Kia e Niro Review (2019-2021)
Kia e Niro cars for sale
5.0
Expert review
Pros
Fantastic to drive
Good value for a long-range EV
Roomy interior and a big boot
Cons
Expensive to buy
Bland styling
Interior starting to look dated
The CarGurus verdict
In 64kWh form, the Kia e-Niro is far from the cheapest electric car you can buy, but with the range it offers between charges, the practicality and standard equipment levels and the neat way it drives, you still don’t feel short changed. It even feels more polished and well thought out than the more established Nissan Leaf, and is usefully roomier than the Hyundai Kona.
And if you don’t need all that range and can’t quite stretch to the full-fat model, the cheaper version with its 39kWh battery is a great alternative, giving you all that’s good about the e-Niro in a more affordable package.
Whichever version you choose, though, we reckon the Kia e-Niro really is one of the best affordable electric family cars you can buy.
Complete with a 64kWh or 39kWh battery, the Kie e-Niro is a front-wheel drive family hatchback (which has a hint of small SUV to its styling and ride height) that will easily cover 250 miles in real world use if you go for the big battery, or 150 miles if you get the smaller battery. Don’t confuse it with the plug-in hybrid or the full hybrid Niro models, because the e-Niro runs solely on electric power.
Cold weather and motorway mileage will see those real-world range estimates drop by as much as 25%, but in warmer weather and even with some time on artery roads, the e-Niro is a very efficient EV that will easily do more than four miles per kWh. For context, a Nissan Leaf typically does about 3.5 miles per kWh in similar everyday use, which is EV-speak for ‘the Kia does better ‘mpg’ than the Nissan’.
We have seen more than 300 miles per charge from the 64kWh Kia e-Niro during summer months (electric cars are at their most efficient when it’s warm due to the quirks of battery technology) so it’s certainly one of the longer range EVs on the market.
Plug into a normal home wallbox charger and the e-Niro takes less than 10 hours for a full charge if you have the bigger battery pack; the smaller battery 39kWh model will do the same in six hours. The CCS and Type 2 charging ports also allow for easy top-ups at public charging stations, with the peak rapid charge rate of 100kW delivering an 80% charge in less than 40 minutes for the 64kWh battery, and around 30 minutes for the 39kWh version. Cables for charging at a Type 2 public charger and at a standard domestic home wall socket are provided, with the latter taking between 18 and 30 hours to fully charge the car depending on which battery you go for.
You’ll have no problems transporting a couple of kids and the dog in the e-Niro. It’s roughly the same size as a Volkswagen Golf, but there’s enough boot space to take a chunky buggy or a big dog with ease. The rear seats are very comfortable, too.
The boot itself can swallow 451 litres of luggage, which is very good for this class and significantly bigger than the plug-in hybrid Niro’s 324-litre boot; the e Niro’s battery is mounted under the floor, which creates more storage space in the back. The boot floor also has a variable height, and there’s storage space for the charging cables beneath the main compartment. In short, it’s a very practical compact family car.
The Kia is lovely to drive. The 204hp, 64kWh e-Niro is faster than you’d ever imagine, with a 0-62mph of 7.5 seconds, and even in Normal drive mode, it leaps off the line and embarrass most other cars, which is always good fun in such an unassuming hatchback. The more affordable mid-range model is hardly tardy, either, with 136hp and a 0-62mph time of 9.5 seconds.
The 204hp electric motor has so much power and torque that it can have the front wheels spinning if you’re heavy-footed away from a standstill, but otherwise, it has plenty of grip and is a comfortable, stable, and enjoyable car to drive whether you’re on a fast motorway run or pootling through town.
The 134bhp model is just as good, if not better, for what it loses in outright performance, it gains in ease of driving, because it isn’t as easy to spin the wheels, so it’s less of a handful. And because its 39kWh battery is lighter, the e-Niro feels a little more agile, and the ride is a touch more comfortable.
Whichever version you go for, the steering is predictable, the regenerative braking is smooth and easy to judge (as well as easy to control via the steering wheel paddles) and refinement is outstanding.
The Kia also benefits from a very comfortable, logically laid-out cabin. The long-range model gets a great 10.25-inch colour touchscreen system (the mid-range car has an eight-inch touchscreen with the same features) as the focal point of the dash. It includes satnav, a digital radio, USB connections, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It’s quick to respond and easy to navigate. You can also find charge points using the car’s satnav and set specific times that you want to charge the car, which makes it easy to take advantage of cheap overnight utility tariffs.
The infotainment systems in the BMW i3 and the Tesla Model 3 have better graphics quality, but the Kia and its sister car, the Hyundai Kona Electric, have about the best touchscreen of any £30-£40,000 electric car.
Trim levels are known as ‘2’, ‘3’ and ‘4+’ and each one has lots of standard equipment, including heated and electrically folding side mirrors, reversing sensors, climate control, part-leather upholstery, and adjustable lumbar support for the driver. Every version also comes with adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, and autonomous emergency braking, which combine to offer a semi-autonomous driving mode. This means that the car will do most of the work in traffic or on the motorway by itself; it’ll accelerate, brake, and steer to keep you in your lane and a safe distance from the car in front, but you still have to be in control and alert at all times.
