Used Kia e-NIRO review. Is this the best electric car buy in the UK? / Electrifying

[@aaromnido]

We had an e-Niro Long Range since January 2021, and my wife and I are totally delighted with this car. This is our family car for absolutely everything, commuting and traveling. It is not a surprise that the second-hand prices are rising, we don't change our e-Niro for nothing. Greetings from Spain, we are planning to visit the UK with our e-Niro in no time. :)

[@jacktyler7599]

As an analogy: I'll guesstimate well over half of us on the Web this weekend are using a computer made over 2 years ago. Yet we all seem to be doing fine even so, despite all the recent tech upgrades to newer models. If a Kia eNiro isn't a EV6, how does that matter to most of us? Nice comparison summary, Ginny. You guys are doing great!

[@mnels53]

I just bought a 2020 Niro EV with 27000 mi. So far, I love it!

[@SamRommer]

Any idea on the battery degradation?

[@FancyaBevMate]

Hi I recently picked up a 1st edtion E niro (after having the 2018 leaf). When I started searching for the current generation there was around 80 used vehicles in the UK and this dropped to under 15 by the time I took delivery, combined with the fact that the newer model was being advertised all over it holds true that the current generation will be a great sort after vehicle for a good few years. I will go out on a limb and say this 1st edition is probably the best vehicle I have ever owned. Ps I have to disagree with most reviews of the E niro (64) regarding the ride, the leaf was plush and pretty good in corners but the E niro feels like a limo and nimble. Being a taxi driver of over 25 years I know comfort :) Cheers

[@wattouk]

I went from a e-Niro First Edition to a 4+. I have no regrets. Biggest upgrade for me is the LED headlamps. The halogen ones in the 1st edition just didn't cut it. They were adequate, but only just. LED ones are so much better. I can also charge at 11kw at work with their 22kw wall units. A 4 hour charge at work will add around 200 miles. (at no cost to me. :) )

[@Jaw0lf]

I went from an Audi Q5 to a 4+ Kia E Niro 1 year ago and I have not been disappointed. There are a few things I knew could be improved on and sure enough the new Niro EV fixes all of those, but they are relatively minor things! The car itself is amazing and I have done long trips in cold weather (less than 5c) fully loaded with 3 adults and 60kg of luggage. Left the car for 14 days at airport and we still completed the 210 mile round trip, getting home with 15 miles range before plugging in at home to recharge. Latest trip in warmer weather was to Disneyland Paris, 872 mile round trip, 80mph on French toll roads. We stopped for coffee, waiting for Euro tunnel and Food, each time plugging in the car and leaving when finished. It charged enough each time to get is to our next stop easily. Total trip cost about £30. Car was amazing and easy to drive with the smart cruise control, lane assist etc. The new Kia Ev adds powered tailgate, struts for bonnet and cable storage there, charger moved to middle of car, (saving the shuffle when using slightly short cables!) and vehicle to load/3pin UK plug socket in rear seat area. Also, the car can be summonsed (?) forward or back into/out of a tight parking space. All nice upgrades but will happily wait for them. I generally charge on 50kWh chargers when away from homeas that is the highest level I have generally found, so never tried the full 77kWh charging levels.

[@TOURMANBOB]

My 2017 Kia Niro hybrid is coming off lease and I will be buying it for peanuts. This decision is a "no brainer"...superb car, 4.2 liters per 100 km, great comfort and roomy carrying capacity....what's not to like

[@boyanbc]

In February I bought early 2019 E-niro 64 kWh with 70k km in the clock. Since I drove 7-8k in it. The car is simply amazing. I'm coming off 2016 VW Passat PHEV. The past 5k average consumption was 14.0 kwh / 100k. It fits perfectly on my style of drive. A good to note that the previous owner kept it in a garage and never went below 20% or above 80% on mostly slow charging. I couldn't recommend mote the car. The only negative point I can think of is the low quality of the sound system of this trim. It's an amazing car that comes me almost 4 more years warranty (7 in total).

[@rolfbeck9796]

Hi, I have had an e Niro 4+ for nearly two years now, and for me this is the best and most enjoyable car I have ever owned. I also have a BMW530e Sport, very comfy, very capable and fast, but nine times out of ten I choose to take the e Niro. It is an absolutely brilliant car to pop into town with, dead easy to manoeuvre into any parking space, and yet it offers lots of room inside. It’s economical, quick, quiet and, having driven BMWs for over 30 years, I’m really impressed with the build quality. If you can live with the looks ( my wife is struggling with that one!), it’s a joy to live with!

