Used 2021 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid Consumer Reviews
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We have a limited number of reviews for the 2021 Niro Plug-In Hybrid, so we've included reviews for other years of the Niro Plug-In Hybrid since its last redesign.
Good MPG, would not buy again
Cindy RR, 03/02/2019
updated 11/15/2023
2019 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid EX Premium 4dr SUV (1.6L 4cyl gas/electric plug-in hybrid 6AM)
50 of 54 people found this review helpful
UPDATE I have had my car almost 5 years and hate it more every day. Service at all dealerships is bad! Battery die and need to change it- you are screwed!!! I just had AAA come out. Apparently this car has some unicorn batter, no auto parts store had it, no KIA dealership within 30 miles had it. AAA spent over hour here, can't change it out. They can't cross reference to any battery they have. Can't find it online. MUST buy from kia IF they have in stock. My local dealership said they have one on order that has been on order for a while. I have 66k miles, had to have both power mirror motors replaced. There is a recall for part that will cause fire. I drove from CA to TN, got only 36 mpg. Will never ever buy a KIA again. In fact bought a 2024 Lexus UX250h that is my main driver and this is now my dog transport car. ps you can't take the charger out unless car is unlocked. I have had my car for about 12 weeks now, over 3500 miles. I have the premium EX. It says top range to pay for this car is $35k but most dealers are asking over $37,000 & have very few in stock & sell immediately so they have the advantage & don't bargain. (but am in communist green obsessed California) I paid $1750 for a 10 yr 150000 extended warranty and $800 for tire, wheel, dent protection when I bought the two together so bargain with them. Wheel protection is HORRIBLE. I have spent 3 hours & still trying to get curb rash fixed on tire & they keep telling me to go back to the dealer!? 8 emails/calls now. I have dealt with local socal KIA district office who was extremely helpful!!! Exterior paint chips VERY easily- not good. Good back up camera. Turns music down while backing up. Can fold mirrors. I think it is important to know that I went from a Lexus CT200h hybrid sporty hatchback I had for 4 years. In general I like the way it drives, not a sports car but not an SUV. Handles ok on turns like going on & off looping freeway ramps. It is smaller than I thought & looks in pictures and fits nicely in my garage. It rides smooth & the car is pretty well sealed having nice quiet inside. Voice navigation sucks like all cars but can type in easily. Comes with really good tires, I drove 75 in pouring rain. More roomy inside than you would think. Tall people will have no issue. Passenger seat has no power controls. Has lots of features within reach. You can customize your screen to put the things you want to see. you can check mileage and battery level easily. The instrument panel has an advanced display or you can go to a more simple one, which I chose because I couldn't figure out how much gas was in the tank. Back seats fold down for tons of room!!! it has HEATED steering wheel & seats with 3 heat levels & cooling seats which are awesome. Has fogs lights for added lighting low to the ground. GAS mileage is averaging about 65 but a lot of my trips are local so I am on electric charge a lot. You only get 26 miles on a charge. On a trickle charge it takes 6 hours, on a 240 charges in 2 1/2 hours. It will use EV automatically. You can set the charging on a timer. I set mine to charge between midnight and 6 am. If you want to charge now, you have to go into the touch screen, select phev, & tell it to CHARGE NOW....like if you were at a charger out in public. downside is, you can't get the charger out of car if it isn't fully charged, you have to go back in the car, reset the charging setting to CHARGE ON SCHEDULE to extract the charger from your car. There is a button to switch to hybrid while driving. I do that when I am going up hills in Souther Cali. It is a DOG on hills, you have to take it out of electric. Nice feature is manual shifting/sport mode for really big hills and going down steep hills. When you drive with no electric you can expect about 45 mpg, less if heavy person load in car. PLUS; takes 87 octane. If you want to switch to a 240 volt charger to fit a plug in garage, you can do that for $200. Nice features are touch screen, you can customize your screen, you can customize all the safety features like side and front safety notifications, beeping when you go outside the lines, etc. All that stuff is easily changed through instrument panel and steering wheel controls. Like I had mine changed so that when you unlock your driver door, it unlocks all doors instead of having to press twice. Strangely, if you open your trunk, it does not unlock your car. There is no auto up and down hatch which I was surprised. The other thing I was shocked it did not have was any link to garage door opener. cruise control has a feature you can't turn off where it detects cars in front of you and slows the car down accordingly. You can adjust the distance it monitors but is very frustrating on long trips, I just end up turning it off so I can control how much distance I want between my car and car infront of me Nice feature is when you turn signal on, it will beep if someone is in your blind spot. The worst feature of the car is the android app. It takes over your phone and does not interface well. I don't even use it. My husband plugged in his apple and it worked great. There are two usb ports one in front and one in center console. I use the one in center console between seats because when you hook your cord up to the one in the front center console, it will automatically try to engage android app so I use that one to play my usb. The problem is your phone will ask you to start android play so you do on your screen then everytime to try to switch into a different app, the screen goes dark, asks me to swipe to start android app, then if I go to another app on my phone ,your screen does not pop up on vehicle screen, only a couple apps will but it is supposed mirror your phone. I have not used the navigation much, I use my phone.
