Prologue drew 384 axle complaints its GM twins never got. More on the economics hub and in the news feed.
What this means for you
If you own a 2024 EV9: run your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls, then, if you have ever had a BMS warning, a charge cap you did not set, or a range collapse, file your own report at NHTSA and keep every dealer invoice. Your report is the data that grows a 1-vehicle recall into a real one, and the invoices are what a reimbursement claim needs if it does.
If you build or invest around a company, you do not want to read about a filing 600 days late. Our Company Watch watches federal filings, contracts and lobbying for any company you name and tells you when they move; we keep fixing it at no extra cost until it does what it promises. This is not financial advice.
The full list of 16 complaints, with dates, symptoms and excerpts, is in the data download below, so you can check our tags against the originals.
Sources
- Kia America, Part 573 Safety Recall Report 26V431, July 2 2026
- Kia America, dealer bulletin SC375, High Voltage Battery Replacement, July 2026
- NHTSA, complaints on the 2024 Kia EV9, pulled Oct 28 2026
- NHTSA, recalls on the 2024 Kia EV9, pulled Oct 28 2026
First published here on tensorust.com on Oct 28, 2026. Related: .
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