This is where the e-Niro makes up for a list price that’s comparably high next to petrol and diesel alternatives. It’s free to tax, free into the London congestion zone, and will cost less than £6 to charge the 39kWh model, and less than £10 to charge the 64kWh. That works out at under 4p per mile, assuming a real world range of 250 miles in the long range e-Niro and 150 in the ‘mid-range’, as the company has dubbed the smaller battery car. A petrol car doing 40mpg will cost more like 14p per mile, so that’s a huge saving.
What’s more, compared with other electric cars, the e-Niro is one of the most efficient around, with an impressive electric efficiency figure of 6.5 miles per kWh (mpkWh) in 39kWh form, and 6.3mpkWh in 64kWh form. What all those numbers mean in the real world is that running an e-Niro will make a significantly smaller dent in your electricity bill than a Volkswagen ID.3 or a Peugeot e-2008.
You could also save even more on running the e-Niro if you use cheaper, overnight tariffs, which is easy to do since there is a setting on the car’s screen to set the hours you’d like to charge and you can also control the timed charging (and pre-set the cabin temperate) via Kia’s phone app.
Not just that, but the e-Niro is currently holding onto its value extremely well, so you’ll lose far less on it than you would a ‘normal’ small SUV such as the Nissan Juke or the Ford Puma if you choose to sell it on or part-exchange it in a few years.
It is a shame that Kia isn’t offering more competitive leasing or PCP costs on the e-Niro. If you want to buy one new and pay monthly, you’ll find payments are usefully lower on the Nissan Leaf, MG ZS EV or Peugeot e-2008.
Servicing is required every 12 months or 10,000 miles, which is not great since many electric cars have much longer service intervals. At least there are fixed price plans available, and you can spread the cost into interest-free monthly instalments.
- The Kia e-Niro has been in such demand that there was a waiting list of more than a year when it was first launched in late 2018, and initially offered only with a 64kWh battery and in high-spec First Edition trim. Buyers were paying more than list price for a used example of one of those first cars that came to the UK. If you can find one, you’ll still pay a lot for a used example now, and long waits for a new e-Niro are not yet things of the past. Ask your Kia dealer how long it’ll be before your e-Niro can be delivered if you’re buying new.
- Picking a trim in the e-Niro also means picking the battery. Entry-level 2 cars get the 39kWh battery, while 3 or 4+ both have the 64kWh battery. This is straightforward enough when you look at the equipment list, but it’s worth knowing, because there could be a discrepancy between the battery you want and certain bits of equipment.
- The Kia’s regenerative braking system offers three levels varying from barely noticeable to very strong, and they can be selected via the steering wheel. We enjoyed using the automatic setting, which still allows you to select how strong you want the brake regeneration to be but also modulates the braking as you approach a car in front. It sounds complicated, but you quickly get used to it and learn to trust and predict how the car is going to brake. You can even pull and hold the steering wheel paddle to bring the car to a complete halt, but this isn’t as intuitive as the full ‘one pedal’ driving mode in the Nissan Leaf. Honestly, it seems quite unnecessary, because the brake pedal is easier and more intuitive to use when you’re bringing the car to a complete halt.
- If you’re a company car buyer you should go for the 4-, which gets all the equipment you could imagine but will cost you almost nothing in Benefit in Kind company car tax because electric cars are virtually free to employees on a company car scheme until April 2023. For instance, for the 2021/22 tax year, the e-Niro 4- will cost a 40% tax payer just £156 for the whole year. Only £26 more than the slower, less well equipped and shorter-range 39kWh e-Niro 2.
- If you’re a retail buyer looking for the best value e-Niro, we’d still point towards the long-range car, albeit in 3 trim. The bigger 64kWh battery transforms the e-Niro’s daily usability if you regularly do longer journeys, and with long range electric cars in such demand it’ll also hold its value much better when you come to sell it on or part-exchange. The 3 trim gets leather upholstery, electrically adjustable seats, keyless entry, reversing camera, 17-inch alloys and more, so it really does offer all the comfort and convenience you could want.
- If you simply want the lowest purchase price and you’re not fussed about the long range, of course the 39kWh Kia e-Niro 2 is a great bet. It’s still well equipped and we’d expect it to go further than comparable cars like the MG ZS EV. However, if cost is a priority then do consider the MG since it is much cheaper on list price and also has much lower monthly costs; finance isn’t cheap on the Kia and you could be paying close to £500 per month. The MG gets a 160-mile range and isn’t as nice to live with or to drive as the Kia, but it's not bad and you may well be pleasantly surprised by the spacious MG given the costs involved.
- If you want the sportiest Kia e-Niro, of course it’s the 3 or 4- long range cars that you should go for since they get 201bhp and thoroughly cheeky, almost hot-hatch-like pace. The Kia is also surprisingly good to drive on a decent road, thanks to its seamless power delivery and nicely weighted steering, but we’d add that it isn’t a hot hatch and doesn’t have the kind of vigour and involvement that you get in others. A Tesla Model 3 is more of a driver’s car if you can stretch to the higher asking price.
