Item: Used Kia e-Niro 2019-present
Rating: 4
Author: What Car? Team

The <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/hyundai/kona-electric/hatchback/used-review/n22559/alternatives">Hyundai Kona EV</a> is another great electric car. While the rival Kia e-Niro is the better choice for families due to being more practical and providing greater ride comfort, the Kona&nbsp;is still a hugely impressive EV in its own right. What's more, it is less expensive to buy than the e-Niro&nbsp;and the Kona goes farther on a full charge, too.

The <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/nissan/leaf/hatchback/used-review/n18923">Nissan Leaf </a>is a well-equipped car that’s also good to drive and easy to live with. You'll get good performance, it's easy to live with, there's loads of standard kit&nbsp;and it's cheaper to buy than the expensive e-Niro.&nbsp;

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If you're interested in buying a <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/used-cars/kia/e-niro?used=true&amp;nearlynew=true&amp;postCode=tw1%203sp">used Kia e-Niro</a>, or any of the other cars mentioned here, head over to our used car classifieds&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/used-cars">here.</a>&nbsp;​​​​​​​

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Car of the Year

What is it like?

Ownership cost

Advice for buyers

Our recommendations

Alternatives

Kia, as a brand, came seventh out of 31 in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/2019-what-car-reliability-survey-brands/n20069">2020&nbsp;What Car? Reliability Survey</a>, one place behind Hyundai but&nbsp;above most other electric car manufacturers. We don't have any data for the e-Niro&nbsp;itself.

Just like all Kias, the e-Niro comes with a class-leading and transferable seven-year warranty from new as standard (limited to 100,000 miles).

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Estate

Buyers seeking value for money should have Kia towards the top of their shopping list.

Although once a niche brand in the UK, today Kia outsells many more established brands, helped by its market-leading seven-year warranty and a strong reputation for reliability; in fact, Kia regularly finishes towards the top of our reliability surveys.

There are plenty of models to choose from, too, ranging from the small Picanto city car to the Ceed family hatchback and the Sorento large SUV. The Picanto was the first Kia to win its class at the What Car? Car of the Year awards.

E-NIRO

The Kia e-Niro is a great car and a terrific electric car, but it's still very pricey to buy used

Used Kia e-Niro

Officially, the 39kWh e-Niro can manage 180 miles, which translates to around 140 miles in the real world.&nbsp;The 64kWh is a different kettle of fish. Officially its range is 282 miles and&nbsp;our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/what-car-real-range-which-electric-car-can-go-farthest-in-the-real-world/n18159">Real Range test</a>&nbsp;showed that 253 miles of driving is easily possible on a single charge. That's&nbsp;hugely impressive because it matches the pricier&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/jaguar/i-pace/estate/review/n122">Jaguar I-Pace</a>&nbsp;and betters the Model 3 and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/renault/zoe/hatchback/review/n152">Renault Zoe</a>&nbsp;that we tested.&nbsp;Only&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/hyundai/kona/hatchback/review/n18164">Hyundai Kona Electric</a>&nbsp;went slightly farther.

You can charge the battery using a Type 2 cable (included as standard) from a regular 7kW home wall box. A 0-100% charge takes around 6hrs&nbsp;for the 39kWh and just over 10hrs for&nbsp;the 64kWh. From a 50kW public CCS charger – the kind you find at motorway service stations – a 10-80% charge takes about 1hr&nbsp;for both battery sizes. If you can find a 100kW charger, that time is cut to circa 45mins, but the e-Niro's maximum charging rate isn't as quick as that of some of its newer rivals –&nbsp;or a Model 3's, and Tesla's supercharging network is far superior to anything else out there.&nbsp;

Kia’s servicing costs are very reasonable, too, and you can save further with one of Kia’s service plans, which allow you pre-pay for a batch of annual services in one go, but at discounted prices.