[@stephenshannon3706]

An excellent review. It’s true all cars are very expensive and EV’s are no exception. In value for money terms, if you want an EV you can only compare to other EV’s, which tend to be more expensive or have less kit (other than paying for very expensive extras) or significantly less range. The Niro has excellent efficiency. Fortunately my 71 plate 4+ avoided the 2nd to 5th year special VED band (but some may not realise this and incur quite a large financial penalty). Whilst this EV is not fantastic in the looks dept, it is really very good in every other respect. I agree that the heat pump is well worth having in the cold winter months. Best of all, this EV’s long range is genuine unless you have a very heavy right foot. This range means nearly all my charging is done at home; this has several major benefits. I can do some charging for free from home solar, and I get a very competitive overnight charge rate from Octopus + I’m hardly ever waiting at a public charger. Even on round trips of say 350 miles, I would not charge to fill the battery, but just enough to get home with a small margin to spare (so eg adding 60 miles on CCS might only take 15 minutes)- in any event Public rapid charging can be nearly as expensive as petrol). The Niro’s EV range allows me to avoid those high costs 98% of the time.

[@deasunodonnachadha6408]

Very good EV. Found it to be a nice sleeper. Very efficient. Nice ride. Nice bit of kit. Tires are not built for the power coming thru it. Love it.

[@Ray.842]

I have an e-Niro 2020 bought it from new, got to say it’s the best car I’ve ever had! I’m interested in the ev5 when it comes out Kia have gone from strength to strength 👍

[@devonbikefilms]

Very happy with mine, had it nearly 6 months now and very pleased with how it drives and performs. Cheaper to fuel than my wife’s Fiat. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. It is a bit anonymous, but I never did need to impress people I don’t know. I expect we’ll have this one for at least the length of the warranty.

[@stevieguk8014]

I have a first edition and it has been one of the best cars I have had. I chose it over a Tesla M3 because it was more practical for carrying elderly relatives and children. The range is fantastic ( in recent sunny weather I have been getting over 320 miles) and it has been relaxed to drive. On the down side the looks are not great; tyre noise from the originals (I changed to quieter all season) and the heating in very cold weather could be better (heat pump may tackle this). I have placed an order for a new one after seeing one at my local dealer. The marmite c- pillar has grown on me having hated it to begin with. In the presentational video they show a pearl white with the grey c- pillar and grey cladding and it looks quite distinctive - certainly better than the black cladding used at dealer presentations. Why go for the new one? Apart from a more up to date styling (yes some don’t like it), features like head up display and a much improved interior have influenced my decision. But the current high residual price for my existing e/Niro make it a no brainer. The cost to change is at a level that may not be maintained. As always I will have to wait to see when the new car arrives. My hope is that it will be at least as good as my current car. It will also be a novel experience to be driving a car that people want to express a view about its looks rather than one that is often anonymous.

[@d7mysterio7]

Personally I love this EV. I bought the Niro EV Platnum Edition a year ago toddy. I have enjoyed my ownership experience very much. It was great during the Summer, Fall and Winter. I’ve gotten above the EPA rating every time. I highly recommended this EV to anyone. Yes it’s not the best looking EV but you will enjoy your ownership experience especially during the Summer time when you do a charge and see 325 to a full charge.

[@aarong9378]

I love my 2019 e-Niro. Plenty of power to get me out of a situation yesterday where two large SUVs tried to sandwich me between them. A quick press of the accelerator and we were out of danger. (The horn got a workout too.) Kia really has a sleeper in the e-Niro. It's no race car, but it will smoke the tyres if you ask it to.

[@desmondatkinson4642]

I've had my First Edition e-Niro since December 2019. I think it's a great car but it has some imperfections like any car. The old headlights are not brilliant and, boy, does the back window and bodywork pick up the dirt in bad weather. I suspect those new rear side panels might help with the airflow to mitigate that on the new model. Mechanically it has had one big problem, namely the traction motor had to be replaced (got pretty noisy, especially after a motorway journey). The dealership dealt with it under warranty and the new motor is perfect. The range and efficiency of the car is excellent (we drive often between Exeter and Newport to see family), and it can handle a journey like that even in the depth of winter with plenty of range to spare. I would say our range varies between 240 miles in very cold weather, to 300 or more in the heat. For anyone looking to get a used e-Niro, I would say the First Edition would also be an excellent buy (sorry, we have no intention of selling ours!)

