The 2023 Kia Niro Plug In Hybrid

The Niro Plug-in Hybrid is the pragmatic pluggable. This is the vehicle for you if you want to tiptoe into electrification, but you're not ready to make the full plunge just yet. 33 miles of all-electric range, after which you get nearly 50 miles per gallon. So this is one of the most efficient vehicles on sale in North America, and a total driving range of approximately 500 miles if the battery is full and the gas tank is also full. Up front, you'll notice it has the same design language that we find in the regular hybrid version of the Niro. So no changes up front at all. Same headlights, same new design theme. Less controversial than we find in the EV6 or the Sportage. There seems to be some confusion about how big or how small the Niro is. This is 174 inches long, so it's almost exactly the same size as a Subaru Crosstrek or the Volkswagen Taos. The ground clearance is not as high as either of those options, however. So we have the tall box, but it's not as high off the ground. And that leads to some of that confusion. This has more legroom in the back and more headroom in the back than a Toyota RAV4. So if you're considering a RAV4 Prime and you don't want to spend that much cash, you might want to take a look at one of these instead. Versus the first generation Niro, this model is about two and a half inches longer, about an inch wider and a little bit taller as well. A lot of that goes back here to the rear passenger area. Over here, we have the controversial design element that a lot of folks have been talking about. It's the aero blade. You can get this body colored if you want. I don't mind it so much in the darker colors of Niro, but I think I would choose the body color version. It's fully functional. So the air goes in right here just behind the rear door and it comes out right here in the tail lamp area. Moving around to the rear, you can really see these boomerang style tail lamps. Also, this really wide third brake light right at the top. And if you're looking for something that has a plug and a rear windshield wiper, this is part of a very select club. The rest of the back end of the Niro is not controversial at all. In fact, it reminds me a little bit of the current generation Honda CR-V. I'd love to know what you think about that down there. No visible exhaust tips down there. Some black trim that wraps all the way around because, of course, it's a crossover and then some metallic effect stuff going on at the bottom. We then have the backup lights down here at the lower portion of the bumper. And interesting twist. That's also where the turn signals go. So these are just brake lights on the top. At the moment, Kia offers two different plug in hybrid systems in North America. Both of them use six speed transmissions and both of them use one point six liter engines, but they couldn't be more different if they tried. Under this hood, we find a naturally aspirated engine in the Sorento and Sportage plug in hybrids. There's a turbocharged engine. This engine produces a lot less power, just over 100 horsepower, just over 100 pound feet of torque in its own right. But it's much more efficient than the one point six liter turbo we find in those bigger vehicles. The electric motor on that side is rated for 84 horsepower and 149 pound feet of torque, and then everything sends power to the ground via a dual clutch transmission, not a traditional automatic transmission like we find in the Sportage and the Sorento. Everything is also backed up by an eleven point one kilowatt hour lithium ion battery pack positioned approximately under the seats and a little bit under the cargo area in the back of the vehicle. Everything combines to give you 180 horsepower, one hundred ninety five pound feet of torque and thirty three miles of all electric range. But importantly, once that all electric range is depleted, this will still get 48 miles per gallon. So this is significantly more fuel efficient than something like a RAV4 Prime or, of course, the more direct competitor in this segment, which would be the Corolla Cross Hybrid. The Corolla Cross Hybrid does not offer a plug at the moment, but any way you slice it, plug or no plug, the Niro is going to be considerably more efficient than that Toyota. It's also going to be bigger on the inside. Thanks to the extra power, this is no longer the slowest version of the Niro. This is theoretically going to be a little bit quicker than the regular hybrid without the plug. But of course, if you want the fastest model, that's still going to be the EV. One interesting change versus the previous generation Niro plug in hybrid is that this now has an electric cabin heater. So the previous generation, even if it was a mild day, but you were requesting heat in the cabin, it would turn the gasoline engine on and then use that to heat the cabin. Obviously, the reason for that is to lower costs. And because you got a gasoline engine there anyway, you might as well run it because it's going to run eventually anyway. But in this generation, their focus was greater electric range and then to stay in that electric drive mode longer. So that's why we have the PTC heater somewhere packaged under here to heat the cabin. Now, obviously, if it's still really, really cold, you could still turn on the engine and then get even more heat to heat the cabin. So if you live in a climate like the Arctic Circle for some reason and you were concerned about that cabin heating in those temperatures, fear not, there's a solution for you still. Charging happens behind the door over here on the quarter panel rather than in the nose of the vehicle like we find it in the EV. There's an onboard approximately three point eight kilowatt level to charger that will charge the battery completely full in just under three hours. One of the advantages to being a much more efficient vehicle is you don't need as big of a battery and therefore it doesn't take as long to charge as much less efficient EVs like, say, Wrangler four by