Niro Low-Speed Noises - Poll

  • Thread starter Thread starter NJClarity
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If you are hearing noises at low speeds, what year Niro are you driving?

  • Total voters
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N

NJClarity

Member
Sort of a bummer to see people having the noise issues as well as the Consumer Reports article. See the poll above. Still considering this or a Kona and this may help.
 
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what kind of noises? Brakes were a little crunchy but I turned on regen to 3 and rarely use them. I turned off regen last night and did a couple hard stops to clean the brakes off. Nothing else unusual
 
I have a 2019 Niro EV EX with cold weather package. Best car I've ever had...been driving for 50+ years. There were apparently some issues with some motors, not mine, apparently. Assume that has been worked out. Do make sure your dealer has someone who knows their stuff on these, though. Just a good idea.
 
likewise, I can hear a bit of the low speed warble that is mandated since EV's don't have motor noise and may be dangerous to the visually impaired...still quieter than any other car I've had.
 
Yeah, not clear if you mean the VESS or something indicating the motor/reduction gear problem that a small
(But still too large) a percentage of owners seem to have.

IF this is about he VESS or the loud backup beep on the 2020 models (and maybe the 2021) I found a great step by step video for how to unplug the speaker.


Note that doing this and driving the car violates a federal road safety regulation and would put you at risk of a ticket.
 
Thanks. Was looking more at the motor/gear reduction issue. Drove both the Niro and the Kona and they seem like good cars, although this issue along with the battery problem for the Kona is a little concerning. Really hard to tell if the new motor and/or other updates has solved the first problem? The VW ID4 also seems like a possibility, although the reviews on the infotainment system are a somewhat mized.
 
NJClarity said:
Thanks. Was looking more at the motor/gear reduction issue. Drove both the Niro and the Kona and they seem like good cars, although this issue along with the battery problem for the Kona is a little concerning. Really hard to tell if the new motor and/or other updates has solved the first problem? The VW ID4 also seems like a possibility, although the reviews on the infotainment system are a somewhat mized.
Click to expand...

A couple specific thoughts on this:

1. People reported the motor issue with both the Kona and Niro. So if you're aiming to ensure that you don't get a car with that issue, I'm not sure Kona is the car you want to buy.
2. Kona & Bolt had battery issues on their older model years. As far as I know, the 2021/2022 model year of both cars does not have this issue.

Like you, I read this forum and saw people complaining about the tapping noise, before I signed the papers to buy the Niro EV. I told the dealer I had some concerns about this, and he assured me that since the drive train is covered by a 10 year warranty, it shouldn't be a problem for me, and they'd take care of it if it became a problem.

I own one of the Model Year 2019 cars (I don't think there's a MY 2018 by the way). And to date, I've had no issue with that rattling noise.

If this is a concern, though, just be sure that you live near an EV-certified Kia dealership. Don't do what some did early on, and buy it out of state and then drive it 100's of miles home. Because if you do end up with an issue, getting it addressed will be an enormous pain.

I can't opine on the ID4 from personal experience, only what I've seen in reviews.

Niro EV advantages over ID4:
- Excellent efficiency. 123 MPGE city, 102 MPGE highway. This is about 15%-20% better the ID4, which means your electricity charges will be meaningfully lower. (ID4 is 104/89)
- Tactile buttons for everything. (This is an advantage to me, but I'm sure some people disagree)
- Car gives good info on EV stuff. Range estimator is reasonably accurate, plus can show current charge rate and % charge easily.
- Has a large covered area in the trunk - meaning you can stash things there while making the trunk look empty
- Charge port in the front - since I live in a no-snow climate, the front doesn't get especially dirty, and it's very convenient for plugging in at most locations. This could be a con if you live in a wintry climate with a lot of salted roads.

Cons of Niro EV:
- In low (< 50 F) temperatures, the DC fast charging speed is not optimal. If the car is sitting out in frozen temperatures overnight, the car will not charge faster than 24 kW
- Slow-ish DC fast charging max speed (in optimal temperatures). The efficiency helps compensate for this, but the ID4 still charges more miles/minute than the Niro
- Back seats' leg room is less than the ID4 (although far better than the Kona's)
 
ITown said:
A couple specific thoughts on this:

Niro EV advantages over ID4:
- Excellent efficiency. 123 MPGE city, 102 MPGE highway. This is about 15%-20% better the ID4, which means your electricity charges will be meaningfully lower. (ID4 is 104/89)
Click to expand...

These are the official numbers. My experience is even better: I have averaged 4.1 mi/kWh over the life of the car, so that would compute to ~134mpge
 
NJClarity said:
Thanks. Was looking more at the motor/gear reduction issue. Drove both the Niro and the Kona and they seem like good cars, although this issue along with the battery problem for the Kona is a little concerning.
Click to expand...

You have probably read the thread on this topic by now. The problem seems to be somewhat rare ( a thread ABOUT the problem is likely to attract people WITH the problem, so I would take that 60+% in the poll with a big ol' grain of salt) and given the paucity of new complaints as time has gone on, I suspect it has become rarer.

Now, not everyone with a problem will find their way to this forum, but I bet a lot do. With one or two new complaints showing up each month in that thread (and I am not sure I have seen anyone with a 2020 complain about it) and national sales around 740 a month*, I suspect the problem has largely been resolved. (Looking at inventories on CarGurus and using a 65 day inventory on hand for cars typically, per this Federal Reserve report.) Even if only 1 in 20 people with the problem find the thread in this forum and talk about it, this is a 1 in 37 vehicles sold problem. With the 10 year power train warranty, I am personally OK with those odds.

It is a disconcerting problem, and was all too common in the 2019 models (my guess is between 5% and 15%) but with many of these now with 10k miles or more, it does not seem to be something that becomes significantly more common with miles.
 
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