Published:
16 September 2022The main thing that kept the Kia e-Niro from a five-star verdict in 2019 was an interior that looked better than it felt. The Korean brands have improved hugely in that area, as the Kia Niro EV shows.
Like the exterior, the interior styling takes inspiration from the swoopy Kia EV6 and Kia Sportage, with the curved screens and rising armrests on the doors creating a more cockpit-like feel than you might expect in a crossover hatchback.
Whether the materials stack up depends on which trim level you go for. Although the base 2 grade is quite well equipped on paper, Kia has de-contented it in a few significant ways that might have the effect of pushing buyers to 3 or 4 grade.
Where higher trim levels get soft-touch materials on the door cards, customisable mood lighting and trim panels that look like tarnished brass (even though they’re recycled plastic), 2 just gets plain hard plastic and a much smaller infotainment screen that looks a bit lost in its oversized plastic binnacle.
In 3 spec, though, the Niro is about on a par with the Cupra Born. The German Spaniard’s cabin has more scratchy plastics, but Kia’s vegan approximation of leather is very approximate indeed, feeling more like soft papier mâché.
The Niro also suffers from one or two unexpected quality issues. There’s a fair bit of ugly exposed wiring under the seats and in the driver’s footwell, the luggage cover is flimsy and the brake pedal is suspended from a crudely welded bracket that can catch parts of your shoe as you come off the brake.
