--- title: "Kia Concerned That Employee Forgot to Bolt Seats Down in Potentially Tens of Thousands of Cars" description: "Kia issued a recall for nearly 23,000 EV9 electric cars for the 2024-25 model year after discovering seats that weren't fully bolted down." date: "2025-01-02" modified: "2025-01-02" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/kia-employee-bolt-seats" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "cars" - "electric vehicles" - "evs" - "the digest" --- # Kia Concerned That Employee Forgot to Bolt Seats Down in Potentially Tens of Thousands of Cars ![Kia issued a recall for nearly 23,000 EV9 electric cars for the 2024-25 model year after discovering seats that weren't fully bolted down.]() *\Image: Kia\* ## Bolt from the Blue The sophomore year of Kia's three-row electric SUV has come to a pretty inauspicious conclusion. This week, the Korean automaker issued a recall for nearly 23,000 EV9 electric cars for the 2024-25 model year after discovering that some of them had seats that weren't fully bolted down — and all purportedly because of a single employee. Whoops. According to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month, the second and third-row seat mounting bolts may be missing in EV9 cars manufactured between September 2023 and October 2024 at the Kia Autoland Gwangmyeong assembly plant in South Korea. As many as 22,883 vehicles may be affected. "Seats with missing seat mounting bolts may not properly restrain an occupant during certain collisions, thereby increasing the risk of injury," the [recall report]() states. ## My Bad But the most eyebrow-raising detail, [as spotted by *TechSpot*](), is the scapegoat for the huge screw up. In the recall report, Kia places all of the blame on an "error" made by a single "plant assembly worker," who apparently didn't make sure all the seat bolts were properly mounted. Kia didn't specify if the employee was [working on a Monday or Friday]() when the costly flubs were made — though it did make sure to mention the employee in its manufacturer notice sent to car dealers, just so they know who to blame. ## Holdfast According to a [chronology report]() filed with the NHTSA, the issue was first raised in a customer complaint back in September. In an inspection of 90 randomly selected EV9 SUVs performed by Kia North America, no loose or missing seat mounting bolts were found. Subsequent inspections uncovered only three total cases of missing seat bolts — all leading back to the same employee, apparently, as of mid**-**December. And so in reality, the issue may be far less pervasive than the size of the recall suggests, though you can never be too careful. Kia says that dealers will inspect the recalled EVs and perform the adjustments and installations needed free of charge. **More on EV recalls:** *[Thousands of Cybertrucks Recalled for Bricking While Driving]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()