Kia Niro EV Arrives with 236-mile Range

TopSpeed

By Ciprian Florea

Published May 4, 2018

A base, 149-mile model will be offered too

Previewed by a concept car at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in January, the Kia Niro EV was unveiled as a production model at the International Electric Car Expo in South Korea. As expected, the electric crossover is a mildly revised version of the conventional Niro styling-wise.

Changes are most evident up front, where the usual vented grille was replaced by a body-colored panel that incorporates the charging socket. The daytime running lights in the bumper now have the shape of an arrowhead and bright blue trim. The same blue trim surrounds the lower grille. Onto the sides, the crossover sports modified sills, while the wheels also seem to be unique to this model.

There's no specific info as to what electric motor lurks under the skin, but Kia did say that customers get to choose between two batteries. The base model uses a 39.2-kWh unit that provides 240 km (149 miles) on a single charge, while a more expensive version comes with a 64-kWh battery that can run more than 380 km (236 miles) on a single charge.

The latter is identical to the setup in the Niro EV concept, which had an output of 150 kW, or 201 horsepower. That's significantly more than the Hyundai Ioniq Electric, which comes with 118 horsepower from a 28-kWh battery. However, the base Niro EV won't be as powerful and will probably boasts less than 140 horsepower.

Kia also unveiled that the Niro EV is equipped with a wide range of advanced safety technologies such as Frontal Collision Avoidance Assistance (FCA), Lane Keeping Assistance (LKA), Smart Cruise Control (SCC), Driver Attention Warning (DAW), Back Collision Warning (BCW), and Highway Driving Assistance (HWA).

Stick around for more info and a full review of the electric SUV.