2018 Kia Niro PHEV

It should do about 300-440/month.

 

The price difference is about $8000-10,000 in California. You need to level up to EX trim with technology package, in the hybrid version, to equal the LX trim on the PHEV.

PHEV is a no brainier.

 

I presume you mean the PHEV is cheaper because you have to upgrade to EX to match the features. The way you wrote it almost seems like you meant that PHEV is $8000-$10000 MORE than the HEV as in the price gap gets wider in the HEV favor once you add options to the HEV.

 

I love small wagons/hatchbacks. I've owned a 2000 Hyundai Elantra, 2001 2 door Hyundai Accent hatchback, 2003 VW Jetta wagon, and a 2009 Audi A3. I don't much care if they try selling it as a CUV, I love the look. I had known that Hyundai/Kia had poached Audi's design guy and that got me excited to try a Kia. That dude's interiors at Audi are second to none. They are the stuff of beauty, simplification, precision, and practicality. Everything is just exactly right. The drive, the seats, the lines of sight, gauge configuration, and even the radio knobs have a solid click click click.

So when I stepped into the Niro HEV a week ago it was like having a flashback to sitting in my A3. Even the radio knobs have that same click click. Great clean look to the vehicle inside and out. Even the same manual lever for adjusting seat height. I am of the opinion that a well designed seat does not need power seats. VW/Audi has the best. Europeans don't seem to be obsessed with useless features such as 48 way power seats (exaggeration). On my Ford Fusion (which I hate) no matter how much you fiddle with the seats you can't get them to be comfortable. Soft yes...comfortable no. And the DSG 6 speed transmission...well another Audi hallmark is their peerless 6 speed DSG especially its behavior in manual mode. Not some stupid slushbox half hearted auto transmission with weak shifts and always overriding the driver. Nope a true manual with crisp shifts and immediate response. I'm happy to say the dual clutch 6 speed in the Kia is nearly as good as the Audi. It's probably really hard to do that with the hybrid motor in the mix. Crisp manual shifts. The widely reported quirkiness at low speed is just the inherent 'feature' of driving a manual transmission car at 3 mph while having a computer shift for you. It's the type of thing that becomes endearing and lets you know how cool the hardware is under that shift lever.

Anyway it's like the Audi in all the good ways (even more than what I pointed out) and not the bad ways (yikes! level of bad electronics on the Audi). The dealer didn't have any PHEV yet (this was expected) but also said they won't be stocking them...at least not for now...and they'd need to order one if I want it. I want it. I've been waiting a year for it since the HEV version debuted.

 

Great post about the Hybrid NIRO Tom, I'm hoping to pick my Niro hybrid up from the KIA dealership on the 1st February.

I too would have loved the Niro PHEV but it was outside of my budget , the base model Niro hybrid here in the UK is £23135 / $32.830
and the Niro PHEV is £27995 / $39750

 

Well no luck getting one. Our Kia dealer said they could order one but when I asked if they were a certified servicer they seemed a bit confused as to what that meant. The nearest dealer that has one is over 200 miles away. There's reference to certified servicer in Kia's online documentation but nowhere does it say which dealers are certified. With the Bolt you can go online and find out which Chevy dealers are authorized (ours is not of course...grrr). Anyway I expect any new technology has challenges and that there will be some form of unforeseen difficulties with PHEV, just figuring out if I need to wait a little for the situation to clear itself up.

 

Visited my local Kia dealer in Vernon BC today. They are not certified to sell the Kia EV's that are out so far (Soul, Optima) but they will be certified this Fall for the Niro including training their techs and equipping their shop with the specialized tools. Earliest date I have heard for "possible" deliveries in Western Canada is December, but no promises and no specs or pricing right now. Supply of Niro HEV's is pretty good in BC.

 

There's zero inventory in Southern California. Shame on Kia.

 

Read somewhere they are having battery suppler problems aka victims of their own success? Impacting Ioniq PHEV too?

 

Kelowna has the evs.

I was just wondering if Vernon would have one. (Phev or ev). I think they're too small for it to be worth while. They're my local dealer as well.

 

It is a big $ and training commitment so I was surprised that they said they are going for it this Fall. Same ownership at the Kelowna store?

