MOTORING

NOW we all love a winner and here is another one – the allelectric Kia e-Niro, which was the northern car journalist’s Car of the Year in 2020.

Members of the Northern Group of Motoring Writers (including yours truly) voted the compact crossover as its top car beating strong competition in the final six from Renault, Mazda, Peugeot, Toyota and Volvo.

Members judged the e-Niro to be a truly affordable electric car, with prices starting from a shade under £35,000.

With a real world fully charged range of between 250 and 300 miles, excellent performance from its 201bhp electric motor, great handling and comfort they also decided it was as easy to live with as a combustion engine car.

The equipment list includes touchscreen sat-nav, a reversing camera, smart cruise control, xenon headlights and heated leather upholstery plus 17-inch alloy wheels. The e-Niro is Kia’s first purpose-built electric car and with a 64kWh 457kg battery, placed low down between the axles so as not to compromise handling, it has two and a half times as much power storage capacity as their Soul EV of five years ago.

Members also felt it was a more practical family car than electric vehicles from other manufacturers. The e-Niro features adjustable control of the regenerative braking system so the driver can select how much of a braking effect the system has on the road.

And the car has something called Predictive Energy Control, which uses its radar cruise control sensors to measure your closing speed to the car in front and automatically adjust its motor regen system.

Also the e-Niro can charge up to 80 per cent on a normal domestic UK socket in less than 10 hours, with a DC rapid charger the same is possible in less than an hour.

For more information see www.kia.co.uk

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