eight. Over the eight hours or so that I've been in this today, I found the front seats to be pretty comfortable. They're basically the same as the EV and the hybrid model. In this trim, we have a two way adjustable lumbar support to position memory over there on the driver's seat and a manual tilt telescopic steering column, but also manual is the passenger seat here. If you want a power seat, you do find one in the EV, but for some reason, not the others. Categorizing the Nero is a little bit tricky. Again, remember that we don't have as much ground clearance as we find in some of the competition, because this is kind of more of a pregnant hatchback. But the benefit of that is a very tall cabin. Sitting back here in the rear, I have plenty of legroom. I have about six inches of legroom. You could easily put a rear facing child seat behind me driving this vehicle. And I still have about three inches of headroom left. As far as combined legroom figures go, that puts this decently above a RAV4. Headroom is also above a RAV4 and also better than Kia's own EV6. Now, this model, since it's a plug in hybrid, does have a little bit of a hump right there in the middle. But if I scoot over to the middle seat position, I still have about two inches of headroom now versus a compact crossover like a RAV4 or CRV or Sportage. The biggest difference is going to be width across the rear bench. But here's where the narrow is also a little bit unusual because it's not Kona sized inside the Hyundai Kona. It's actually wider than the Kona or a Bolt or something along those lines. So as far as width across the back seat, it's not far off of the Subaru Crosstrek, which is also a compact based vehicle. Moving over here to the right side, this seat is more reclined than the driver's seat and all the way back in its tracks. I still have about half an inch of legroom left. One thing worth noting, the front seat tracks move much further rearward than you find in some compact crossovers like a RAV4 or CRV. So if you're a taller person, this actually is going to be roomier than some of those compact offerings that are theoretically bigger. Back here, we have two air vents in the rear. We also have a padded center armrest there. The rear seats do not recline, but they do fold flat with the cargo area in the rear. If you want a reclining second row seat, you're going to have to look elsewhere. But we do have a shoulder belt that comes out of the seat back itself, not out of the ceiling. That's going to make it a lot easier to install child seats in the back. The Niro was designed from the ground up to support hybrid, plug in hybrid and full electric drivetrains. This generation now finally gets an electric hatch, which is a handy touch. But the interesting twist about those three drivetrain options is that some of the proportions inside the vehicle massage around a bit depending on the drivetrain you get. If you get the electric model, you get a little bit less rear seat legroom because the floor rises up. The seat position doesn't really change, but the floor goes up. But if you get the plug in hybrid, we actually lose some cargo capacity. It goes from 22.8 cubic feet back here down to 19.4. This portion of the cargo area does not change. I could still line up about four or five 22 inch roller bags right back here. Wouldn't be a problem at all. I suspect this will swallow about four 24 inch roller bags. The difference happens right here under the floor. If I lift up the cargo area in the Niro, we find the subwoofer right back here. And then what appears to be perhaps the top portion of the gas tank just in front of it. The gas tank has been relocated in this model because the battery pack is under the back seats. This area is the difference between the EV and the hybrid model, which you can use this entire space for whatever you want to use it for. And the plug in hybrid model where the floor does not go down to that lower position. Now let's go for a quick spin around the interior like the hybrid and the EV. We have a pretty standard size optional moonroof here just over the driver and front passengers heads. Four way adjustable headrests in this trim and a seat design that's very similar to the EV6 with that strong shoulder right there. That's that you can hang coats or jackets or even tablet computers right there from the back of the seat. And then to power those tablets, we have USB-C charge only ports right down there on the seat itself. The driver and front passenger get height adjustable shoulder belts. This model has the vegan leather upholstery, obviously leather in air quotes right there. These seats are perforated because the seats are both heated and ventilated. Moving on over to the doors and the dashboard, we have lots of soft touch materials and a style that is definitely similar to the EV6. Especially the steering wheel right over here. It's a two spoke design. Take a look at that in a bit. We have a two screen LCD setup right here in the dashboard. That is optional. It's somewhat similar to the EV6, but if you look more closely, you'll notice that the instrument cluster is actually a little bit higher up than the infotainment system right here in the middle. There is a standard eight inch infotainment system. This is the optional 10 inch system. Both support CarPlay and Android Auto, but only the eight inch system supports wireless CarPlay and wireless Android Auto. There's an ambient lighting strip right there in the dash. That's kind of an interesting design. You can see how far that ducks in. We have a pretty big glove box over here on the passenger side. I had no problem fitting larger tablet computers in there. Then we have the somewhat controversial controls down here below the infotainment system. These double as infotainment and climate controls. This is not exactly my favorite layout. We then have a USB input down there. USB charge only port, large Qi wireless charging mat area. We have the same center console in the EV and the plug in hybrid here with the dial