Kia e-Niro - Is it the best electric car you can buy?

If you need a sensible family car and have decided that some form of electrification should be included in your next one, then the Kia Niro should be on your radar, you can have it as a conventional hybrid or as an HEV plug-in hybrid. but what we are going to test here is the fully

electric

model of each row, it is very understandable that you consider the idea of ​​​​changing from a conventional combustion engine to a fully

electric

one as a big step to take, but the experts can make you postpone everything. property telling you that the only models with a full battery and decent range are the big ones in the luxury segment that you probably won't be able to afford, that's not entirely true in more recent times, Korean conglomerates Hyundai Kia have been pushing the limits when it comes of the kind of battery technology that customers can expect from more affordable cars and the result in 2018 was the launch of two models: the electric Hyundai Kona and its close cousin, this Kia, closer to the Eenie row, also shares its transmission battery with the second generation. version of the model that kicked off Kia's efforts in the evie segment in 2014, the Seoul evie, the first generation Solar V, failed here due to a combination of its relatively high cost and restricted driving range, meaning it only Around 500 units were sold in our market in its four years of production, in contrast, this Enira model almost doubled what was shown in its first month on sale.

If you still need convincing about the improvement in battery-powered automotive technology and the changing public perception of Vs, you've got it right there. A big reason behind this sales success lies in the driving range issue mentioned above. The most affordable electric vehicles use a battery pack of around 40 kilowatt hours in an e Niro, although there is the larger 64 kilowatt hour type of battery that you get in a much larger model. luxury Evy, which obviously means a much longer driving range. The WL TP is rated at 282 miles in the more affordable segments of the Evy market, only the electrically identical Highlander Kohner electric and Kia Soul Evy can match this type of display and both, though arguably, are more modern than this offering from Kia. significantly less interior space for people and parcels, all of which means that if you've been waiting for battery-powered family cars to get serious, this one should interest you more than any affordable Evie on sale to date, it seems like a promising time to put this one in car on the market.

Kier's intention in producing what is arguably the most viable affordable all-electric family car yet is clearly to win over buyers who would never have considered an Eevee before, so what all these people notice when they get familiar with this one behind the wheel is It certainly feels fairly conventional, apart from the rotary controller that replaces the gear lever for the single-speed automatic gearbox that all Vs have to press the start button and there are a lot of rather unnecessary musical inputs, six loud chimes and a small background jingle as a system. The check runs through a software setup before notifying you that you are ready to start driving, all of this distracting your attention from the lack of engine.

It roars ahead, but your attention is sure to be caught by what happens when you simply step on the accelerator to start moving forward. The movement in the way this car moves away from rest is quite surprising when you first experience it, although the effect is a little less surprising than in the case of some rival Vs - that's because Kia designed a fraction of second delay between throttle application and power delivery to make the whole experience feel a little more combustion-like and linear, but just a little silky once you understand the driving dynamics at play here, the torrent The amount of blood that rushes to this guy's head every time he presses the hard pedal with real vigor is perhaps just for The single AC synchronous electric motor used here is expected to generate 150 kilowatts, the equivalent of 201 horsepower. braking, and obtain much more pulling power than an equivalent combustion engine would generate. 395 Newton meters of torque, every bit of which is delivered correctly. from the start, rather than building it as you would a fossil fuel power plant, this is all good because this car, like all Vs, weighs considerably more than an equivalent combustion engine model, tipping the scales at 1812 kilos , which puts it around half. a tonne heavier than a comparably sized Ford Focus, for example, most of this down to the fact that this all-electric Nero must carry a much heavier battery pack than its petrol-electric stablemates.

The battery of a self-charging hybrid Nero weighs 33 kilos and that of a plug-in Phe V Nero weighs 117 kilos, in contrast to an e Nero where the lithium-ion polymer battery system weighs 457 kilos, approximately the same total weight as a Caterham 7 sports car, which is a lot to transport. which makes it even more impressive that an e Nero can sprint from rest to 60 miles per hour in just seven and a half seconds - like all electric cars, it runs out of gas soon after, mind you, at that moment you realize than driving the car This is kind of ridiculous, especially since the energy you just used pointlessly will probably require an additional half hour to charge and replenish a battery as large as the one used here, where most Vs in this segment use battery systems that generate approximately 40 kilowatt hours and any row is faced with a 64 kilowatt hour configuration that is more than 50% braver and that, of course, means the potential for a much longer driving range between charges will be rated at 282 miles for many potential customers, this could be enough to make this all-electric rig and an everyday usable proposition in a way that many other affordable Vs simply cannot be, you will need to adapt to a slightly different driving style , so maximize the distance you can travel between charges which mainly means managing the energy regeneration process that activates when you release the accelerator like most other electric vehicles and this one provides you with paddle shifters for this purpose behind the steering wheel, the left panel intensifies the regenerative braking field while the right panel reduces it.

