{"id":23673,"date":"2019-04-21T15:48:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T19:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=23673"},"modified":"2019-04-21T15:48:19","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T19:48:19","slug":"payne-kias-niro-electric-suv-shrugs-off-the-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/payne-kias-niro-electric-suv-shrugs-off-the-cold","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Kia’s Niro electric SUV shrugs off the cold"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>

The 2019 Kia Niro EV has a range of 239 miles and can be recharged on a 100 kWh fast-charger 9though they are rare in the Midwest).\u00a0(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And now for something completely different. The battery-powered Kia Niro that suffers no range loss in cold weather.<\/p>\n

This has been the winter of my battery discontent. I enjoy electric vehicles, from the Chevy Volt to the Hyundai Kona to my Tesla Model 3. They are all mass-market targeted with attractive designs, good cabin room\u00a0and \u2014 in the case of the Kona and Niro (and the Volt\u2019s sister Bolt EV) \u2014 utilitarian hatchbacks. They push the class envelope on\u00a0acceleration, interior design and technology.<\/p>\n

But they also push my patience with serious battery degradation when the weather gets frosty outside. Which is often in Michigan.<\/p>\n

When the mercury drops below 40 degrees, battery range drops with it. At 30 degrees, range suffers by 25 percent. Under 20 degrees (including the sub-zero polar vortex this winter), range drops a dramatic 50 percent.<\/p>\n

Not the Niro EV.<\/p>\n

The little Kia arrived in my driveway this March in 31-degree weather with 163 miles of range left (fully charged the Niro promises a Chevy Bolt-like 239 miles). I jumped in for an afternoon\u2019s adventure … but not too much of an adventure, mindful that I likely had just 115 miles of actual range.<\/p>\n

The game was on. I logged 77 miles that day while losing just 70 miles off the battery, an unprecedented feat. And I wasn\u2019t babying the Niro, either.<\/p>\n

My journey took me across 70 mph interstates (hitting 80 mph at times, and a steady state of 75) as well as Detroit city traffic. Oakland County twisties. Meijer parking lots. I flogged the Kia in Eco, Normal and Sport\u00a0modes just like every other EV I\u2019ve driven.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

On day two, temps improved to 43 degrees (for the first time this winter I was actually hoping for sub-zero readings just so I could test the Niro EV), but range didn\u2019t change. The little hatchback soldiered on, logging a total of 114 miles on the odometer while losing just 110 miles of range.<\/p>\n

By comparison, the Niro\u2019s Hyundai Kona sister car consumed 56 miles of battery in 20-degree temps while traveling just 28 miles on the odometer.<\/p>\n

How does the Niro do it? Despite surface similarities, it appears the Korea siblings are quite different.<\/p>\n

While they share a 201-horse electric motor, the Hyundai and Kia source their batteries with different battery manufacturers \u2014 LG Chem for Kona and SK Innovation for Kia. But the most dramatic difference in my tester appears to be that the Niro has an electric coolant-heater to warm the battery (Hyundai says it has something similar \u2014 but elected to import its Kona without one).<\/p>\n

I can preheat my Tesla Model 3 cabin in my garage, but that doesn\u2019t do the battery any good. On a 30-degree jaunt to Kalamazoo this winter I got just 50 percent of battery range. Ouch. The Niro EV, by contrast, sat bone-cold in my driveway without any preheating ability \u2014 yet overperformed on range. Take a bow, Kia.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard enough to sell a 239-mile range $46,500 Kia EV (estimated cost; Kia has yet to release pricing for the U.S.) against a comparable, gas-engine Niro costing $15,000 less with a whopping 550 miles of range. Then tell someone in the Midwest the EV\u2019s range is even worse in winter and they\u2019ll look at you like you\u2019re one brick short of a full load.<\/p>\n

So at least the Niro EV\u2019s range numbers are honest year-round.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s still a tough sell. Which is why Kia \u2014 even with its battery-warmer package \u2014 and Hyundai only make their cars available in the heavily regulated, zero-emission, tree-hugger kingdoms of California, New York, Rhode Island, et al. That is, they are government compliance vehicles.<\/p>\n

Make the effort to bring a Niro to Michigan, however, and you have an interesting competitor to the hometown favorite\u00a0Chevy Bolt. The perky Bolt, of course, beat even Tesla in 2016 as the first car with a range over\u00a0200 miles per charge.\u00a0But the Kia has caught up fast.<\/p>\n

The smaller Bolt is the more eager animal with zero-60 acceleration in 6.5 secs and tighter handling that will tempt you to take it to an autocross course (I did). The larger, taller Niro offers no such temptation.<\/p>\n

Where the Bolt is a hatchback, the Niro is determined to be a five-door SUV. It\u2019s got 4 inches of wheelbase on the Bolt and 2 more cubic feet of cargo room. Throw it into a corner, and … well, don\u2019t do that. While its floor-based batteries give it a low center of gravity, it’s not as athletic as the smaller Bolt or Kona. Acceleration, on the other hand, is instant, which soccer moms will find useful for freeway merging.<\/p>\n

Niro is fun to one-pedal drive with its regenerative-braking setting (like other EVs) and adds Bolt-like\u00a0steering-wheel mounted paddles if you prefer to do your regen-brake by hand.<\/p>\n

\n