Kia unveils e-Niro electric car with 485km claimed range

Kia presented the e-Niro at the Paris Motor Show. This electric car comes in a version with a 64 kWh battery, which should provide a range of 485 kilometers. Drivers staying within the city should achieve a range of up to 615km.

The Kia e-Niro comes in two versions, one with a battery with a capacity of 64kWh and one with a 39.2kWh battery. Both are lithium-ion polymer batteries. The latter version has a stated range of 312 km. This cheaper version has a power of 136 hp, reaches 155 km/h and takes 9.8 seconds to sprint from 0 to 100 km/h. The more expensive version has a power of 204 hp, reaches 167 km/h and is two seconds faster from a standstill at 100 km/h.

According to Kia, the 64kWh battery can be charged to a level of 60 percent in 23 minutes with a 100kW fast charger. According to the applied WLTP standard, that would amount to 280 km. The car is equipped with regenerative brakes, which use the kinetic energy during deceleration to recharge the battery. The electric motors are gearless, but the e-Niro does feature paddles behind the wheel, which allow the rider to choose from three levels of energy recovery programs.

The Kia e-Niro entered production in the second quarter of this year at the plant in South Korea, with sales in Europe set to begin at the end of this year. The manufacturer reports that prices for the two versions of the electric car will be announced shortly. A hybrid version of the Niro has been running since 2016, which was later supplemented with a plug-in hybrid.

Kia probably wants to compete with the Hyundai Kona Electric with the e-Niro; this car has a largely comparable range and also comes in two variants with a 64kWh and a 39kWh battery. Both cars come from the same parent company and are built on the same platform. The Kona Electric costs about 40,000 euros.