Either way, through three different selectable stages, select the maximum regeneration effect you can get through stage three and you will almost never have to use the brake pedal and in fact can stop the car completely by simply pulling continually. Using the left paddle on the steering wheel, at first you'll play with all this a little, but then you'll probably get tired and activate the system's automatic function, which makes all the decisions for you when it comes to optimizing the black art of harvesting energy from the brakes. Pressing the right paddle for a second or longer will activate the automatic function, at which point the car takes into account what Kia calls predictive power control by using its safety system's radar sensor to constantly calculate the optimal level. of braking regeneration based on vehicle position, as expected, a higher level of harvest is possible in the type of urban conditions where we will see you use the brakes a little more for city driving.

The virtual engine sound system reduces to less than 15 miles per hour, creating an artificial noise that warns those on the sidewalk about this almost silent approach of eenie rose in urban areas in reality the question that sounds is not very loud and would probably choke on busy, city streets, but at least it shows that automotive engineers are thinking about the potential dangers. that battery-powered vehicles mean for deaf and visually impaired pedestrians that they go beyond the city limits on secondary roads that soon twist and you will find yourself in territory where an electric vehicle would normally be much less in your comfort zone;

In a recent test we found that these cars' close cousin, the identically designed Hyundai Kona electric, had a bit of difficulty channeling its prodigious reserves of torque onto the asphalt. The Eenie Row handles it a little better, partly due to the slightly more linear power delivery we mentioned earlier and partly because the wrench was chosen to use more grip. The Michelin tires than the Nixon tires from the budget Conus brand are still quite easy to induce and yet they will spin, as you will quickly discover with generous applications of the throttle on wet roads when exiting tight bends.

However, drive more carefully and this shouldn't be a big deal. One problem: A gentle pedal stroke will prolong the life of your front tires, but driving carefully won't help you much if you're loaded into a family car with the ride quality of a horse-drawn cart, which could be a concern. for some who come. to this car after experiencing much older generation electric vehicles due to the weight issue we mentioned above, electric vehicles in the past often needed very firm suspension to prevent them from wallowing in corners, so they often tend to to drive poorly over broken surfaces as a result.

Thanks to a flexible and fairly sophisticated independent rear suspension setup, this one is a little better than the class norm in this regard, although the bumps still feel deeper and the speed bumps steeper than we'd like. Cornering composure is also better than you might expect. an all-electric car mainly thanks to the way the bulky battery pack has been evenly distributed across the entire floor plane, so by lowering the center of gravity you might even be tempted to coast a bit through corners If it weren't for the fact that the steering rack manages to feel relatively free on the road, the relative silence of the driveline means that you would particularly notice tire and wind noise and even things like the wiper motor and fan, the acceleration offer begins to decrease very noticeably once it arrives.

Beyond 65 miles per hour, a feature that could do with setting it a little higher to conform to a more common national limit, of course, it often won't come close to the top speed capability, or at least it won't. If you want to preserve anyway, something close to a reasonable driving range figure, but for the record, it's 104 miles per hour. Another way to quickly use up the travel distance between charges is to select the most urgent of the three driving modes on offer, Sport, which gives you noticeably quicker throttle response and Bay's power and charge indicator from the battery group. instruments in an orange glow, you'll try it once, but then it will probably stay in the other two settings Eco and normal for most of the time after that, maybe also with an eye on the power flow graph that you can select appears to the left of the speedometer to show you at any given time what is being powered or charged so, as on any Evie, there are many display options allowing you to plan your route based on the remaining charge available.

It also participates in a partially justified presumption to The extent of its environmental friendliness compared to the combustion engine for traveling, although this one offers more where it matters, if you buy it, it may never exactly replicate that driving range figure of 282 miles we cited above, but there is a chance to get reasonably close to it regularly. between charges, which is what matters most and what makes this an Evie that many families could truly consider their only car. The future begins here. A senior automotive industry stylist recently described the current trend for Evy model design as chaos.

It is certainly true. While no clear theme has yet emerged, especially among the more affordable models, competing brands remain divided over whether an electric vehicle should look futuristic and trend-setting like, say, a BMW i3 or family-friendly and accessible like, say, a Renault Zoe, because Kia already has a fully electric model. That seems pretty avant-garde. The Seoul evie. The brand's decisions sticking to a more conventional look for this Eenie row is perhaps understandable, so let's take a closer look at what we have here in terms of key organization. The length positions of The Niro's 4.37 meters are somewhere between a seed-sized family hatch approach and a cash cow-style mid-size Sportage SUV, the car is nominally an SUV; in this case, KiaIt prefers the term crossover, hence the beefy stance, integrated roof rails, and muscular wheel arches that house big, diamond-cut 17-inchers.