No e-Niro will have cost more than £40,000 when it was new, so you can be sure you won’t pay more than the standard&nbsp;yearly&nbsp;flat road tax rate for hybrid cars of £140, which was brought in on 1 April 2017. Find&nbsp;out more about <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/advice/buying/car-tax-changes-in-2019-%E2%80%93-what-do-i-need-to-know/n1153">road tax costs here</a>.

If you live in London, you’ll also find the e-Niro&nbsp;qualifies for exemption from the Congestion Charge and current Ultra Low Emission Zone (<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/londons-ultra-low-emission-zone-everything-you-need-to-know/n15049">ULEZ</a>) fee.

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Used Kia e-Niro 2019-present

The Kia e-Niro is a great car and a terrific electric car, but it's still very pricey to buy used

Herein lies a huge problem. So popular has the e-Niro been, and so limited the number of cars imported to the UK, that used car prices are still startlingly high. You will still need at least £29,000 to get behind the wheel of one of the earliest 2019 e-Niros, and, although this probably won't have a huge mileage on it, it'll probably not be much cheaper than one plucked from the new car forecourts. You can of course always try haggling on your used e-Niro, but it is still very much a seller's&nbsp;market.&nbsp;

We recommend '3' trim. Why? Well, we've already mentioned that the&nbsp;64kWh battery is quicker, has a much longer range,&nbsp;is&nbsp;better to drive and gets an&nbsp;upgraded infotainment system and a powered driver's seat, but that's not all. It also adds full leather seat trim, heated front seats and a heated steering wheel.&nbsp;'4+' trim is even more lavish, with ventilated front seats, heated rear seats and a sunroof included, but it's as pricey as the Tesla Model 3.

Our favourite Kia e-Niro:&nbsp;e-Niro 64kWh 3&nbsp;

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<h2>What we're looking for:</h2><ul><li>Sufficient range between charges to fit in with most people’s lifestyles – and in the real world, not on some far-fetched official test </li> <li>Quick charging times and compatibility with the most ubiquitous types of public charging points </li> <li>Priced to be within the grasp of more than just the privileged few </li> <li>As with any car, ride comfort, practicality and ownership costs can’t be ignored</li></ul>

We define an electric car as one that runs purely on battery power and has no tailpipe to puff out nasty chemicals. These cars qualify for the maximum plug-in car grant (PICG) of £3500.

The Renault Zoe is one of the most affordable options and has a surprisingly long range of between 120 and 180 miles (depending on the weather and the road type). However, the Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen e-Golf are more practical and more accomplished to drive, even if the latter doesn't have a particularly long range between charges.

At the other end of the scale, Tesla’s ground-up EV philosophy – and the American brand’s own network of super-fast chargers – makes the Model S a tempting choice. It has seating for up to seven, an classy interior and a long enough real-world range to make inter-city travel a real possibility.

Electric

Although the regular petrol-powered&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/kia/niro/estate/review/n17190">Kia Niro</a>&nbsp;has been appraised for safety by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/euro-ncap-safety-ratings-2019-%E2%80%93-how-safe-is-your-car/n17044">Euro NCAP</a>, this electric version hasn’t been put through the test.

You get a reasonable number of active safety aids to help you avoid an accident in the first place, though, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/what-is-aeb-and-how-does-it-work/n3283">automatic emergency braking</a>&nbsp;and lane-keeping assistance. If you want blind spot monitoring or rear cross-traffic alert (the latter warns you about approaching cars when you’re backing out onto a road), you’ll need to upgrade to '4+' trim.

As for security, you get an alarm, deadlocks and locking wheel nuts as standard.

The Kia e-Niro might not look like a revolution, but it was one of the first pure <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/category/electric">electric cars </a>offered at a reasonable price that came with a terrific on-paper range.&nbsp;

It emerged from the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/kia/niro/estate/used-review/n1000">Kia Niro</a>, an otherwise humdrum-looking <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/category/family-suv">SUV</a> that sparkled by offering three choices of power: a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid and this purely electric car. Like the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/toyota/prius/hatchback/used-review/n17569">Toyota Prius</a> and <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/hyundai/ioniq/saloon/review/n17205">Hyundai Ioniq</a>&nbsp;and the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/hyundai/kona-electric/hatchback/used-review/n22559">Hyundai Kona</a>, the Niro looks totally conventional. As a result, it’ll appeal to buyers who want to drive an electric car but don’t want something that looks too different.