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I would keep looking...
Very Unhappy with Kia, 08/20/2020
2020 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid EX 4dr SUV (1.6L 4cyl gas/electric plug-in hybrid 6AM)
25 of 27 people found this review helpful
I purchased my Kia Niro Plug-in Hybrid 5/24/19. It's been in the shop twice for warranty issues. 1st time it was the water pump. It was in the shop for almost 2 months waiting on parts. The next time was a charging issue. The car stopped charging. I was 350 miles from home on a 3 day get away. They would have towed it to the nearest Kia Dealer which was in Reno Nevada which is 450 miles from my home. Then I would have to find a way to get back up there to pick it up. I chose to rent a car dolly & tow it home. Because I chose that option, I'm having to jump through hoops to get my $300.00 in dolly rental back. They won't do anything by Email, it all has to be done by Snail Mail. Very Unhappy with Kia & their product.
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2021 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid for sale near you
3 of 8 listings
- LXS 4dr SUVMSRP: $16,489140 mi away
- EX 4dr SUVMSRP: $23,540215 mi away
- EX Premium 4dr SUVMSRP: $21,999646 mi away
See all 8 listings
In love
Erin T, 09/13/2019
2019 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid EX Premium 4dr SUV (1.6L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid 6AM)
9 of 9 people found this review helpful
I love this car so much. I am not an impulse buyer; I started researching cars last summer, got serious in the wall, and starting doing occasional test drives in the winter. My old car is a 3-row SUV with great cargo space, roomy seats, and wretched gas mileage. I really wanted a car of the same size--we haul a lot of bulky stuff for my kids' activities. But I'm also a parent with 2 kids with deep concerns about how we as a society are destroying the planet and harming our kids' futures. What I found out in my winter and spring car shipping is that the state of large hybrid vehicles is PATHETIC. Large EVs are insanely expensive, smaller EVs have shitty ranges, and regular hybrids with more cargo space that a Prius are largely imaginary. (Note the hybrid Toyota RAV4 & Hybrid Hylander, which are charging you $10k more for MPGs that are barely better than their gas-guzzling equivalents. The hybrid Hylander practically rivals my 11-year-old gas vehcile for crappy MPGs.) By May I'd narrowed my choices down to a larger, more expensive plug-in with mediocre quality scores from trusted sources and problematic test drives; and the Kia Niro PHEV, which is somewhat smaller than the car I'm replacing--but still larger than most other hybrid vehicles. I went with the Kira Niro PHEV. My old vehicle had 140k miles on it, so I also purchased the extended warranty (10 years/150k miles) and crossbars for the roof. I wanted to get a rubber mat for the cargo space, but was told I can't, because the batteries vent back there. I have not yet bought a level 2 charger, but expect to spend a few hundred dollars on one pretty soon (I have only a carport at home, so will need to get an outdoor-rated one wired in). Friends, I LOVE this car. Yes, the cargo space could be bigger. But it's not bad. For everyday use, it's just fine. I have the Premium model because it has the most safety features, and I have two tweens who'll be learning to drive pretty soon. Features like adaptive cruise control, the backup camera, and lane monitoring work well. The screen is large and easier to use than many other systems. The seats are comfortable, and the backseat is decently roomy for a car of this size (better than most of the hybrids and small SUVs we looked at). Yes, it could have more power; when I stomp on the gas to merge on the highway, it doesn't has the kick of my old 6-cylinder SUV. But it moves smoothly between EV and hybrid/gas mode, and turns on the engine to give me more power when I need it. I LOVE driving it in EV mode. It's smooth and quiet and it drives well. It slips into gas mode without drama when I'm out of EV charge or need more power. The gas engine is, admittedly, kinda wussy