Multi-tone aluminum wheels, a slim mid-level character line, short overhangs and tapered rear windows on all lanes to soften the boxy dimensions. It's in the front vote where you'll most easily identify this battery-powered model as the all-electric member of the Niro family, the usual grille slats are replaced by a rather inelegant blind plastic panel that's supposed to be more aerodynamic. and features an integrated charging point, redesigned air intakes, special arrowhead-shaped lower LED daytime running lights and light blue accents that help it stand out even more. In the search for efficiency, aerodynamics have been prioritized, hence these air curtains in each front corner to channel air away from the front wheel arches and reduce turbulence, that emphasis continues at the rear with the shape of This roof spoiler and the design of this lower diffuser that ADE airflow under the car, even the location of the rear view camera accessory has been carefully considered, housed within the rear wiper assembly, all contribute to a point: the 9CD drag factor that is remarkably stylish for a crossover-class car, flanking the contoured glass of the rear door, are LEDs.

Taillights and blue highlights below the rear reflectors on the redesigned bumpers complement the front end. What is, of course, much more important is what you cannot see. Conventional-looking Vs are often compromised in their basic design by the need for other shapes to fit. a bulky combustion engine, but all Nero variants feature electrification to some extent and the priority with this one was to incorporate its bulky battery pack in a way that had the least possible impact on cabin space. If the designers take advantage of that time to take a look inside. Well, it starts here at the front.

Yes, this is a glorified family hatchback, but you'd be easily convinced of this car's spacious claims if you walk in after trying most other common compacts, say the BMW A3 or this key's close cousin, the Hyundai Kona. electric, there's significantly more cabin width than you get in any of those mil cars. Four hundred and twenty-three millimeters of shoulder room to be exact and more legroom, up to one thousand and fifty-nine millimeters here in the front, perhaps most significantly, it's big enough here to allow a potential buyer to change seats. a conventional medium. Similar sized SUVs, say a Sportage or a cash in one of these without the feeling of having changed size, we're struggling to think of any other affordable electric vehicle, which is true in terms of the Niro's unique cabin features In its all-electric form, well, the main change lies in the change from a conventional gear shift lever to this central circular controller for the single-speed transmission.

This cable dial shift key first provides the focal point to extend from the middle base. mounted armrest that also incorporates buttons for the parking brake and drive mode selector, as well as heated seats, heated steering wheel, parking sensors and automatic brake hold switch, other features exclusive to the Niro are harder to spot, you might pick up the extra The blue dash trim stands out, but you're unlikely to notice that the front seats are different, redesigned to save space and weight, but offer the same support as conventional chairs that replaced thanks to particularly dense foam-backed covers. More subtle differences can be found built into this eight-inch Centro: infotainment touchscreen that allows you to locate nearby charging points and set departure times to preheat and precool the cabin or, if you want to feel particularly indulgent, it's possible to open a screen which allows you to measure the journey or useful life of the vehicle.

The CO2 savings achieved by driving your January compared to a petrol car of similar size. The physical shortcut buttons around the frame of this monitor are useful, but the graphical resolution isn't up to BMW or Volkswagen standards and some of the touchscreen icons are a little small. which can make touching them on the move a little awkward, this screen also has all the usual connectivity and entertainment features; Of course, there's Apple CarPlay or Android Auto Smartphone Mirroring Bluetooth navigation voltage control and an eight-speaker 320 premium sound system with JBL. the DA B tuner and you also get the full suite of connected care services created in partnership with TomTom. activate the Wi-Fi system connectable to your phone and through them you can find four-day weather forecasts. receive information about the locations of the radars.

Get live traffic information. that can reroute you to avoid traffic jams and use a local search feature that can direct your January to anything from a supermarket to a gas station. Whatever the center screen can't tell you, it will almost certainly be covered by the instrument cluster screen that you see through the Leather stitching - 3-spoke steering wheel Kia apparently has plans to update it further, but here in this original car You get a curious mix of circular LED dials and a central seven-inch LCD display on the dial areas, the left gauge combining a battery charge status indicator with the blue and white power or charge meter and a digital range readout the right gauge includes eight digital speedometers on the color screen in the middle there are all sorts of useful screens the usual ones for audio selection a compass and safety systems and some custom screens specifically for this evie including one that measures your driving style and shows the proportion of any trip dedicated to economical or dynamic driving.

As for practical touches, hopefully doing away with a conventional gear lever might free up some extra storage space at the base of the center console, something that has happened here to some extent; There's a large open storage area at the base of the center console and you also get a useful storage area between the seats with a top lid that slides back. to reveal two large cupholders with stylish pop-up holding panels in a row Nene, it's also easier to reach this compartment at the bottom of the center console that includes a standard wireless phone charging mat on top of a 12-volt port and a couple of USB points It's a shame all of this can't be neatly covered away from prying eyes, although you'll find another USB point in this deep storage box between the seats, while other storage areas include these rather small door pockets , a reasonably sized glove box and superior space. for your sunglasses, the ticket clips appearing on the visors are your problems, well not many Kias expect the high level of specification of this Enira model to distract the attention of potential buyers from the fact that this is essentially the kind of cabin you'd expect from a car costing just over £20k, none priced at just over £30k, don't get us wrong, it's nicely designed and in some ways quite luxurious, with black leather upholstery With white stitching and piping, plus a heated steering wheel and front seats, all of this is certainly nice to have, but it soon becomes clear that the cabins were built on a tight budget.

