Likes and Dislikes Kia Niro 2020 PHEV after 7 months of driving 

Glad to hear it. I still have the car and I still enjoy driving it.

I’m glad you found it useful. I’m coming up on one year of ownership. I’m pretty happy, but I know the Niro PHEV is not for everyone.

I cannot argue with most of your assessment except for the battery. Even at very low charge percentages, the battery helps to reduce gasoline consumption. At a minimum, the engine will shut down when you come to a stop or are cruising down a hill. I easily average 50 to 55 mile per gallon (21 to 25 kilometers per liter if my conversion is correct.) From my perspective, doubling the fuel economy more than offsets the loss of efficiency due to the increased weight of a discharged battery.

Glad you like them!

You are going to have a smooth ride and lots of fun.

Interesting strategy on the purchase-warranty coverage. I’m virtually EV only for 90% of my trips around town with the PHEV. But I hear you on the problems with a total EV. In Northern California, there are some beautiful destinations I would not be able to travel to because they lack charging stations. EVs are great in urban and suburban regions, but most of the US does not support an EV charging structure….yet.

Great suggestion for an HUD. I will look into that. The glare is still problematic, but I’ve gotten use to it.

I’ll keep experimenting with the steering wheel position. Old habits are hard to break!

I did a quick look on the charging section of the owners manual and I don’t see anything about limiting the charge to 80%. You might be able to but I have never seen anything about it. It is a small battery relative to a full EV.

In case you still need an answer on that, the battery in the Kia (and most hybrids / PHEVs) is already configured to function only between 20% and 80%, in order to increase their longevity. So when it tells you 0%, it's actually at 20%, and 100% is 80%.

Good observation. One item I didn’t list as a ‘Like’, while not exclusive to this car, is the satellite Sirius XM music. Now I can listen to all my old ‘80s music, but they don’t have a channel exclusively devoted to Ska, which would be good…for me.

@@KevinKnauss The use to have Fungus53 a long time ago, that played some ska. But they took it off the air so I started by own ska radio a few months later.

@@SkaBob Good for you. Whenever there is a vacuum, someone or something will fill it.

@@KevinKnauss At that time there no streaming apps like today and I saw ska bands having no way wide exposure, unless someone found a random video on youtube.

@@SkaBob I found the channel, like it, and will listen more in the future.

I saw a report of halogen lamps being used on some Niro trim levels. The light from halogen lamps is slightly different from LED head lamps. I specific chose the EX Premium for the LED headlamps.

All I know is that on long trips, I can easily get 55 mpg. However, I think we fixate too much on these theoretical numbers. Here is real life: for the last couple of months and several hundreds of miles of travel, my mpg is north of 900 mpg. Because I have been taking short trips that only require mainly all EV and sometimes a little gasoline engine at the end of the trip. No pure hybrid with no all EV battery range can deliver that mpg.

Earlier, last month, we took a long road trip to Southern California, 400 miles one way. When that all electric vehicle range is exhausted, about 26 miles, the Niro goes into hybrid mode. The gasoline engine kicks in and the battery assists at times. The gasoline engine also recharges the battery to keep a minimum of 15% capacity. Most of the car's functions like lights, radio, etc. are powered by the 12 volt battery, not the big EV battery meant to drive the car. The big battery can condition or recharge the 12 volt battery, but the 12 volt system is recharged when the gasoline engine runs. You don't ever have to recharge the big battery if you don't want to. I've gone days on some road trips, when I did not have access to a charging system for the big battery. The car just runs in hybrid mode. I don't know how long the EV battery will last. It has a 100,000 or 10 year warranty. However, maintenance costs are reduced because you don't use the brakes or engine as much. So I guess you could consider that money going toward a new EV battery one day. I'm not worried about it too much. The EV battery is only 8.9 kilowatt hours, pretty small compared to an all EV car with an average 60 to 75 kilowatt hour battery. Also, at 50+ miles per gallon, I'm saving loads of money on gasoline. Actually, it has been a month since I filled up the gas tank and I have not used any gasoline, just the range of the EV battery around town.

@@KevinKnauss thank you so much! You reminded me about something else. How often is routine maintenance? Oil change, tire rotation, etc. My current vehicle is about every 6k miles. Since this is a plug in hybrid does that mean the maintenance is less often as well?

@@SagaSakura The recommended schedule is every 7,500 for oil change, tire rotation, and check of some of the filters. Certainly, the tires will experience wear whether the engine is running or you are all battery EV. Depending on your driving habits, you might be able to go 9k 10k miles before an oil change if the engine is not running much. The brakes are recommended at 30k miles. However, it will depend on how much you use regenerative braking to slow the car down. Consequently, you might be able to go many miles past 30k before you need a brake job.

Correct, no spare tire. There is a kit that inflates the tire with goop to seal the puncture. Unless it is a sidewall tear, the puncture kit should work. I investigated it before I bought the car, because I, like you, was worried about a flat tire. I'd watch some of the videos about how the kit works. In my analysis, I considered, 1st, how often I've had a flat tires (not since 1995 with my Ford pick up) and 2nd how likely would I be to change the tire (jack up car, bust the nuts, replace, tighten nuts, etc.) If at all possible, I would call a roadside service, which Kia has. But the kit seems a lot safer, especially if the tire is roadside. Basically, I threw my concerns about not having a spare tire out the window.