sounding. But I don't have to hear it much. Charging it daily, I went 1200 miles on the first tank of gas with regular about-town driving plus longer forays once or twice a week. I've now gone 5000 miles, and generally get MPGe above 120. About about 2 months, we went on a weekend road trip during which I had no access to charging and got about 60 MPGe over ~700 miles. Aside from that trip, I've only had to visit the gas station 3 times in almost 4 months. My only actual complaint about the car is that while it's really great at estimating its electric range, the hybrid/gas range estimate is somewhat unreliable. When driving in hybrid mode, it uses gas faster than it predicts it will, so when it tells me it has a 200-mile gas range, it doesn't seem to actually go nearly that far. Maybe the actual range is 130-150. Its ability to predict gas driving range would probably be better if I did more city driving, where it can recharge its batteries when I stop, but my hybrid driving is almost entirely highway driving. I'm still giving this car 5 stars because I use EV mode most so often, the gas-only range isn't very important most of the time.
1500 miles on the first tank
MW, 05/25/2021
2020 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid LXS 4dr SUV (1.6L 4cyl gas/electric plug-in hybrid 6AM)
7 of 7 people found this review helpful
We enjoy all aspects of this car so far. Fun to drive. Regenerative braking is a marvelous feature that should be present in every car. Spent more time in line for gas for the first fill up than in messing with the electric plug for a couple months. Leaving house with full battery every morning is liberating.
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Loved this car until electrical water pump broke
M, 06/13/2019
updated 07/14/2021
2019 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid EX 4dr SUV (1.6L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid 6AM)
31 of 37 people found this review helpful
Bought this car 3 months ago. We have just under 2000 miles on it. Until a few days ago, I would tell anyone and everyone to buy this car. Not anymore. First the good: The gas mileage is great and the plug-in hybrid was a great choice for us. The interior is well-designed and looks great. Lots of room in the back seats with a very comfortable high ceiling for tall people. Looks cute from the outside. Nice extras like automatic folding mirrors and keyless everything. Steering wheel controls are intuitive and useful. Touch screen is useful and easy to use. Temperature controls are great. Put it into Sport Mode when you want performance. The bad: The Electric Water Pump failed (after exactly 3 months) and needs to be replaced. It's covered under warranty and the local dealer service department has been great but the part is on back order and they have no idea when it will be available. I called KIA's nationwide customer service and they have no idea when it will be in stock again. They said it could be 3 days to 6 months. WOW. The local dealer did give us a loaner (that smells of stale cigarette smoke) but this is not acceptable. We have never bought a Kia before and we will never buy another one again. I've never experienced this kind of situation where they don't know when a critical part (on a car that's still in production) will be available. We have never experienced anything like this with our previous/other cars (Toyota, Nissan, Audi, Mazda and Fiat). The rest of the negatives on the car: tiny trunk area (the back seats can be turned down for more room if needed). In short: If you don't need a dependable car, this car is great. If you need something reliable, look elsewhere. Update: after the electric water pump was replaced, all 4 spark plugs were replaced. This was all before the car hit 5000 miles. I would only recommend this car to those who do not need a reliable vehicle. Belated update: Kia bought back the car at the end of the first year. I assume it's because they wanted to be able to resell it before it officially became a lemon. We bought a Toyota Prius Prime instead and am very happy to have a reliable car again!
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