Closer inspection of some areas of the leather upholstery reveals that some elements are of the apparently smartly finished variety of synthetic leather and accessories you'll use frequently, the steering regeneration paddles. and the door handles, for example, feel quite sticky to the touch. European brands realize how important it is not to skimp in these areas and care must also be learned on the positive side, although getting comfortable is really easy. Power lumbar support functions in the driver's seat. and this reach, as well as tilt adjustment of the steering wheel, is something you don't get with a rival Nissan Leaf and there are some very well thought out design touches, such as the way the wireless charging pad alerts you with a beep and a green light when your phone is fully charged and you will be alerted if you are about to get out of the car with the phone still on the keypad.

Another really cool feature is the lamp built into the top of the dashboard which incorporates a light that displays when your email is received. plugged in and shows you whether the battery is recharging or fully charged, allowing you to quickly see the skier's charging status at a glance from outside the car. It's the right time to take a look at the back. Now we mentioned earlier that this Nero offers a cabin that feels a little larger than most of the Evie's similarly priced rivals, this is because it has a 2700 millimeter wheelbase, the length of the cabin between the wheels. front and rear is longer to give it a class perspective, that figure is one hundred millimeters longer than that of an electric Hyundai Kona and 130 millimeters. longer than a BMW i3, an advantage that would be expected to pay dividends when it comes to rear seat space, which is generally true once you take a seat inside the rear seat, space is probably the biggest difference between this car and its Kona electric cousin. offering a significantly smaller rear compartment with 19 millimeters less legroom, perhaps just as significant is the fact that this Eenie row has slightly increased rear passenger space, the most affordable mainstream family SUVs in the C segment, the Kia's mid-size Sportage crossover, for example, which is perhaps longer externally, but has a wheelbase thirty millimeters shorter, unfortunately there you cannot recline the backrest as you can in the Sportage, which in that auto improves headroom for really tall people.

Note that the headroom on offer here, 993 millimeters, isn't bad. Generally, a couple of six-footers would fit quite easily and with 950 millimeters of legroom, this should be reasonably comfortable on longer trips - even if they were placed behind equally lanky people in front, even three would fit slightly. Adults back here. easier than would be the case with most rival models of similar size, that's because the relatively wide 1805 millimeter body provides 1402 millimeters of shoulder room but of course you can't have everything Sliding rear seat bases for example are not typically included in any Evie and of course the ones provided here are firmly fixed in place, you also don't have any charging ports here but you do have storage nets on the seat back, a pair of ISOFIX child seat mounts for the two outer seats, twin center vents. and a center armrest with a pair of cup holders, the door cards look stylish with white stitched pools and piano plate trim, plus there are compact lower compartments that incorporate bottle holders.

We'll finish with a look at the trunk. Not long ago, it was a given that an all-electric car would give you less luggage space than a comparably sized combustion engine model thanks to the usual location of the Evie battery pack under the load area floor in self-charging hybrid versions. and p plug-in hybrid HEVs of this car. But in the EE Niro, the liquid-cooled lithium-ion polymer battery system is located further forward under the passenger compartment. Opening the large tailgate, you'll find a very generously proportioned boot, usefully square in shape and measuring 451 litres, that's 69 liters more than you get in the self-charging hybrid variant and 127 liters more than what it offers. the Phe V Niro model, which is better than what you get in most family hatchbacks and pretty close to the luggage capacity you'd enjoy with a conventional engine.

The family SUV, a Kia Sportage for reference, offers a 491-litre boot in the affordable EV sector and this comes close to this eenie Rose capacity figure, but other similarly sized TVs are far from giving it any perspective. AHyundai Kona electric has 332 liters. and a BMW i3 of only 260 liters are a lot of figures, but what does it all boil down to? Well, on a trip to the airport you can fit five carry-on suitcases back here, one more than a Hyundai Kona could fit. electric, although it's worth mentioning that we managed to fit two more carry-on suitcases when we tested a Nissan Leaf because silver tie-down points are provided, but there are no bag hooks nor is there a 12-volt point back here.

Most importantly, there is also no height-adjustable boot floor, but the base of the floor is hinged and when you lift it, several compartmentalized areas are revealed, the main central one will be occupied by the two charging cables, but there are exterior compartments available for store smaller items. Fortunately, there's enough width to allow you to store the boot cover under here when not in use. If you lower the 60/40 split rear seat and tilt, you get a nearly flat cargo area that offers up to 1,450 liters of total cool space. Air Keya launched this Eenie line with a first edition with a single top-of-the-line speck, which is what we are testing here now, unlike this model's close cousin, the Hyundai Kona electric, it is not offered with an entry-level battery of 39 kilowatt hours, although such an option is available in other markets.

