Kia Niro EV

At the moment, mine is displaying 211 miles of range (337km) at 86% SOC, giving a theoretical range from full of 245 miles or 392km. Not sure I'd get that today with the temperatures having dropped again since the last time the car went more than 15 minutes away from the house, but I'd still be confident of being able to drive at least 315km without having to drive Miss Daisy. Best/most optimistic I've seen was something like 263 miles / 420km, but I think that was when I had charged to full after a spell of slower driving the previous evening. I could imagine that a sustained spell of more sedate driving in summertime temperatures would have the GOM revising the range upwards from that.

It's the EV newcomer trap - going by anything the GOM says.

Switch to % and never look again at range.

Another range update from a trip I had to do at the weekend. Setting out with 100%, the car displayed a range of 242 miles (387km). Temperature was 16C and it was a fine day, so decent conditions. We had a fairly clear run for most of it, but there was the usual slowdown going through Belfast which took 10 minutes to do just 3 miles from the end of the M2 along the Westlink to the M1 at Stockman's Lane, plus we stopped for another 10+ minutes so my other half could get an ice-lolly and eat it standing up - still managed to drip some on herself 😁 - then another 20 minutes or so of crawling in/around Bray before the traffic cleared on the N11 at Kilmacanogue. There are a couple of stretches of the A1 where it's restricted to 60mph, plus of course the M50 and N11, but outside of those we had the cruise set at 72mph (115kmh) the whole way. We arrived after travelling 189 miles/302km, with the car showing 71 miles of range remaining, consumption of 4 miles per kWh (15.53kWh/100km) and battery level of 29%. GOM was pretty accurate - 242 x.29 = 70.18!

We didn't average 72mph for the whole trip, of course, and from switching on to switching off was 3 hours 31 minutes - but if you take off the 30 minutes of crawling/stop-start for a total of about 9 miles plus stopping for a 10 minute break (without switching off or charging), it would have been 2hrs 50 to do the remaining 180 miles including a couple of slowdowns along the M50 - I never thought to check how long it took us to get around there. But that would give an average speed for most of motorway/dual carriageway stretches of the trip of just under 65mph/104kmh.

For the return leg there was much heavier traffic on the M1, so we didn't get to cruise at full speed until near the Drogheda toll, but tried to make up for lost time after that. Along with some additional urban driving before we actually hit the road plus a couple of stops along the way without charging, we covered 200 miles and it still showed 55 miles of remaining range, even though the consumption was marginally worse at 3.9miles/kWh this time.

Start and finish of outward leg.

Return leg - I'd already spent over an hour in the car and covered just 13 miles prior to taking the first pic, hence the very low consumption figure of 4.5 mile/kWh. Coincidentally, that meant the range also showed 242 miles when I took the pic, but it had been 253 or something like that when I first switched on. Temperature was slightly lower than for the previous trip.

Looks like a Kia warranty, garage offers 6months I think.
no NCT atm but the salesman has assured it’ll pass, if not it’ll be repaired to pass.

Kia e-Niro E-NIRO MY2021 AUTO WARRANTY 2028 €60

Everything seems to work, took it for a short drive and it drives ok. No odd noises.
It’s asking for a service, dealer will take care of that too.

I’ve started looking at other EVs too.

(I can’t seem to add a clickable link, it’s in a garage in Carlow)

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/kia-e-niro-e-niro-my2021-auto-warranty-2028-60/42016904

I did question the NCT and I was brushed off as hard to get an appointment, which was questionable, I booked my own car and had it done in less than two weeks.
It didn’t look crash damaged, and nothing recorded.
Is the coolant service that expensive?
I’ll have to look at the mileage that’s due at.
I don’t think I’ve ever had warranty on any car before, so that won’t be much of an issue.
Anyone know of any good independent garages around Kildare?

