Kia has done a better job of making the case for electric cars than most other manufacturers. Today it has a growing range of excellent EVs - it is on course to have 15 in its range by 2027 - but the model which really caught the attention of early adopters was the e-Niro.
It went on sale in 2017 (an electric version of the Stickle Brick-styled Soul had already been available for several years by then, but was available only in small numbers) and was notably efficient, user-friendly and offered strong value for money.
The Niro was, rather unusually, offered with three different drivetrains: the aforementioned battery-electric set-up, a ‘regular’ hybrid and a plug-in hybrid.
A winning formula
Kia must have reckoned it was a winning formula, because the latest Niro, which started to reach us in 2022 comes in the same three flavours. We’ve already tried the hybrid and fully electric versions of the family crossover, and now it’s the turn of the plug-in, or PHEV, model.
Read more: Kia Niro EV is a fuss-free family electric car
Plug-ins are the car world’s compromise candidate if you can’t choose between electric and petrol. In practice that means they appeal to owners who would like to go fully-electric but don’t feel confident enough to take the plunge, whether through worries about range or access to charging.
PHEVs are also popular with company car users. Whether or not they ever actually recharge the battery and use their car’s pure-electric capability, the driver still pockets advantageous benefit-in-kind tax rates based on their plug-in’s theoretically low CO2 emissions.
In the case of the ‘3′ grade Niro PHEV tested, the official government-sanctioned test rates it as emitting CO2 at 21g/km. You’ll get nowhere near that figure if you drive the car on its 1.6-litre petrol engine alone and never recharge the battery. Meanwhile, the official fuel consumption is apparently 313.9mpg… How well that figure survives contact with the real world is questionable.
The same goes for all plug-in hybrids of course, and Kia isn’t to blame for the absurdities of how cars’ emissions and fuel consumption are assessed.
Even if you never bothered plugging in your plug-in Niro, you still get to enjoy much of what makes electric cars so appealing in the first place, including snappy acceleration and a smooth and refined driving experience.
Here’s seven things we like about the Niro plug-in hybrid - and one we’re not so sure about…
1. It can go almost 40 miles on a full charge
Use it as its maker intended, and you can get up to 38 miles of fully-electric, petrol engine-free running from the Niro. That’s a decent enough range, maybe enough for most people’s daily needs. Using a 7kW home charger, it will take three hours to fully replenish the Niro PHEV’s 11.1kWh battery. The battery is mounted under the boot floor, meaning luggage space suffers as a result, compared to the regular hybrid (it has a much smaller 1.32kWh battery) and the EV (its large 64.8kWh battery can be packaged differently as there’s no petrol tank or exhaust system to also accommodate). Kia says the plug-in battery weighs 111kg - four bags of cement and a couple of sacks of spuds - contributing to a total weight of 1,594kg.
2. The Niro wants to be your friend
You’ll not get many cars that are easier to live with than the Niro PHEV. Whether it’s something as simple as getting a comfortable seating position or as potentially complicated as pairing a phone, Kia has the knack of making it fuss-free. Controls and switches are intuitive, the digital instrument display clear and responsive. There’s loads of room for passengers, and if you have small children who need strapped into seats, you’ll appreciate the wide-opening back doors. Bigger children will like the USB sockets built into the back of the front seats, ideal for charging smartphones. Why can’t everyone make their cars as friendly as this?
3. More comfort, less speed
The Niro PHEV isn’t a sports car, but nor is it meant to be. The electric Niro is markedly quicker against the stopwatch. However, the PHEV does feel brisker than its modest 168bhp, 0-60mph time of 9.8 seconds and capped top speed of 100mph suggests. That’s because the electric motor is always on hand to give an extra shove, especially noticeable when pulling out of a junction or joining a roundabout. If you’ve come to the Niro from a regular petrol or diesel car you’ll immediately notice just how quiet and refined it is, how calm it is at a cruise. Suspension is tuned for comfort rather than blasting along at ten-tenths on a B-road, which is just how it should be for a family focused car.
4. It shouldn’t give you stress
The land of its birth may be going through some slightly bewildering political tumult, but the made-in-South Korea Niro should be entirely stress-free to own. Because it’s a Kia, you get a seven-year/100,000-mile warranty, while the electric motor and battery pack gets an extra year of cover. How’s that for confidence?
5. Koalas will like the seats...
Electrified cars are supposed to be the more eco-friendly alternative. In the Niro that philosophy extends to its interior. How about headlining made from recycled wallpaper, seat fabric made from eucalyptus leaves and hydrocarbon-free paint for the door panels?
6. Design efficiency
The original Niro was an inoffensively bland looking thing. The current car is a much more interesting piece of design. The front isn’t as aggressive as the EV9 or EV3, but is still distinctive. The C-pillar includes a gap through which airflow is channelled, like you would normally expect to find on a Ferrari. There’s something appealing about aerodynamic efficiency being put so proudly on show.
7. Kia has loaded the Niro with kit
The Niro, particularly in the ‘3′ trim of the test car, is generously equipped. There’s a full suite of safety and driver assistance kit and a package called Kia Connect, which enables you to connect your smartphone to the car and control certain functions remotely. Two digital screens, one of them a touchscreen, lend the dashboard a modern feel, and it has Apple CarPlay/Android Auto as standard (albeit wired, not wireless). The Niro can also take ‘over the air’ updates, so a visit to the dealer isn’t necessary to keep the car’s all important software up to date.
But we’re not so sure about... the price
Kia asks £37,575 for the plug-in Niro in cover-all-the-bases ‘3′ trim. The entry model ‘2′ is £35,325 on the road, with the tough-to-justify ‘4′ coming in at £40,325. That makes the plug-in just £2k cheaper, model for model, than the EV, and a sizeable £5k more than the regular hybrid. All that leaves the plug-in, competent though it is, stuck in no-man’s land.
The electric Niro is such a competitive car, that stretching that bit extra might make sense… while it’s hard to see how the £5k premium over the normal hybrid is justified. And there’s another competitor from within the Kia stable - the new EV3, which is cheaper than the electric Niro and can go even further.
But if your circumstances mean you need to find a compromise between petrol and electric, the plug-in Niro comes highly recommended.