British buyers only get the top 64 kilowatt hour variants which, with this luxurious trim package, were launched from launch at a price that would set buyers back £33,000 after deducting the £3,500 available. On the government car subsidy, clearly Kia could sell it for less with a lower level of specification, but at the time of this test in summer 2019, with waiting lists stretching months in advance, there simply wasn't need for the brand to do it in surprise comparisons. Starting with an overview of the Kia range, as you will know if you have seen other sections of this film, the e Niro is one of three electrified models in the Niro family, a self-charging hybrid and a Phe V plug-in model are also not available. qualify for any kind of government subsidy Self-charging hybrid variants of the Nero start at around £25,000, but a comparable version equipped with top specs will set you back just over £29,000.

The Nero P HEV only comes in a single luxury trim level costing around £32,000, but what about whether you're upgrading to a Nero e from something more mainstream in the key range. Espenson, we're in the £25-£28k range, will get you the brand's 1.6-litre CRDi diesel engine mated to the DCT automatic transmission in well-equipped versions of whether it's a seed family hatch, a premium compact SUV or an Optima sport utility vehicle, so a saving of £5,000 or more, but that would then be eroded on those diesel models by higher taxes, lower residual values ​​and the higher cost of fuel compared to electric charging if after having Bearing in mind that you are convinced of the idea of ​​all cars, you can compare the purchase of an e Nero with other fully electric vehicles, with reference to these they will always quote prices assuming the three thousand five hundred pound subsidy from the government. has already been deduced and will always quote range figures set to the more realistic WL TP nominal cycle, if the ones you find differ significantly from what we mention, it will probably be because they have been compiled using the older, less accurate version.

NEDC Cycle Test Anyway, let's start with the models you might be looking at within the high-end IKEA conglomerate, starting with the two Vs that share virtually every element of this car's advanced drivetrain, namely the Heian electric bike that the owner just mentioned, which offers two hundred and seventy-nine mile driving range and the second-generation version of the Kia Soul, each of which has a two-hundred and eighty mile driving range, the Kohner electric can be purchased at 64 kilowatt hour form factor in base premium spec for £150 less than an e Nero, but in a more comparable premium SE model, a 64 kilowatt hour Kona Electric will cost you £2,150 more even though it has With less space for rear passengers and a much smaller boot, you could argue that the Kona looks more modern than this Nero.

But your Kia dealer will have a ready answer to that objection. For just eight hundred pounds more in euros, you can have the Sleek little Evie for kids with a 64-kilowatt-hour powertrain and comparably luxurious First Edition trim, but again, the soul is significantly smaller inside than anything else closest, you might also want to know how The price of This model is compared to what is requested for other zero-emission models in all markets. The most affordable segment when buying a car of this type is the range and size of the battery, so with 282 miles of torrential rain with WL TP rating, the purchase The proposal of this 64 kilowatt hour eenie ro model seems so convincing, apart from the Kona Electric and the Soul Evie, the only model in the compact segment that can take this care in this regard is the top 62 kilowatt hour version of the Nissan Leaf, but that The car costs almost three thousand pounds more and has a Lowest potential driving range, 239 miles.

Regular versions of the Leaf, which is the sales leader in the market, are usually sold with a 40 kilowatt hour battery pack offering a range of 186 miles and are priced between £26 and £29,000, if a model Evie with the kind of lower driving range that you would get with a battery pack of around 40 kilowatt hours being sufficient for your needs, is now a reasonable option in this segment. In reality, my property offers two options, both with prices in the range of 27 to 29 thousand pounds, depending on the level of equipment chosen, one of them we referred to above, the smaller 39 kilowatt hour version of the Kona Electric, which will give you a range of 180 miles, the brand also offers its Prius-sized Ionic family hatch that in all-electric form has a 38.3 kilowatt-hour battery and offers a range of 182 miles.

You could also be looking at the BMW i3, another car with a battery of around 40 kilowatt hours in all-electric form. The i3 offers 192 miles of range and costs around 32,000. Less competitive is the Volkswagen e-golf, which uses a slightly smaller 35.8 kilowatt hour battery, so offers just 144 miles of range but costs around £30,000, only slightly better is the mg. Evie, which achieves a range of 163 miles but makes up for it with prices starting at around £25,000 if you're prepared to consider a smaller car than this one from the same range. 3 other super mini size DV models could also be on your shopping list, the most familiar of these. is the Renault Zoe which in its highest performance form gives you a 40 kilowatt hour battery with a range of 186 miles and a price of around £24,000 if purchased outright if you increase your budget to around £26,000 and you might consider the Vauxhall Corsa E or the Peugeot 208, both of which offer a range of 211 miles Before we leave the topic of price comparisons, it's worth noting that even if you move up the market and pay almost twice as much for a large badged luxury segment premium, everyone will continue to fight to surpass the W LTP driving range of 282 miles of this Kia, a standard Tesla Model S offers 230 miles per exit, each Ron Quattro 55 offers 241 miles, a BMW IX 3 manages 249 miles and a Mercedes EQC offers 259 miles.