If it is fully charged, it might give above or close to 500km range, but there's no real substitute for a proper printout indicating battery SOH

When I got mine (edit - early 2020 model) in the UK in March last year, the SOH was 99% with just over 60000 miles on the clock, so around 103k km. It had also just had the electric motor replaced under warranty, due to the motor mount issue - one of the few things to watch out for with these cars. It's easy to check for when test driving - if present, you would hear a very noticeable "wheel of fortune" noise under acceleration. If that isn't present, I'd say there's no need to worry about happening in the future as it would have manifested itself in a 5 or 6 year old car by now. Should be a free fix under the 7 year warranty anyway, either by replacing the motor mount itself or possibly replacing the entire motor along with it should the tech department deem it necessary.

Yes, I don't drive it like I stole it and I don't take driving on the speed limit as something to be achieved 🤣

Fixed your link, I'd be questioning why it was never NCT'ed when it was due its first test in July 2025, the garage or anybody else have no logical reason to not test it as the passed test would be valid until July 2027 no matter when it was done. Was it off the road for a long time and if so, why?

As someone mentioned, check it out for any hint of 'wheel of fortune' noise, go full regen with radio off. Plenty of videos online of what it sounds like.

Also, if you're budget is €18k or you want an e-Niro, there is far better value available than this one at that asking price IMO.

Exactly. It came in with no nct and the dealer is hanging on until there is confirmed interest/deposit paid and will get it nct'd then.

Don't forget they can get slots in days vs months for private citizens.

The coolant change seems to be costly (prices quoted on here have varied, but you probably need to budget upwards of €350) but it isn't a high-frequency service requirement - I thought mine would have to be done at the last service a few months back as the car was pushing 80000 miles, but was told it wouldn't be needed till the next time. It was last done at 40000 miles, unless the coolant was also replaced when they put a new electric motor in just before I bought the car last year at 60000 miles. NB - the reason for that was the motor mount issue, which you should easily be able to detect due to the wheel of fortune noise you mentioned. That's a free fix under warranty, entailing either a replacement of the motor mount or a whole new motor if they deem it necessary, as happened with mine.

I haven't had any charging problems other than when cold temperatures reduce the rapid charging speed on a long trip. Rapid charging the Niro is already a fair bit slower than more modern EVs, with the peak speed of around 75kW only achieved occasionally. Anything above 60-ish kW is good, even on chargers promising 100kW or faster, and you could easily see it slower than 50kW if it's below 5 Celsius outside. Of course, if you do most of your charging at home and/or do your rapid charging on a trip while taking a break anyway, that's not going to be a major issue.

Only other quibble I can think of is the rain sensing wipers aren't as good as what I've had on previous cars. They're inconsistent and don't always react as well as they should to suddenly heavier bursts of rain, so i end up flicking the wiper control between auto and standard. Other than that - and the bland looks - it's a great car. It's plenty spacious with good range all year round, very comfortable with heated front seats and steering wheel (not sure if those are standard throughout the range, but a must-have!), good acceleration when needed even from higher speeds, long 7-year warranty. Cabin ergonomics are good, with useful storage plus buttons for all the key controls like heat, radio etc. If you get one with a heat pump like mine has, the range in winter shouldn't be too badly affected by cabin heating - my worst motorway range in winter would have been something like 213 miles/340km without resorting to leafspeed. With recent temperatures having been in the low teens, the GOM is currently suggesting a range from 100% of 265 miles/424km, but the car calculates that on recent efficiency - I've been driving more sedately in recent days, so that would be unlikely to be more than 250 miles on the motorway. Nothing has gone wrong with it in my ownership over some 32000km in just over a year.

78K on ours, and we haven't had a problem in years. Had some initial teething issues with 12v battery failures (bought car during covid, and it spent some time idle before we could pick it up, so likely expected). Servicing has always been reasonable, and apart from a few minor annoyances (occasional radar-related collision warning failures (minor annoyance), infotainment system reboots, occasional car reboots), it's been grand!

Going up North to test drive a Kia Electric E niro 2020 this weekend. Got the SOH and Car history from Motor check and also service log and all looks good

So anything to watch out while test drive.Reading about Wheel of fortune and issues with 12v battery

Anything I should watch out for