Kia e-Niro (2018-2022) review

Kias are, generally speaking, pretty good value. The e-Niro range starts from around £30,345 for the 39kWh entry model, rising to £39,395 for the top-spec 64kWh. You’ll be pleased to hear that the e-Niro does come with Kia’s seven-year/100,000-mile warranty in the UK, and of course you’ll pay no BIK tax whatsoever if you can secure one as a company car. 

By now you’ll be well aware what EV ownership means day-to-day, but specifics for the e-Niro are as follows. Find a 100kW fast charger and you’ll be able to get the 39kWh or 64kWh version from a fully flat battery to 80 per cent charge in just 54 minutes. At a 50kW charger that same sequence takes one hour and 15 minutes for the bigger battery and 57 minutes for the smaller. 

A full tank, as it were, from 0-100 per cent on a 7.2kW home charger would take just under 10 hours for the 64kWh batteried e-Niro, and if you’ve only got a three-pin plug to hand that figure would be more like 29 hours. Ouch.

If you wanted to go any further on a single charge, though, you’d need to stump up £10,000 more for a Tesla Model 3 Long Range. Look at it that way and you’ll start to realise that 282 miles really is all you’ll need. Definitely worth going for the bigger battery unless it takes you right out of your budget range. 

It’s absolutely worth spending the extra cash on a metallic paint option too – the standard silver is rather plain – but your choices are still only a navy blue or three shades of grey. If you want a bit more style and can sacrifice some practicality, Kia’s smaller Soul EV with the same powertrain might be worth a look.

Now that Kia has introduced a 64kWh version of its entry-spec ‘2’ model, that’s probably the best car to go for it you can stomach the reduced equipment count. The £5k jump to the next trim up suddenly looks cavernous with the government’s plug-in grant (or lack thereof) factored in.