See what we mean by a Jaguar. My pace is 292 miles, it's just a fraction faster than an e Niro and to give you perspective, the highest performing Evie models in this regard, the long range versions of the Tesla Model S and the Tesla Model 3 all achieve wlt readings P of 315 and 348 miles. respectively, you get the idea, let's say you're convinced and it's by no means certain that you've managed to snag a spot on what at the time of this test was a fairly long waiting list of Eenie Row shoppers. Generous has a Kia beam with a standard specification, let's see that all the key elements of electric propulsion are fitted, of course, across the range, the single-speed push button, also the transmission, regenerative brake shift paddles and a drive mode selector with a choice of sport or eco settings, oh and two charging cables, a seven-inch Type 2 AC charging cable and an emergency three-prong AC charging cable connector.

As for other features, let's start with the exterior: roof rails and 17-inch 2-tone diamond-cut alloy wheels, plus halogen. Bi-functional projector headlights, LED daytime running lights, and Follow Me Home feature that keeps the headlights on when you get out of the car at night to see you all the way to the front door. Additionally, dark privacy tinted solar glass is also included on the rear. LED tail lamp front fog light clusters heated power folding mirrors front and rear parking sensors rain-sensing wipers a smart keyless entry system and a rear parking camera plus a package of useful safety features powered by cameras which we'll cover in a minute An alarm is also standard, but unfortunately, there's no spare wheel inside, there's heated leather upholstery up front and an eight-way power-operated driver's seat with power lumbar support, plus , you get a heated leather-stitched steering wheel, a trip computer and an auto-dimming rearview mirror, a wireless phone charger is provided for 4qi-equipped phones or, alternatively, a fast-charging USB port is built into the center console and standard and auxiliary USB points are also included.

Additionally, you get an adaptive intelligent cruise control system that can regulate your distance to the vehicle in front on the highway and includes a stop-start function that, if necessary, can even slow you down to a stop and start again without problems. If you find a rear infotainment system served by an eight-inch touchscreen center dashboard. The screen that incorporates navigation, voice control, Bluetooth and Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, smartphone mirroring, also has built-in an eight-speaker JBL 320 premium sound system with a da B tuner, a subwoofer, an external amplifier and a center speaker, and infotainment settings. Kia's useful suite of connected services, including the TomTom Live system, so you can receive alerts on up-to-date speed cameras and receive accurate information about traffic jams and roadworks via pre-downloaded apps.

This setup also provides access to a variety of services like Navigation with Google Maps Google Play Music hands-free calling and text messaging If you can use Apple Carplay, you'll be able to use full Siri voice control of your phone's apps and features while You link the car to Apple Maps or Google Maps calls and text dictation. streaming music and audiobooks for all the standard specs of this car, what about the options? Well there aren't many, actually there aren't any, unless you count Kia's choice of five different paint colours, including optional or premium shades that will cost you more, the choice is between Silky Silver Midnight Black White Pearl Blue gravity or as here graphite note that if you are new to motoring you will need to budget for the extra you will need install a charging box on the wall in your garage Kia offers a seven kilowatt home charging package in partnership with pod point which It will cost you £300 once you have subtracted the five hundred pounds available from the government or V or the Low Emission Vehicle Office.

Looking at this car from a safety perspective, more than 53% of the body is made of ultra-high-strength steel and features a rigid structure reinforced in critical areas including front and rear crumple zones and anti-intrusion beams on the sides. to take advantage of this. Kia has included most of the key elements of its camera-driven safety technology as standard. The most important feature is the FCA or Forward Collision Avoidance Assist system with pedestrian and cyclist detection while driving. The FCA camera scans the road for potential accident hazards if something happens. or someone is detected, the system's forward collision warning element will alert you if you do not or cannot respond, the brakes will automatically apply to lessen the severity of any resulting accident.

This setting automatically switches between three city operating modes. to preventlow-speed urban accidents at up to 13 miles per hour in urban operating between 31 and 50 miles per hour and pedestrian that detects pedestrians and other vulnerable road users such as cyclists at up to 44 miles per hour is also standard LDW or Shift Warning lane alert that warns you if you leave your lane on the highway at that point in LKA or the lane keep assist automatically intervenes using subtle steering guidance to help the car return to the correct position on the road. Another lane control tool is provided by Lane Following Assist, which works in conjunction with the standard adaptive intelligent cruise control system and at speeds up to 90 miles per hour helps keep you in the center of your lane on the highway. , also subtly controls the direction. limit indicator feature that displays traffic signs as you pass and displays them on the dashboard, high beam assist that will automatically dim the headlights at night against oncoming traffic, and a roadside warning feature. driver or gives W who monitors your reactions for drowsiness and if necessary, will ask you to stop for a coffee.

Additionally, there is a blind spot collision warning that alerts you if you are about to exit when there is a vehicle in your blind spot and there is a lead vehicle exit alert feature that works in a queue of traffic that alerts you when The vehicle in front has moved. As for more familiar standard safety features, like all Niro models, this one offers dual front and curtain airbags, but also includes the driver's knee bag missing from a Hyundai Kona Electric and several key rivals. , there is also electronic stability control ESC and VSM or vehicles for team management.