This fully electric version shares all the good features of the regular Niro, in that it's handily sized outside and roomy inside, but it comes with a range that will embarrass many more expensive electric cars. In our&nbsp;Real Range test, it achieved 253 miles in real-world use – a great figure for a family-sized electric car&nbsp;and one rivalled only by its slightly smaller cousin, the Hyundai Kona Electric.&nbsp;&nbsp;

There's a choice of three trim levels&nbsp;on the e-Niro, and all are relatively well equipped. Entry-level '2' has&nbsp;single-zone climate control, privacy glass, part-leather seats, automatic lights and wipers, adaptive cruise control, 16in alloy wheels, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror and keyless entry, but it’s available only with the lower-capacity 39kWh battery.

Meanwhile, '3' trim has the&nbsp;64kWh battery which is quicker, has a much longer range,&nbsp;is&nbsp;better to drive and gets an&nbsp;upgraded infotainment system and a powered driver's seat, but that's not all. It also adds full leather seat trim, heated front seats and a heated steering wheel.&nbsp;'4+' trim is even more lavish, with ventilated front seats, heated rear seats and a sunroof included.

Go for entry-level '2' trim and as mentioned your Kia e-Niro will have a&nbsp;134bhp electric motor coupled with a 39kWh battery pack. It's the same motor and battery combo that's used in the&nbsp;entry-level&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/hyundai/ioniq/hatchback/review/n17205">Hyundai Ioniq Electric</a>, and it delivers respectable performance in the&nbsp;e-Niro. Opt for '3' or '4+' trim and you'll get&nbsp;the much larger 64kWh battery with a 201bhp electric motor that we&nbsp;clocked going from&nbsp;0-60mph in 6.5sec.&nbsp;Okay, that’s still not&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/tesla/model-3/saloon/review/n19010">Tesla Model 3</a>&nbsp;quick but rapid nonetheless.

On the road, it doesn't handle in a particularly exciting way, but body lean is well controlled and steering is reasonably crisp and responsive. And while the ride is a little stiff around town – you’ll want to avoid versions with bigger wheels, which exacerbate the problem – it smooths out nicely on the motorway to deliver plenty of long-distance comfort. If anything, the all-electric e-Niro actually handles more confidently and rides better than its hybrid siblings, due to its weight being concentrated further down.&nbsp;

Inside, you’ll find there’s loads of space in both the front and rear seats. This&nbsp;version has to make do with a shallower boot, because space below the floor is taken up with the battery, but this at least gives it a load lip that’s flush with the boot floor, making it very easy to load heavy boxes.

While the dashboard isn’t exactly the most stylish in the world, it all feels reasonably classy, with slick, easy-to-use controls and one of the most intuitive touchscreen infotainment systems out there.

In 2019 the Niro range received a facelift, with a new front and rear design including daytime LED running lights, tweaked bumpers and updated wheel trims. The interior is updated, too, with a new dashboard design and larger infotainment screens.&nbsp;

Also new on this revised Niro is Kia’s UVO Connect Services. Mimicking many premium manufacturers’ take on ‘live’ connected services, the Niro can now provide real-time information on the traffic and the weather. There’s a downloadable smartphone app, too.

If you're interested in buying a <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/used-cars/kia/e-niro?used=true&amp;nearlynew=true&amp;postCode=tw1%203sp">used Kia e-Niro</a>, or any of the other cars mentioned here, head over to our used car classifieds&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/used-cars">here.</a>&nbsp;

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Used Kia e-Niro 2019-present review

Our recommendations

Which used Kia e Niro estate should I buy?