KIA Niro EV 2022 electric car owner review

James Fletcher drives a KIA Niro EV 64kWh 2022.

This is James’s second electric car, he’s owned the KIA Niro EV 1-2 years and drives 5,000-10,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 10,000-20,000 miles and he achieves 220 miles from a full charge.

Why did you choose the KIA Niro EV?

Having started with a Nissan LEAF in 2018 to replace a Mitsubishi FTO daily commute car, we were hooked on electric despite it’s 80 mile range. We wanted to replace our hybrid car for a longer range EV with sufficient luggage space for four adults.

Positives

Very quiet
good lane-keep-assist
elevated but not too high seating
compact length and width
good luggage capacity.

Negatives

Part of the ‘touch controls’ generation of designs which should never have gotten past customer satisfaction. For safety’s sake a car needs physical buttons.

Compared to when you first bought the car, does your battery still charge at the same rate & do you still get the same range?

Yes, the car charges at the same rate and we get the same range as when we bought it.

Have you experienced any faults with the car? If so, what have they been?

Zero faults

What are the standout technological features of the car?

Like the radar cruise control and lane keep assist.

Tell us something people wouldn’t readily know about this electric car

There’s an electric plug between the rear seats.

What’s the biggest or funniest myth you’ve heard about EVs?

That you’d be electrocuted if it rained!

What electric car(s) are you interested in next and why?

Similar car with a slightly longer range.

Home charging unit

myenergi zappi v1 – As we have solar panels we bought a charger that could divert our solar output. The zappi was the first to do this. It will pause charging if, say, the washing machine starts up. Two years later it got an mobile app which is very useful to change charging schedules. You can stop/change the current charging rate. The app also shows charging graph.

Electricity supplier & tariff

Octopus Go – no negatives, there’s enough cheap rate hours (5) to charge our car after a 90 mile trip to and from Manchester (140 miles can be added in 5hrs).