Additionally, ABS brakes have a brake assist function that assists in emergency stops which will be announced to following motorists by an emergency stop signaling function that flashes the hazard lights. to inform them of what is happening in their ISOFIX child seats for the two rear outer seats, a tire pressure monitoring system that monitors punctures and a hill start assist control function to prevent the car from rolling rearward when starting on hills plus a cut-off switch allows a child safety seat to be placed in the front seat. We've always said that Evie sales would only start to take off once the driving range of affordable competitors was long enough for a full battery. model to make sense since it's the only car that happened here or some buyers will think so, as we mentioned elsewhere in this movie a row of Kia Eenies have a WL TP rating of 282 miles between charges, about four times as long of what could come.

Let's say the first version of the Nissan Leaf this represents even 96 miles more than the volume that the 40 kilowatt hour version of that Leaf can travel today. This gear has a similar range advantage over most other popular compact cars such as the Renault Zoe, Volkswagen e-golf and In the all-electric version of the BMW i3, there is a much more expensive 62 kilowatt hour E Plus version of the Nissan Leaf that gives you 239 miles, but even there, the significant advantage of this Kia is still the same as what is offered here. interior space and choose between two identically engineered models from the honed IKEA conglomerate, the Kia Soul Evey and the electric Hyundai Kona, or pay almost twice as much for something like a Jaguar IPACE or a Tesla Model 3, neither of which will take you much further. far on a single charge When testing electric cars in the car and driving, we have often tended to take range figures, whether DC or based with a fairly large pinch of salt, this is different in our tests, we found it to be relatively It's easy to regularly break the 200 mile mark, which is between 75 and 80 miles more than we've achieved in rivals like the i3 the leaf or the Zoe, and if this car was used with even a modicum of moderation it wouldn't be hard to believe that around 250 miles would be possible, which is the sort of figure we sometimes struggle to get from really expensive Tesla models, of course, to maximize your range you'll need to make liberal use of the various driving aids Kia provides.

There is a power charge driving indicator to the left of the instrument binnacle, the idea here is to keep the needle in the blue charged band as often as possible. To the right of this in the binnacle is a central display which can be selected to show a driving style reading which will give you percentage readings for normal economic conditions. and dynamic progress Your other key to maximizing efficiency is to effectively harvest regenerative braking energy, which sounds complicated but really isn't. These paddles behind the steering wheel allow you to dial in up to three levels of braking energy, the most aggressive of which allows the car to virtually stop on its own, which won't do much for the smoothness of your daily progress, but the payoff is that expectations of autonomy can be achieved much more easily.

Alternatively, the car can take care of all the regeneration for you with an automatic regen setting. The activation software can use the car's radar transceiver to constantly measure the distance to the vehicle in front and other useful efficiency tools are included within the car's Eco DAS or Eco Driving Assistant system. There is predictive power control that helps you maximize driving range by suggesting when to coast or brake and also CGC or inertial guidance control that takes information from the navigation system so the car can anticipate road conditions to reduce energy use and identify opportunities to harvest additional electrical energy through inertia.

Cgc will alert you to the

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time to lift off the accelerator and move towards a junction that allows the battery to regenerate by decelerating the engine. The sleek aerodynamics help maximize the driving range of an e Nero has a drag coefficient of 0.2 9 CD, which is good for an SUV and is achieved thanks to great attention to exterior details. a rear diffuser helps airflow under the car; There are exterior mirror housings with a special profile, and even the holes in the recessed roof rails are covered. As an e Nero owner, you will use the e V menu of this hub: touch screen quite a bit and four sections in particular, we have used the map display most often. option that uses color radio graphics on a map of a country to show the extent of travel you could take with the car's remaining battery range.

Additionally, this particular screen has a list button that can show you all your local charging points and direct you to the nearest ones. The second important option in the Evie menu is the Energy Information section which shows your total driving range with or without the climate control on and the percentage of battery charge remaining, plus it will tell you how much energy the car's driving climate is using. and electrical characteristics and will inform you at any time how long it will take to replenish the charge, whether from an AC or DC charging point. A third charge management section is very useful because it allows you to preset charging times for a more economical shutdown. -peak electricity rates and finally, if you want to feel like a smuggler, survey other road users, you can switch to an eco-driving section which shows you the CO2 reduction you have achieved compared to a similarly sized petrol car , the history section shows how much this varies over time, we should take care of the charging issues, recharging a battery this size is not for the faint of heart, but as long as it can be done overnight, most owners They will be more than satisfied, that is easily possible in this Eenie row and while charging.

This is happening, the vehicle's built-in battery heating system will slightly warm the lithium-ion cells, minimizing the effects of low temperatures. If you don't have a wall charging box in your garage, you will need a 7.2 kilowatt unit provided by your dealer. You can arrange installation through Kia's agreement with the spare point. This will cost you £300 once you have subtracted the £500 available that the oh la vie government or office for low emission vehicles gives with the wall box in place you will be able to revive your In euros, the battery cells are They run out in about nine and a half hours, that's three times faster than it would take if you simply plugged this car into a three-prong household supply.