 

Update on the search for a PHEV Niro that I mentioned in this thread in January. Spent a few months of on and off again. My wife decided she needed to dump her van (kids growing up) and so temp pause in Niro to get her an SUV. After what must have been 20 test drives of SUVs, we decided on a strategy. Step 1: Got rid of van. It was plain shot. Gave it to someone...yep. It'll be a good runner for them. Step 2: Spouse to drive my 2015 Ford Fusion Titanium which I loath (the mechanical engineers of that car deserve an apology from the HVAC/infotainment designers). I'm getting a Niro PHEV. She will get rid of the Ford at some future date and buy an SUV. Meanwhile I waited too long!!!! I want a blue one and I want a base model. Base model is well equipped and is lighter (even though that's hard to tell from EPA) since things like power seats and such require weight. Anyway I found one at a dealer in Chicago and asked my local dealer if they could either get that one or a different one or just order one. Yep, all of the above. We agreed on a price and then I double clutched on the purchase. Had a little unexpected money hiccup. OK but now a week ago we came to terms and she was going to order one (none readily available) saying the last one took about 60 days which is fine. Unfortunately she found out she can no longer order the 2018!!!!! It's too close to model year end so they won't take new orders. And orders for 2019 not available yet. So this week she's trying to track one down for me. By the way they gave me a great price in my opinion and even on a special order was $1000 of MSRP which seems odd for something so scarce. I will report back if they find one.

 

I know the frustration you are feeling. It took me 6 wks. to find mine and I had no choice of color or model. But it was worth it. I love the car. Forget the epa estimates. Just finished 2 200 mile roadtrips and I'm getting 60 mpg. Still have 1/4 tank of gas left on a 10 gal. tank. I think the car is very comfortable to drive and today I was going over 70 mph on elec. alone. But your wife might try to take it from you once she drives it some. Super quiet and easy to drive.

 

Got it! Gravity Blue LX PHEV. I wanted the LX to avoid the ridiculous unnecessary weight of things such as power seats. They have employed the classic VW/Audi manual seat adjustments to a tee. Dealer had to go find one, but I got one of the last 2018s I think. I suppose I should have waited for the 2019 at this point but oh well! Pretty stoked. When I first visited with the dealer in December they said they had no plans to order any. This was their second PHEV they sold. The first one was an Optima PHEV so she actually mentioned she'd make sure to charge it up before I pick it up. They hope to get it by Friday. Our co-op utility offers a separate sub-metered 5.5cents/kwh between 11 pm and 5 am which is pretty progressive for SD. About 80-85% of the utility's power comes from renewables (the big hydroelectric dams on the Missouri River plus wind power).

 

Great job staying with the search. Don't know how long your comutes are but at those great elec. rates a full charge should cost you less than 50 cents. And don't be surprised if you get much better than advertised mileage on both gas and elec.

 

90 miles round trip. There's no way I could make the leap to full BEV in my opinion. Those advocating such a thing have never driven into a blinding 30 mph north wind in Jan on the Dakota plains. But I diigress. I called my local co-op electric company this morning and they passed me to one of their engineers and he seemed more excited than me. I started the call thinking I would take them up on their time of use sub-metered EV plug offer (5.5 cents/kwh overnight) but after some discussion we are going to switch the whole house to their new time of use which gives 5.5 cents from 9 pm to 7 am then again 5.5 cents from 10 am to 4 pm. And he suggested upgrading the water heater to 110 gallons. They have a deal on one of those with a lifetime warrantee and it only costs $400 (they are subsidizing of course). with 4 kids my 50 gallon one (also electric) doesn't quite cut it and his point is that if we get up at 6 am (which is regular) and start cycling through the shower and the hot water shuts off at 7 then it will be plenty of volume to not have to run. Then at 10 am the hot water will come back on and when it shuts off at 4pm will stay hot until 9 pm and just wait to run the dish washer or electric drier until 9. At the current 9 cents per kwh we have a $300 electric bill which seems odd to people but we have electric everything...no gas available. The new 5.5 and then 15 cents during those peaks should shave a bunch off.

 

Hope you have a garage to park in during winter. Cold saps a batteries strength and is hard on them. Good news is some on this forum have said that with good winter tires the Kia Niro really does good in the snow. Jealous of your elec. rates. I hate cold and go to Florida for the winter. While there my elec rate is .18 cents a kwh. That is about break even at current gas rates. Don't know what mileage you've been getting but depending on speeds and driving style and playing with when to use your elec.mode its possible you'll see 60 mpg. And with 4 kids I'm sure that would be welcome.