Kia Niro EV 2023 long-term test

Why we’re moving it:  To spot if the caller electrical Niro is the Volkswagen Golf of the EV world

Month 1 - Specs

Life with a Kia Niro EV: Month 1

Welcoming the Niro to the fleet - 7 June 2023

When the Kia Niro was named arsenic 1 of the 7 cars shortlisted for the 2023 Car of the Year grant precocious past year, the bully antheral from Kia asked maine if I would similar to talk to UK brag Paul Philpott astir the exemplary and its success.

In coming up with immoderate topics for that discussion, a thought struck me, and it has stuck with maine ever since: the Niro EV is similar the Volkswagen Golf of the electrical car world.

The Golf has agelong been the de-facto prime successful the ‘old world’ for those who conscionable privation a household car to softly but brilliantly bash it all, with nary fanfare. Don’t cognize what car to buy? Get a Golf. It strikes maine that among EVs of this size, the Niro does the nonstop aforesaid job. Don’t cognize what electrical car to buy? Get a Niro.

The Niro EV is already antithetic successful the electrical car satellite for being a second-generation model, and the refinement alternatively than reinvention shows that Kia was already onto a bully happening earlier the switchover past year.

So overmuch so, successful fact, that the drivetrain is identical. There’s the aforesaid 201bhp, 291lb ft front-mounted imperishable magnet synchronous centrifugal that draws powerfulness from a 64.8kWh (usable capacity) lithium ion battery. Even the apical velocity (104mph) and 0-62mph clip (7.8sec) stay the same.

All those figures are inactive competitory successful the market, but the retained maximum charging complaint of 72kW present looks a spot pedestrian compared with immoderate EVs’.

The aboriginal indicated scope that I’m getting is conscionable shy of 240 miles, which is down from the 250-plus that I retrieve seeing from the aged e-Niro and shy again of the authoritative 285-mile range. Still, it’s aboriginal days, and with warmer upwind I expect this to rise.

The Niro is, of course, not conscionable an electrical car but a hybrid and a plug-in hybrid, too. They each look the same: beyond a tiny badge connected the bootlid, the lone existent mode to archer the EV isolated from its stablemates astatine a speedy glimpse is done the flash of greenish connected the numberplate. The HEV and PHEV adjacent usage the aforesaid 1.6-litre engine, the second besides drafting energy from a 11.1kWh battery.

I volition marque definite to get adjacent to the EV’s range-mates for examination during this test, due to the fact that Kia tells of genuine cross-shopping betwixt the models and customers choosing otherwise to what they had expected aft sampling them and speaking to dealers. It’s a clever strategy that allows buyers to comparison apples with apples.

Kia is capable to unafraid buyers who mightiness mean to bargain an EV yet erstwhile propulsion comes to shove determine different and extremity up with 1 of the Niro’s different powertrain options, “particularly those without off-street parking, for whom location charging is much challenging, possibly their driving needs are specified that they request immoderate greater flexibility, oregon they don’t yet person the assurance of charging infrastructure”, arsenic Philpott told me.

“The options of HEV and PHEV are there,” helium continued. “I deliberation radical are comparing them, and by giving radical the prime it forces them to inquire themselves questions. What bash I privation for the adjacent 3 years of car ownership? Am I acceptable to spell afloat EV? Perhaps [I volition alternatively go] PHEV, [because] it gives maine an option.”

Whatever mentation they spell for, determination are the aforesaid 2, 3 and 4 trim levels to take from. Our car is simply a 4, and beyond colour (including a contrasting code for the C-pillars) the lone different prime is whether to person a £900 vigor pump. Our car doesn’t, but it’s thing I would adhd based connected past experiences.

That aside, our car is afloat loaded and wants for little. Highlights see the leather-effect ‘vegan’ upholstery (made utilizing Tencel cloth from eucalyptus trees), though I can’t enactment retired if it really elevates the car portion remaining durable oregon feels similar a much upmarket mentation of a wipe-clean vinyl tablecloth from a child’s party. For now, I’m leaning towards the former.

The running-in play for our Niro has already been rather extensive, the caller flurry of comings and goings connected the Autocar fleet holding backmost its debut successful these pages. Yet this has simply allowed the new-car glow to past longer, arsenic it has slipped seamlessly into mundane life.

Its dimensions marque it consciousness nicely compact connected our roads (having a narrower car aft squeezing done gaps for 10,000 miles successful a BMW iX has been peculiarly welcome), and its real-world drivability and gait are excellent.

The e-Niro, similar its Hyundai Kona Electric sister, had a propensity to consciousness similar it was going to escort you into a ditch, owed to the convulsive magnitude of torque going done the low-rolling-resistance tyres; this caller car feels much restrained and manageable without feeling slow. While the hardware is the same, the tuning has been improved.

It’s spacious inside, too. A boon is being capable to get a acceptable of play clubs successful the footwear widthways, specified is the abstraction and span of the opening.

Easy to drive, a bully size, spacious, nary fanfare, bully instrumentality levels… Sounds similar what we would person said astir the Golf a fewer years ago.

Second Opinion

Forget the EV revolution: the Niro EV is simply a superb advert for evolution. Take a car that was a immense hit, cautiously code its comparatively insignificant flaws and nutrient an implicit mainstream smash. Yup, different crushed to comparison it to the Golf.

James Attwood

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Kia Niro EV 4 specification

Specs: Price New £42,295 Price arsenic tested £43,040 Options Interstellar Grey with Grey pillar £745

Test Data: Engine front-mounted imperishable magnet synchronous centrifugal Power 201bhp Torque 291lb ft Kerb weight 1739kg Top speed 104mph 0-62mph 7.8sec Economy 3.9mpkW CO2 0g/km Faults None Expenses None

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