This is a very short impression (Can’t even say it’s a review) of my new Kia Niro Plus, this is the 100% electric version (NOT the Hybrid or the Plug-in Hybrid). Kia is a South Korean company. Bottom line is I’m very satisfied, the pros of this car are:
- There’s lots of legroom and headroom, front and rear
- Rear trunk is not super big, but more than enough for a family
- Some cars require you to go through the screen to operate (mirrors, A.C., etc.) but the Niro still keeps things simple and conventional.
- It’s got conservative design, inside and out (As opposed to some Chinese cars)
- It’s got adaptive cruise control.
- lots of space and conpartments to put things up front in the central console.
- Engine pulls nicely (About 200 hp), any speed.
- About 400 km range on Economic mode.
- The battery recharges when braking (regenerative braking).
- One of my favorite features is the steering wheel paddles, that allow you to adjust the brake regeneration level on the fly. It gives you great control over how the car slows down. For example you can set high regeneration when you see you’re coming to a stop or going downhill or zero regeneration when you want to use inertia to just continue driving.
- All kinds of nice features, for ex. when the car ahead started driving and you’re day dreaming, the car will remind you (can be disabled).
- Nice safety features as lane keeping assist and lane center assist (if you slide to the side the car will alert you and correct it). Most alerts can be adjusted in the settings.
- All the goodies that I think most new cars have: Keyless ride, Auto lock, folding mirrors, Android auto and iPhone connect, rear camera and more.
Cons or or What not to expect:
- It’s not a sports car, you can certainly feel it with relative high speed turning or fast maneuvering.
- No USB in the rear.
- No spare tire (but it does come with a repair and inflate kit).
- Adaptive cruise control stops when you stop for more than a second or two (and then you need to step on the accelerator for it to resume).
- It’s relatively quiet on regular asphalt but you can hear noise on rough asphalt or milled asphalt.
- Battery type is best at being kept between 20% and 80% charge for optimal long-term battery health, meaning range is lowered. While occasional full charges are safe (e.g., for road trips), avoiding frequent 0% or 100% extremes helps reduce long-term wear.
Again, the above is not a thorough or long term review, but at this point, after 6 months and 5000 km, I think it’s a nice car, worth to take for a test drive.
Before I decided on the Niro, I test drove the BYD Atto 3 and Geely Geometry. Both cars were ok, but had a few things I did not like: The BYD interior design is not my style in understatement, it feels tacky and toyish. It also made clicking noise while making a U turn left. The Geely had binary brakes (All or nothing, but that’s something I guess one can get used to) and left mirror did not work. I don’t know if that’s just coincidence or a reflection of the overall quality but it did effect my decision. I could’ve bought a Tesla, which should be a good car, but that was out of our budget. I know the Hyundai IONIC 5 is considered a good contender too, although I did not drive it, cause in the end we did get a good deal on the Niro.