[@duncanbuchanan218]

One thing that should be part of any second hand EV review is info on how to check how healthy the battery is. How can I check what charge is held? I can assume a 100,000 mile eNiro will have lost some capacity, but how much. Does not have to be perfect, just a guide would be good. If people want to buy with some confidence this needs to be known. (Maybe committed EV owners know how to do this, but not everyone is into cars at all - its the re-assurance thats important).

[@markreed9853]

I found this online - Car scanner with an OBD2 dongle is the equivalent of leafspy for Kia (and many others). Recommended way to check is to charge to 100% and then read the Remaining Energy or equivalent and compare with what it would have been on a brand new model with same battery. e.g. for EV6 it is 74500 or so at 100% when new. Note that although there is a SoH metric in the OBD data, but I think on Hyundai/Kia it “lies” - or at least at least hides some of the initial degradation and reports 100% SoH despite the maximum energy stored being lower than when new.

[@stevegeek]

Nice review. I'm looking to replace my trusty Skoda Yeti and this is on the shortlist, alongside the Hyundai Kona and MG ZS EV. I'll be going for test drives to help me choose in coming days.

[@Yanquetino]

A good, solid EV that will appeal to those looking for a used car: more affordable and still practical and useable. Personally, I'd go for the 4+, however.

[@Richard482]

Kia called my wife last Friday and said they are calling all e-Niro customers that have the car on finance to find out if they want to swap to the new model and that finance will be slightly less. It was a definite yes.

[@SgHawk144]

Is that for the equivalent trim/spec? Seems hard to believe. Unless they are expecting the insane residuals on used cars, especially electric to continue long term and have included that in their finance calculations.

[@dcbel]

It is awesome to see reviews of used EVs, really informative video! Thank you for sharing! 🔌⚡🚘

[@richardhaywoodh]

Excellent round up. As you say switches for functions are great, it can't be safe to have to go hunting around in menus for functions. The new version is a dissapointmrnt hardly any range improvement, no real leather seat option, and looses switches for settings putting them into menus, and new model has a terrible 3/4 rear view blind spot due to missing windows and that weird different colour aero panel...

[@davewatts7444]

I am seriously thinking of going electric, I'm retired, so most weeks my driving consists 2 trips to the golf course 38 miles, 1 trip to the supermarket and that's just about it, I have a bus/ train/tram pass so Wigan to Manchester and anywhere in Greater Manchester free 😊 so the Nero all electric seams spot on for me. My only misgiving is not range, it's availability to charge the car if I go say 200 miles to the lakes finding charging stations

[@Banyan314]

We absolutely love our E Niro 4+ and unless the new one brings some serious advantage to the game, we are likely to hang on to it for a few more years. We have already been invited to the Kia EV Experience Show in June, so we'll see what the new Niro EV has to offer. It looks pretty hideous with that duo tone C pillar but we have been told we could have the car in a single colour. Would be interesting to see what the new Kona EV has to offer when it arrives especially if it is built on the shortened dedicated EV platform of the Ioniq 5 ( Both the EV6 and Ioniq 5 proved far too big to be practical on SW country roads. An Ioniq 4 ( Niro size) would be very, very tempting.)

[@rmpumper]

There's a reason why car youtubers never show the rear end of the new Niro in these clips, and I think that it's obvious to everyone what that reason is.

[@thomosburn8740]

The original e-Niro 64kWh has more horsepower than the current 2024 Niro! The only thing that sucks out it is the Harmon-Kardon stereo sound quality.

[@Simon-390]

I love all these big touch screens in cars , using a phone is now a hanging offence , so how does it stand in court if you are using a screen to operate the car or changing a song on your phone ?

[@ronvalente65]

Definately my favourite car tester! you do a great job straight to the information we need to help us decide which car to buy. 🤩

[@ParagonGarage]

I had a 2020 Niro EV and just upgraded to the 2023 Niro EV the 2020 was a great car except for the silver stripe on the dash because when the sun hits it oh my lord it blairs in your eyes very annoying and dangerous, next is the clear coat on the rear wing and rails up on the roof the clear coat was ruined and faded in 2 years and last is the rubber seals on the tail lights they fell apart within 2 years also these issues were really disappointing to me and when my lease was up I didn’t want to buy it out so I upgraded to the 2023 Niro Wave this new model is way better looking and has a ton of new features but still it has some piano black around the shifter console that reflects the sun in your eyes again very annoying and dangerous it doesn’t do it all off the time but when it does its very annoying other than that some glitches with the technology stuff oher than that pretty happy with the new model

[@athollmcnicoll1028]

Yes to the older version , No to the newer version even with its advanced capabilities.