shifter rather than the T-bar handle shifter that we find in the regular hybrid model. Behind that, we have two large cup holders. You can retract these little sections here so you can use the entire area to store whatever it is you want to store. If I lift up that armrest, you'll notice I can even pull out this divider and then have access to that entire area for storing bags, purses, things like that. Moving back over to the dashboard and then up to the instrument cluster, we have a basically the same design that we find in the regular hybrid model. These rings change colors, but the theme of the display doesn't really change much. And it's a little bit different than the full electric version, which has more of a dial theme. The steering wheel, again, is a two spoke design. It's actually a little bit different than the one that we find in the EV6. It appears to be slightly smaller. I couldn't find any good answers on that. We have sport grips up top and then paddles on the back. These are paddle shifters and regen paddles. I'll talk more about that in just a second. Over here, we have the controls for the adaptive cruise control, the highway driving assist system controls that multifunction LCD cluster. And then over here, we have some infotainment controls. The most important thing to remember about the Niro plug in hybrid out on the road is that this is an exercise in gasoline mitigation, not entire gasoline replacement, because there are a ton of reasons why the gasoline engine might turn on. That makes this definitely a bit different than some of the plug in hybrids that you might want to cross shop with the Niro. This is focused on high efficiency and low cost relative to a number of those other options that will stay in EV mode longer. So, for instance, if I'm a little bit too aggressive on the throttle, it will turn on the gas engine. Now, because of the stronger electric motor that did not require the gas engine. But if I floor it, it's going to turn on the gasoline engine to give us the maximum power. But because this system now gives us 180 horsepower, which is significantly higher than before. This is the model of the Niro that feels pretty peppy and has just a little bit of torque steer. Thanks to that approximately 100 horsepower from the gasoline engine and then everything else coming from the electric motor. But in most drive modes, even in the electric mode, once you take your foot off the throttle, it's going to revert right back to electric mode. So it's only going to use the gasoline when it needs to or when the battery is depleted. Of course, you have the option of selecting things. So I can put it in an automatic mode where it's going to blend things for the best efficiency, or I can put it in a hybrid mode, which is going to save the battery for later. Now, all of that said, this is still going to spend a lot more time in electric only mode than the previous generation plug in Niro because we have that more powerful motor, the bigger battery pack, etc. Now, this is still going to feel like the regular Niro when it's in electric mode because it has a six speed automatic transmission, that dual clutch transmission that I mentioned earlier under the hood. So it's not going to feel like the Niro EV when it's in EV mode. It's actually going to feel more like the hybrid mode. And of course, you can still command gear shifts with the paddles on the steering wheel. Now about the steering wheel paddles, they're going to be regen paddles if you're in eco mode or if you're in any of the EV driving modes. They're going to be paddle shifters for the transmission if you're in the sport mode, which basically disables the EV mode. So if I hit the sport mode button, it's going to turn on the gasoline engine. It's still going to operate kind of like a hybrid. It'll turn it off at a stoplight. But this is when we get to select the gears with the paddle shifters. You can also look at the sport mode as a charging mode, because even as I'm slowing down to this stoplight up here, it is still running the engine to charge the battery. And let's see what it does when I come to a complete stop here. There are times where the vehicle will finally turn off the engines like right there, it just did. Now I'm in EV mode. But then as soon as I start rolling ahead, it's actually going to start the engine and start charging the battery again. That's because the engine doesn't deliver a lot of power. And for that 180 horsepower output, it really needs the battery there. So if you want that kind of power more consistently, you need to be in sport mode so it can keep recuperating the power back into the battery. At this point, I don't have any details on braking distance or cabin noise, but expect them to be pretty similar to the hybrid model. Handling is somewhere between the hybrid model and the electric model. The hybrid model does feel a little bit snappier, a little bit sharper around corners simply because of the lighter curb weight. And logically, the bigger battery pack is going to take a toll on some of these numbers. So handling, braking, et cetera, they're all going to take a bit of a dive. The suspension tune here is, I think, the most pleasant in the Niro lineup. It doesn't feel quite as firm as the regular hybrid, likely because of the added curb weight in the rear for that battery pack. It also feels a little bit better balanced than the regular hybrid, but it doesn't feel as heavy in the rear as the EV model. The EV model definitely has a low center of gravity, but when you start chucking it around in corners, you're really going to notice that the back end can feel heavy. Now let's talk about fuel economy. The surprising thing about the plug-in hybrid is that there is not much of a reduction in order to get the plug. This model is EPA rated for 48 miles per gallon after the battery has been depleted, which is shockingly similar to the comparable trims in the hybrid model, which are between 48 and 49 MPG for most of those flavors. Obviously, if you're thinking