The Kia EV9 will be launching in 2023, looking to take Kia into the large electric SUV segment with a new flagship vehicle.

With the Kia EV6 and Kia Niro EV being well received, there's plenty of anticipation for this new model, which shares the same E-GMP as the award-winning Kia EV6.

At the moment Kia is focusing on rigorous testing for the new model, including a gruelling regime to see how the EV9 performs on all surfaces, including all-wheel drive performance and wading.

Wading is no longer the preserve of Land Rovers, as we previously reported that the Toyota bZ4X also had the ability to wade up to 500mm in water - and it looks like the Kia EV9 is also going to have some of these skills.

The Kia EV9 will be a three-row car, with seating for seven, designed to rival the likes of the Tesla Model X or the Mercedes EQB.

Kia says that the EV9 has been in development for 44 months and we have no idea what batteries it will offer, or what sort of power you'll be getting from the motors.

What we do know is that it's going to be voluminous, with loads of space, so it might appeal to those wanting to head on holiday with the family, dog and a full selection of camping gear.

From the testing pictures that Kia has shared, we can see that the doors are more conventional than they were on the concept model and there are regular wing mirrors too, rather than cameras.

The heavy camouflage hides a lot of the surface detailing, but you can see there's going to be a huge "tiger grille" on the front (albeit solid, so not actually a grille).

We're also expecting the EV9 to launch is AutoMode, which is expected to be Kia's move towards autonomous driving. While we're not expecting it to give you hands-off driving, we expect it to combine lane guidance and adaptive cruise control into a more accessible system than the current implementation of those technologies.

For now, however, we'll have to watch and wait. The Kia EV9 is coming - but you'll have to wait a little longer before it launches.