[@danielecolombo8702]

I have an E Niro 64 totally satisfied , Just One question , After 15 k km I am already. At 3/4 of the tyres ,Is It normal?

[@robertbackus585]

The only only downside I've found so far with my 4+ is the reversing light isn't good enough on dark country lanes! I have to put Hazards on and dab the brakes to see on the camera - I can't see anything through the rear windscreen!

[@2.3_44XD--]

I wish they fire the guy who decided to stop producing the old version.

[@dcvariousvids8082]

Secondhand eNiros are no cheaper than they were when new two-three years ago. Good EV but still too expensive.

[@dot7107]

Every used ev are now much more expensive than a year ago

[@rmpumper]

That's just the shortage for you. Either get a used one for the price of a new car, or order a new car and wait for 6-12 months.

[@Mike_5]

When buying how do you test the battery cycle? Switch in on for an hour?

[@Brian-om2hh]

You get the dealer to test the battery via the car's diagnostic socket using an OBD. This can provide a print-out of the battery's state of health in percentage terms.....

[@joshclayman44]

When does the new model come out?

[@SamRommer]

What sort of battery degradation can buyers expect on a 3-4 year old car?

[@grifon6156]

There was not any MILD hybrid but hybrid eNiro.

[@petermontgomery85]

Before I even think of buying an EV they must level up to, a 90 bhp, travel greater than 60 to 65 miles for equivalent gallon of petrol, in winter have same heàting effect as an ICE with head lights on, fit ordinary tyres that are not pricey, charging at fuel station for equivalent prce and time it takes to charge must be relative to filling a fuel tank then this would be an excellent alternative to an ICE vehicle, Oh! and be equivalent to the cost of ICE vehicle.

[@patrickpritchard2908]

The battery life doesn't seem to hold up on this model compared to other manufacturers (bjorn) ?

[@chrisrowe22]

Bjorn was testing the Original Kia Soul EV. Totally different battery and drivetrain to the Niro.

[@sko1beer]

Goggle the ENiro in London that did Uber putting 85k on the clock it still holds max battery. He only used fast changing and it never degenerated

[@contra_plano]

Zoe from 2014 as a heat pump, from serie

[@philips1081]

i was told the heat pump in the 4+ was not standard you paid extra

[@jeffreyclements7301]

The heat pump in the 4+ comes as standard, but you pay extra for the vehicle due to all the extras heated rear seats, sunroof, cooling front seats, blind spot detection, cross traffic alert, heat pump included.

[@Reddylion]

Nice

[@Simon-390]

Also with all this tech and gadgets in cars is great , but people these days cant actually drive ? Maybe learning to drive first before using all this tech would be a good idea ?

[@irekfilms]

The Kia Nero is rather compact than midsize!!! Id4 Ioniq5 and ev6 are midsize .

[@adofoi30]

You are obviously living in America…. The Europeans consider that lunchbox a midsize. e.g. the forester is considered midsize in Europe and Caribbean but compact in US!

[@SgHawk144]

It’s certainly not a compact in the uk where we have the i10, picanto, 500. Those are compact!

[@spikebmth]

cars are generally to big nowadays anyway, for most no need to drive drive anything larger than a compact SUV

[@californiamicke9527]

👍👍👍

[@Richard-io9xe]

I will agreed that the current version is a solid car and if looks mean nothing to you then it will be a sound purchase. Personally, I just never managed to get on with the utter blandness of the styling. However, the new one is much more up to date and stylish. It's not to everyone's taste but at least it makes you have an opinion. The out going one is so anonymous, never mind losing it in a car park, you could lose it on your driveway. I have the new one on order, and for an extra one to two thousand pounds over the current inflated second hand prices of the old model, to me it's a no brainer.

[@adrianciobotaru9595]

Lots of stupid thing you say!!! The 8 inch screen works fine, i have one. The 17 inch wheeks ore ok. 16 inches are even greater. The heat pump is almost useless!!

[@gerrymcdonnell1946]

I've a new Niro e and I can't wait to get rid of it. It's uncomfortable, very noisy from the tyres, the heating controls are terrible and I can't find anything good to say about it. Worst car I've ever had, will never get another elecric car again. If only they made cars like we had in the 70's, where you could do most of your own servicing and had no digital distractions like there is in the modern day cars. The paddles on the steering wheel are terrible with the regenerating system as soon as you try to get some heat into the car with great difficulty the mileage range goes right down so long live the diesel and petrol cars, these are forced upon us and I give it minus 10.😒😒rubbish

[@Brian-om2hh]

What made you buy it?