BEST LARGE CAR KIA EV9 - BEST SMALL CAR RENAULT CLIO

Us Europeans don't tend to think of Kia as a player in the large car market, which might be one of the reasons why the EV9 has made such a splash since its introduction to our shores at the beginning of this year.

Elsewhere in the world, that's exactly what it is. North American Kia buyers know all about the Sorento-topping Telluride sevenseat SUV and the Carnival MPV. In Korea and elsewhere, there's the K9/K900 full-size executive saloon as well. And the firm is about to introduce a full-size pick-up truck, the Tasman.

Kia's designers aren't afraid of sheer scale, in other words. When it came to penning the EV9, how could they have been? There's a wonderful, totally prepossessing, take-me-as-youfind-me confidence about this electric seven-seat SUV. It's here to steal business from the European elites. Under the skin, it's good enough to do exactly that, and the square-featured, Imperial Stormtrooper-cool of the exterior doesn't care a jot who knows it.

Everywhere you take the EV9, people ask you what it is. Within a couple of years, there will be smaller EV3 and EV5 SUVs that look a lot like it, which should help to claim this new design language as Kia's own. For now, though, this is a like a car just landed from a sci-fi movie set. People stare at it on the street; they seek you out in shops and cafes to talk excitedly about it and to ask what it's like.