Kia Niro EV review: A spacious and stylish electric car

Can so many Uber drivers be wrong? There are very good reasons why the Niro EV is a favourite with minicab drivers, and they apply to family EV buyers, too. The Niro is an easy car to live with, is efficient and is covered by one of the longest warranties in the business – a whole seven years, or eight for the battery.

However, time moves quickly in the EV world and the Kia Niro is showing its age, especially against its newer sibling from sister brand Hyundai, the Kona. You decide which of the futuristic designs you prefer, but you can’t ignore the fact that the Hyundai gets a choice of two batteries, has a longer range and gets a heat pump (handy for efficiency in cold weather) as standard.

All that said, we’re still fans of the Niro for its easy-going nature – it offers bags of space for passengers and luggage, has superb visibility, excellent usable tech and is an easy, comfortable car to drive.

I lived with a Niro for a while, and it was a really easy car to get along with. Whether I was running around town or on longer trips to see relatives, it never disappointed and I gave it a good workout to decide I could live with one easily.

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Independent rating: 7/10

There may be three trim levels to choose from (starting at 2 – why wouldn’t you? – and going through 3 and up to 4, plus the odd special edition like Horizon), but only one battery rated at 64.8kWh.

We can’t help but continue the comparisons with the Hyundai Kona here, because the blue side of the family – Hyundai – manages to eek over 300 miles from the same size battery in the Kona, while here on the red side – Kia – the Kona will only go 285 miles. That’s not bad in itself, but clearly you can do better.

The same applies to charging speeds – the Hyundai can charge slightly faster and therefore slightly quicker than the Kia. And the Hyundai offers a standard heat pump to boost efficiency, while it’s a £900 option on the Kia.

The Kia feels similar from behind the wheel to the Kona, though, so it’s really comfortable with nicely weighted steering that makes driving around town a doddle. Performance is best described as brisk – as with most EVs – if not scintillating.

The Niro EV’s body style is ideal from a practicality point of view, sitting somewhere between an estate car and an SUV. It’s slightly raised, so getting in and out is easy, as is loading young children into the rear seats or their child seats. And there are numerous clever storage places – no wonder Uber drivers love to use Niros as their ‘office’.

The driving position is comfy, too, with plenty of adjustment for the seat and steering wheel and excellent visibility with usefully large mirrors, boosted by clever camera systems.

The real benefit the Niro has over its rivals is a 475-litre boot that’s easily expanded into a van-like 1,293 litres if you fold the rear seats down. You can adjust the boot floor so you get a totally flat load area from the boot lip forwards, while there’s also a bit of storage space for cables under the bonnet.

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The Niro’s futuristic looks outside are mirrored inside, with a lovely seamless integration of the two 10.25-inch digital screens that sit on top of the dash – one for the driver display and one for infotainment.

The infotainment screen works well – it’s responsive to inputs and clear to look at, while there’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for connectivity and if you don’t want to use the standard navigation system.

There’s no end of advanced safety tech on board, each with its own initialism, and even the lowest 2 grade of car gets advanced adaptive cruise control. Moving up the range gets you even more safety kit while there’s even a head-up display on top 4 spec.

If you’re comparing the Niro with newer rivals, including the Hyundai Kona, you might find some of the more advanced luxury tech missing, while the audio system is just so-so.

The Niro EV is starting to look a little expensive with an entry price of £37,325 – although the range on that car of 285 miles isn’t bad for the money. The £43,225 4 level car isn’t the best choice unless the deal is right, and you really want to go for a paint job with the contrasting C-pillar – you can decide whether it’s cool or not.

Efficiency isn’t bad, but nothing special by today’s standards, while Kia doesn’t seem to be as generous with the offers as others – at the time of writing there’s no sign of a zero per cent finance deal, just low-rate 2.9 per cent with just a £1,500 deposit contribution.

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It can go from 10-80 per cent charge in just 43 minutes. At 80 per cent, that’s enough to drive up to 228 miles.

The entry price of £37,325 looks a little expensive, but you do get a 285-mile range for that money.

Like all other EV makers, Kia offers an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty on its batteries. But unlike other car makers, the rest of the car is covered for seven years.

Kia’s EV range is about to get crowded with the EV3 turning up soon, which may spell trouble for the Niro EV. However, with the space on board it’ll continue to be a family favourite and I think it looks great, too.