The nine and a half hour charge would cost you around eight. pounds on most domestic tariffs based on an average unit price of 12.5 pence per kilowatt hour of electricity on an off-peak tariff, a typical cost at the time of this test, summer 2019, if when you are Outside you can find a CCS charging point with a 50 kilowatt DC fast charger (there are over a thousand across the UK), then you will find that a fast charge from zero to 80 per cent will take around 75 minutes in the very case. unlikely that you will come across a 100 kilowatt DC fast charger. charging that replenishment time will be reduced to just 54 minutes for 80% capacity.

What else might you need to know? As the owner of Amir au you will be exempt from the London congestion charge and during the second year of ownership you will not be charged. Electric vehicles have to pay an annual tax of five D for company vehicle users. Electric vehicles offer potentially huge tax savings, incurring benefit-in-kind tax set at just 9 per cent, compared to 22 per cent for a diesel car emitting 100g/km of CO2 or slightly more in As for its warranty, well, it's the usual comprehensive care deal, a 7-year, 100,000-mile package that comes as standard and also covers the battery and electric motor.

There is also a 12-year anti-puncture warranty and a five-year paint warranty, just one year of However, roadside assistance is offered when a customer signs up for my key care system brands. A roadside assistance plus package can be unlocked which gives you the highest level of cover provided by the RAC, this includes onward journeys and maintaining European cover will obviously be cheaper than that. It would be for a combustion engine to model an electric vehicle, after all it has 20% fewer moving parts service intervals in a narrow E are every year or every 10,000 miles, which is considerably more frequent than a rival Nissan Leaf, which is every 18,000 miles, the Korean brand offers several Kia Care prepaid service plans.

If you want, you can even purchase a package that will cover the car for the entire warranty. If you are wondering about residual values, these will vary depending on future market acceptance. v Right now any electric vehicle will lose its value faster than a conventional gasoline or diesel model, but that situation could change very quickly as mainstream public opinion is shaped by the media, independent experts estimate that after of three years and 60,000 miles an Emir Oats would still be worth fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-five pounds, that is, 43 percent of its original value. The insurance is a little higher than the market average in group 28 to give you a perspective of the segment.

All this is a 40 kilowatt hour Li and the BMW i3 models are classified in group 21 and what about ecological issues? Some in the green lobby get very angry about the whole zero emissions ethos of pure electric cars which they feel ignores the demands of 2 wheels to supply the electricity that powers cars of this type. Noting that these people usually completely overlook the fact that CO2 figures for conventional cars don't take into account the logistical cost of getting fuel to the pump, still, if you're one of those environmentally conscious people, will tell you using a two-wheel calculation.

Based on typical UK energy grid usage, the charge of filling this car's batteries will result in the theoretical release of sixty g/km of CO2 into the atmosphere, which is certainly good, but is far from completely ecological, which is also a comment. It could be applied to electric vehicle engineering as a whole. Lithium-ion batteries are not recyclable like the fuel cells used in hydrogen-powered vehicles currently are. When all vehicles are reaching the end of their useful life, the batteries are reused as electricity storage. Theshock absorbers after that vote cannot simply be thrown away because lithium ions have explosive elements, so these batteries are simply being buried in landfills, which is hardly sustainable in the long term for humanity, but neither is the pollution caused by the combustion energy, if seen.

Each solution is the lesser of two evils and purchasing a battery-powered model should be within a reasonable budget. We think it's hard to ignore this. Let's make this as clear as possible on paper, as the Nero does. It makes more sense than any other compact family-sized electric car, the only two models that can match the driving range of this competitor, perfect the kona electric and the Kia soul, evie the same powertrain to make it, but they package it in a much smaller body that isn't really familiar. The size of the e Nero isn't huge inside either, but it will be big enough for most buyers.

You would have to be a very dedicated fashion follower to choose kona or sole in preference among these three Korean models. What's important is how at relatively affordable prices they offer the kind of usable range that would make any of them almost usable as a single car. Better yet, we discovered that the declared autonomy is not that far from what can actually be achieved in daily use. And if the added practicality of this eenie Rose weighs in its favor, are there things you might not like? Well, not too many, it's a shame it can't be offered in a lower specification at a lower price and in future we'd like to see Kia focus on offering a slightly more involving driving experience, which would look favored by a reduction in weight and the adoption of a more sensitive steering rack;

Otherwise the problems here are ones that afflict all Vs. A restricted public charging infrastructure, the need to go offline. street parking and of course a definite restriction on the driving range; This last problem used to be the deadly problem for most. It would be that all prejudices in this case may say that driving from London to Sunderland non-stop should make a big difference here, but of course. Electric vehicle ownership is all about suitability for frequent, short journeys and in this sense it is difficult to improve on an e Nero, so if Kia could make it more affordable and sell it in larger quantities, we think it could have a huge impact on the market, as However, this cart will remain an unusual but smart choice among family buyers who have really done their homework and when we look back in a decade and see the TVs that really change their market, we believe that this will be one of them.