Kia? Niro?

[CharlieB]

Hey all. I'm finally looking seriously at a fully electric car. In the £20-£40k range, though, and focussing on practicality so probably not Teslas/EV6s/ I5s . Ground clearance is also important as we're down a farm track.

Kia Niro on the face of it looks good. It's not too offensively SUV but does have decent space and good range for the price. Other option I think would be the MG ZS, but it just feels a bit more in-your-face SUV, which I don't want.

Has anyone driven a Niro and can comment? ? Thanks

[Mr Gus]

What is the state of the track flat, access, hill access, winter slops & ruination, or intermittent tarmac n slab gravel & pot holes? ..thinking bottom scrape, grounding potential & fording abilities ..any of that ever likely in your locale?

TBH I do't see either as either as anything other than pseudo rugged ability faced with spine crashing jolts, but both are high clearance, the Niro looked higher!? than the MG too me but that was eons back.

Only interior I ever saw for the niro was light fabric, so country boots, dogs, lambs ..whatever is going to stain & screw that asap unless decent quality covers are used from the get go (surely there's more than one interior nowadays though)

I know ev are capable of decent clutch free type creep, but what reports for currently available choices ev over boggy ruts? ..anyone.

Presumably neither are designed for towing adaptation? is that needed or left to another vehicle?

On another tangent, how is ev going to affect the "friendly" caravan club & towed roadside lorry stop food stop type trade?

How are ev specific tyres going to affect that route in terms of lifespan reduction in daily use?

I remember, (2020 style in covid) that I found the cabin sound strange sitting in it, but we couldnt drive it .. "stupid flanders" ..merely clamber around in it, touching everything.. so I was unable to test road noise & cabin damping / resonance & creak.

[Moxi]

Maybe consider the Ssangyong Korando E motion too as its a contender to the Niro, 65kW battery, decent spec, great warranty and an ok-ish range of about 200m.

We considered this as our first EV but ended up with the EV6 because we needed just a bit more range and although we live up a mountain the roads (lanes) are hardly ever snowed over for more than half a day so we think it will be just the job for us (when it arrives that is)

I would think the most important consideration would be all wheel drive and ground clearance, as Mr Gus says the ability to crawl forwards at low speed with high torque will be almost universally available from electric motored vehicles so as long as the same torque goes down evenly you should be ok.

As an aside I am having a towbar fitted to the EV6 as I plan to tow the caravan, at least locally.

Moxi

[CharlieB]

What is the state of the track flat, access, hill access, winter slops & ruination, or intermittent tarmac n slab gravel & pot holes? ..thinking bottom scrape, grounding potential & fording abilities ..any of that ever likely in your locale?

Grounding is the real issue here mr Gus. It's a rutted track with wheel ruts, so needs to be reasonably (not very) high slung. Fords etc not a concern. Snow sometimes, but I don't think any of these mid-range EVs are all wheel drive. (?)

This will be the general family car As you'd guessed, proper towing and off-road left to my 4x4 Yeti (which has been a good buy) and a landrover which pretty much never goes off the farm. The Niro would be replacing a Toyota Auris estate hybrid. I was very excited when I first got that a couple of years ago, but have been v unimpressed by it tbh.

C

PS Niro EV can tow, but v limited load I think... You might like this mrG: https://electrictowcars.co.uk/kia-niro-ev/

[CharlieB]

Moxi, that Korando looks a bit too 'urban tank' for me. I still have T shirts from the Stop Urban SUVs campaign ('Not safe, not clean, not cool') and still do childish hand gestures at Range Rovers. The Niro, at least the versions currently on the road, look reasonably compact and inoffensive.

[Mr Gus]

That reminded me, another reason for not getting the kia niro, was height & width as a view blocker to pedestrians, cyclists, etc & a street blocker if parked on a road, ..but given the amount of leased range rovers that proliferate (never used in vaguely muddy 4x4 conditions it was just us thinking about that

[Oldgreybeard]

The large size of many newer EVs is a trend that is a bit of a nuisance. Our lane is very narrow, single track with few passing places, and one of the key things we look for when buying a car is how wide it is. There seems to have been a steady trend over the years to make cars wider and wider, especially with EVs. One of the key reasons for getting the Renault was because it's not as wide as some of the other EVs around.

[Mr Gus]

Trend for more than a decade.
I despise the nissan juke for instance, ..all started with the padsing of the sj410 types which morphed in the 90's (rav 4)?? & never stopped growing.

Then vauxhall did a shonky monster, (dont see many anymore)
Sure ive said this at st elsewhere, but when an old lifelong local in the 1970's came & talked about our village, he mentioned te "normal" road beside our school as a 1 cart width road, which has always stayed with me re vehicles needs, desires, versus access & manoeuvres, & why tractors, combines trailers need space & sometimes to knock down thoughtless traffic calming bollards to get your combine off the farm.

[Moxi]

Hi Charlie,

Yeah I would agree the looks aren't optimum, but I was recommending it for the drive experience, clearance and spec that you get for money you pay, which are in general terms appear better than the Niro - at least on paper and in my opinion.

Of course if you can bear to live with the Toyota a little longer there are, I understand, a raft of EV specific vehicles due to arrive in the showrooms over the next few years and being built as EV's from the outset they will invariably be better than the retro fit vehicles such as the Niro and the Korando.

Good luck in your searches, I spent ages looking in the same price bracket as you are before ultimately going for something more expensive to get the functionality that was specific to my personal needs - including three kids 8 months to 5yrs. and a Labrador and a Retriever and the caravan.

We will keep the RAV4 for the real long-distance towing (over 150 miles one way) and worst of the winter weather but the EV for all other duties.

Well thats the plan anyway.

Moxi

[NikoV6]

Used Model S D model for 4x4 on air suspension? Will automatically raise itself every time you get to a location you need clearance once you tell it the first time.

We have one for deepest rural Wales and copes very well with out approach lane!

£1250 of Mitsubishi Pinin for the green lanes and extreme snow (if we ever get any again!)