about efficiency, something like a Prius is going to be more fuel efficient than this. The Prius Prime, which is probably going to come back again in its next generation, is likely going to be more efficient than this. But it's also not going to be as practical. It's not going to be as boxy in the back. And this definitely is going to have more legroom and more headroom in the rear than we're going to find in that Prius. Now let's talk about the steering wheel paddles, because I've had a lot of questions about that. Again, these function as shift paddles in sport mode and regen paddles in other modes. You can adjust the amount of throttle lift off regen that you get. So there are three different levels there, one, two and three, three being the most aggressive. The base regen level gives you almost no regen at all. As with the hybrid model, there is no one pedal drive mode, but there is sort of a one paddle drive mode, I guess you could say. If you're driving along, you take your foot off the accelerator pedal and then I pull down on this down paddle on the left side of the steering wheel. It will take me to a complete stop. So in that respect, it's actually a little bit more similar to something like a Chevy Bolt or a Bolt EUV. But of course, this is a hybrid and that's a full electric vehicle. This is probably the best way to describe the Niro plug in hybrid. This is the plug in hybrid for pragmatists, not idealists. If you're an idealist and you want to completely replace gasoline in your next vehicle and you want to have a gasoline engine just in case, then you probably want something like the RAV4 hybrid. There's a mode in that vehicle where you can force it to stay in EV mode. Even if you just romp on the throttle all the way to the floor, it will leave the gasoline engine off. This assumes you want all the power, so it's going to turn the gasoline engine on. In that respect, this plug in hybrid system is tuned a bit more like a lot of the European plug in hybrids like Volvo plug in hybrids, etc. This is the hybrid system for pragmatists because it is super laser focused on efficiency. And because of this focus, it is certainly going to be more fuel efficient than the RAV4 plug in hybrid. It's probably not going to be as efficient as the Prius Prime, but the Prius Prime is logically designed in a very similar manner to this. Really focusing on high fuel efficiency, whether we're talking about gasoline efficiency or electric efficiency. And that's that's how this gets almost 50 miles per gallon on gasoline and almost 110 mpg running on electricity. So it is very efficient from both energy sources, but there are logically going to be some compromises as a result. If you want to get your hands on the hybrid Niro or the pragmatic plug in hybrid Niro, these are going to be on sale right around the time that you're watching this video. And of course, the plug in hybrid is going to cost a little bit more than the model without the plug. It's going to start at 33,740 for the EX trim, 39,490 for the base SX trim. There is no LX trim, so that's why the base price of the plug in hybrid seems quite a bit higher than the non plug in. When you actually account for that, they're not that far off. Now, if you want things like the 18 inch tires, the power folding mirrors, heated seats, the power sunroof, the double LCD instrument cluster, the vegan leather interior, front and rear parking sensors and the upgraded audio, then you're going to want the SX trim because that's what gets this up to that 39,500 dollar price point. At the moment, there aren't many plug in hybrids priced like the Niro plug in hybrid. The Prius Prime starts at 28,770. That, of course, is for the old Prius. We don't know what the next generation Prius is going to be priced like, but the current model has way less power than this and about 25 miles of range. So less range as well. Then you could take a look at something like a Tucson plug in hybrid or a Sportage plug in hybrid. The Sportage starts at 38,490. It's going to give you way more power, 261 horsepower. Similar range, 34 miles and mechanical all wheel drive is standard. Obviously, no all wheel drive at all over here in the Niro. At this point, no doubt some of you are wondering, why haven't I mentioned the Crosstrek plug in hybrid? Well, the Crosstrek plug in hybrid doesn't sell in huge numbers, and we expect to see an all new model soon, but we have absolutely zero information on that. However, we should be seeing the new Subaru Impreza in early November. So for more details, watch to see what that Impreza looks like. There is going to be a hybrid and a plug in hybrid. We know in other world markets, likely those are going to come to the U.S. and they're probably going to end up on the Crosstrek as well, because after all, the Crosstrek is just an Impreza hatch that's been lifted up and crossoverified. I guess you could say it's sort of like this is a hatchback that's been crossoverified. Now that does have all wheel drive, but the efficiency is a lot lower. The range is certainly lower as well. That's the main reason I didn't talk about it. Subaru doesn't sell very many of them. Maybe that will change in the future. But at the moment, that's what we see there. Be sure and let me know what you think about everything down there in the comments section below. And let me know what you think we should get as our next long term vehicle. The EV6 is probably going to be leaving the fleet sometime around December. And currently, we're considering something much more affordable. Thinking about a plug in hybrid under $40,000. So obviously, Tucson Sportage, the Ford Escape and this new Niro plug in hybrid are clearly in the running. Let us know what you think we should get. Should we focus on inexpensive plug in hybrids like this? Or should we look at something that maybe has all wheel drive? Comment down there in the comments section. Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, all of those social places. We'll see all of you next week.