The interiors lights are a mystery at times. I would like to turn the light off when the lift gate is open for an extended period of time. When it comes to leaving the vehicle, if the back lift gate is not closed it shows on the instrument cluster and I think their is a beep then you try to lock the doors. They may not lock with it open, I'm not sure. Regardless, because I'm always locking the vehicle, I'm fairly confident that something is not ajar, keeping a courtesy lamp on. Consequently, I have not tried any modifications to the rear panel light in terms of a manual off switch.

@@KevinKnauss One kludge for turning off the light with hatch open is to use a screwdriver or similar tool to close the latch. The latch must be completely closed to turn off the light. But then when you close the hatch, you first must open the latch with the button. I still hope to add a switch so the light comes on ONLY when I want it.

@@FredOzzie I would probably close the hatch before removing the screw driver - D'oh. But it's only 12 volt, so if you can access the wiring, you could easily add a mechanical switch.

@@KevinKnauss Problem is, I'm afraid of breaking the light. I tried prying with 2 screwdrivers as hard as I dared. I hope to hear form someone who did this successfully.

@@FredOzzie Have you tried taking off the battery cover and using a mirror to look up inside to see how the like is attached or how it is wire together?

On my UVO app, there is a remote start and a little icon to set the temperature. I think I tested it once and it seemed to work.

@@KevinKnauss so if I am understanding it correctly... You can remote start the car and remote turn on the heater/ac? Or you meen once you are in the car you can play with these settings? If you can do it remotly, would be a game changer.

@@Xmoo123 Remote start the car and have the cabin heat to a temperature...before you ever get into the car.

@@KevinKnauss Maybe they limit this function and do not allow it in Europe. There are several threads on Kia Forums with people wanting this function but not having it in UVO. I''m goin to use your video and comment as a referal. Thank you. Getting mine on monday.

@@Xmoo123 The image quality is not very good, but at minute 14 of the video, temperature control is situated between the Remote Start and Engine Stop buttons on the UVO. But it looks like the UVO app is slightly different between different countries. Consequently, some features may not be available.

The full featured UVO is free the first year. After that, if you don’t subscribe, you get a stripped down version. The basic version works for me. It tells me the status of the battery charge and the number of miles available and the odometer reading. I still get notification if a door is unlocked when I walk away from the car and when the charging is complete. Because I keep track of my miles for work, having the odometer reading on the app is handy. I never really used many of the other features in the first year. The car is right outside the front door, so I really don’t need much remote control.

I'm too lazy to modify it. Glare only bad in the summer and autumn. It can pretty intense on a clear day, to the point of distraction or inability to see important functions like speed.

Anecdotally, I know EV range is diminished and the mpg lower when I exceed 70 mph. On my last long trip, primarily highway travel, and after depleting the 26 miles of all EV range, the mpg was 50.7. I pretty much switch on the adaptive cruise control on the freeway with a speed set between 65 and 70 mph. The mpg is actually better on surface streets in stop, slow, and go traffic. I attribute this to the engine shutting down at stops and slow speeds.

@@KevinKnauss Thanks for the response! My trips at 75-80mph on the interstate will be well after EV range is depleted, or it's in winter here where I need the engine running for heat. The 50mpg mark at 70 is great news! The new 2023 Kia Niro addresses a lot of your complaints, too, and is my frontrunner now. My only wish is for it is to have eAWD for our snowy winters here (won't find out for sure until official release later this month).

@@stargate25645 My previous car was an AWD Honda CRV. I had to overcome a mental hurdle that I needed an AWD vehicle. I have driven in snow and on it with the Niro with no problems, without chains. But I'm sure there are places where the AWD feature would be very welcome. Of course, I have the option of mainly avoiding snowy conditions, others must travel through it for work.

@@KevinKnauss unfortunately, living in Nebraska, I am one of those people that can't avoid it. Literal ice sheets for streets and 6" of snow is not uncommon. My current car is FWD but I use winter tires so I'm used to not caring about anything but ice. I'm trying to avoid having to swap wheels every season with my new car to have that same feeling, though.

All of the PHEVs, to the best of my knowledge, must run the petrol engine to heat up the coolant to warm the cabin. The battery is just not large enough to provide the range and heat the cabin. When I run my air conditioning, the petrol motor does not start. The A/C in my car runs off of the 12 volt system.

Don’t buy Plug in is a better advice.

Okay.

They just managed to have a powered tailgate on the Niro 2023

My height is 1.8542 meters, weight is 83.9145 kg or 13 stones, 2.99 lbs.

F beeep?

All of this high-tech stuff is intimidating and subject to failure and costly repair. It did give me pause before I bought the vehicle. But all new vehicles seem to have some sort of automated gizmo that looks like it will break tomorrow. The only comfort is the 100,000 mile or 10 year warranty. I will hit 10 years before 100k with my current driving habits.

@@KevinKnauss 10 and 100 on the drivetrain only I thought?

@@seanpeacock5595 I think you are correct, just 36/3 on other items. Although I think the battery falls into the longer warranty.