Facepalm: Well, this is certainly an embarrassing blunder for Kia. The Korean automaker has been forced to recall nearly 23,000 of its brand-new EV9 electric SUVs in the US market after discovering that the rear seats were improperly installed.

A total of 22,883 EV9 models built at Kia’s plant in Gwangmyeong, South Korea, between September 25, 2023, and October 15, 2024, may be missing mounting bolts for the second and/or third-row seats. This information comes from documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Interestingly, Kia’s report places the blame squarely on a single “plant assembly worker” who allegedly made an “error” and failed to properly secure all the seat bolts on an unspecified number of vehicles.

The issue first surfaced in September when a customer reported that the third-row seats in their 2024 EV9 were not properly mounted due to missing bolts. Shortly afterward, Kia identified a second affected vehicle in the US.

In an effort to determine the extent of the issue, Kia inspected 90 randomly selected EV9s imported from its South Korean factory. Surprisingly, none of the inspected vehicles were found to have missing or loose seat mounting hardware.

After being alerted by its Korean operations about the error linked to the two US cases, Kia opted to issue a recall for nearly 23,000 EV9s, including those already delivered to customers or awaiting shipment. An additional 990 units still awaiting delivery were inspected, with none found to have the seat bolt problem.

While the NHTSA report doesn’t specify how many bolts may be missing in affected vehicles, the primary concern is that improperly mounted seats could detach in the event of a crash, increasing the risk of passenger injury.

To address the issue, Kia dealers will inspect the second and third-row seats on all recalled models and tighten or install any missing mounting bolts free of charge. Since the affected vehicles were not built consecutively, owners are advised to check with their local dealer to confirm whether their EV9 is part of the recall.