2023 Kia Niro Plug-in Hybrid SX Touring | Family Review with Child Seat Installation
Hey Gearheads and welcome to garage talk I’m Corey I’m Holly back there is Tucker yep that’s me and as it sits right now we’re in an EV but we do have a gas engine because we are in a plug-in hybrid electric in the 2023 Kia Nero plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to be
Exact and in this video we will tell you how this compact SUV EV fits our family of three stay tuned the review of this plug-in hybrid vehicle is brought to you by electron EV Chargers this v-box 48 amp unit was supplied To Us by electron even comes
With this Nifty J hook for hanging the cord and storing the j1772 plug so that uh when we are not currently plugging in and charging a vehicle it stores very conveniently right here you can learn more for yourself in the link down in the description below charging started
All right Holly we’ve had this one for a week you have had extensive time in it I think I’ve driven it to go take pictures of it and to go attempt to put fuel in it that’s a whole another story but I really haven’t spent a good majority of
My time in here like you have right this has been my vehicle this week yes it is what have been your thoughts I guess we can start outside work our way inside stop driving yeah what have been your thoughts of the KIA KIA Nero EV plugin
Hybrid this well I don’t like the name Nero but other than it’s spelled differently but yeah I really like the styling of this card oh yeah I think it’s super fun um you know it kind of reminds me of the the styles that the mini does like you know you’ve got the different
Colors there’s a lot of black accents on the side including that blade down the side yes it’s very nice very interesting and the blue color on this do you know the name no me neither either but it is it is very pretty it’s an interesting color it’s not your regular Blue Mineral
Blue Mineral that doesn’t even do it justice but so this is a blue you like I love this blue love this blue this is not a blue that is on like any other color I mean any other C that I’ve seen I would say the closest is that new blue
Color that Subaru has okay um like the one the guys are blue yeah maybe yeah that’s closer okay I like it a lot and I like the black accents so The Styling very interesting um when you when it drove up to our house I was like oh it’s so
Pretty it’s so cute and then it’s got fun lighting elements just kind of like the um running lights up front and the echo of it in the uh Lighting in the back and then we’ve got those big tail lights that go down the backo nice it is definitely a striking vehicle that does
Not look like much else on the road that is for sure especially with that contrasting Black Blade on the side back there yeah I like that a lot okay so exterior styling is a win for you what about the inside um there’s a lot of things that I really like and some
Things that I wish were a little different and mainly the biggest thing is like everything is this black including all the way down on the side half of the door on the side like um so that’s going to show a lot of fingerprints and dust and or scratches
Or scr no I don’t think it would scratch that easily but yeah I guess if you did scratch it I mean there’s one right but I do like the styling of the dashboard here and that little in yeah yeah and it has a blue color I don’t
Know if you can change it um I’m sure you can but it is that’s really what is that for I don’t know but it looks visual interest visual interest well it is visually interesting apparently they are doing a good job with that uh whole visual interest because you like it yeah
I do so ambient light there you go color refreshing SE is now uh just do that one the pink one yeah I fig but the refreshing SE was very refreshing too there you go now we got that I’m just going to go ahead and put it on that get
Into the important stuff p screen right there very space Agy I mean from the doors that start up here on the dash and slide all the way down uh very iny face uh placement of the buttons and not recessed or hidden we’ve got two 10 and
A4 in screens but much like the Kia Soul we recently tested fairly basic driver information screen over there for you which is fine with me like um all the basic information here right you know yeah I don’t love I’ve said it before I don’t love it being completely digital
Um but the placement of the information is where I would like for it to be so that’s nice uh we’ll get into the numbers on that screen here in just a moment how about that steering wheel um I feel like the steering wheel as I keep messing with it um I like
It I don’t know the price of this car so that’s one thing so there’s a lot of things that um if this is in the price range of what I think it is I really like it a lot you been on a roll lately so it probably is it really is I really
Like it a lot so I like that there’s um The Styling it’s just like it’s just different it looks different space Agy too then I like this little Silver Streak that goes around it I wish it was a little bit more squishier but as I
Said I feel like this is probably a more economical car um affordable car maybe um and so that may make may may change my mind we’ve had two other vehicles with that exact same steering wheel they were the same vehicle but different trims can you remember what they were no
Ika ev6 oh yeah so we’ve had the GT line and the GT uh both of which had that wheel there’s a lot borrowed from the ev6 in here um steering wheel being the main one I like it uh but then as we move down here I’m not down with the
Steering wheel like the seats it is also heated and also like the seats it works burn your hands capital letters word mean oven mitts oven Ms to drive it interesting all right but that’s not a bad thing no no warms you up quickly warms you up quickly don’t
Need any problems mut overload or anything no go ahead you can talk about how you are stop stop it please stop putting this in your vehicles I don’t like it I yes I know you have let me know in our Kia Sportage video you can program it to
Stay on one screen or the other I’m sorry buddy you can program it to stay on the infotainment controls or the climate controls I get all of that stop stop putting this it’s unnecessarily complicated it shouldn’t be like this and many other vehicles have figured out ways to declutter without doing this
Quick pause from that uh to talk about ride on the historic brick streets of downtown Tyler Texas tear what do you think back there a little bumpy a little bumpy that right there was the biggest bump along the road but yeah pretty good ride but
All right back back to my episode box um yes this does have the dual function climate control and radio control so we only have two knobs up here currently volume and tuning I hit that button right now now it’s our Dual Zone climate control it’s unnecessary complicated yes
I know you can change the volume on the steering wheel knob is easier yes I know you can program it to do whatever I don’t care shouldn’t have to is my point you think it would get easier if you own the vehicle I’ve heard that it does um
But it just I don’t want to have to have that extra thought of what screen in my on when I go down to reach to adjust yeah cuz we have definitely like pressed things we didn’t mean to yes and I do to your point yes if you own this you would
Probably get used to it we’re in a new vehicle every week so I get it I get it but but I don’t get it yeah I shouldn’t have to I shouldn’t have to get it and the more automakers like dual function this and that the more distracted the
Driver is going to be that is just how it is and even if it’s a split-second thought of oh I need to push this button first before I turn the volume up it’s unnecessary complications to the whole matter are you done with your soap box
Are we ready to go back to my thoughts yes sorry I I it gets worse in my video I’m sorry um storage yes is interesting um so you have these here that are the cup holders and you can pull them back yeah and and then there’s
Like space back here yeah not sure that I like that and then this guy is very very small yeah but this does pull out if you tug on it hard enough so much but then all your stuff is like out exposed yeah and it would slide down this way so
Yes much like and it is not damped no or felt covered or anything it’s going to R oh not damped that’s the wrong word f covered yeah uh so much like the Hyundai uh Kona that we recently tested lots of open storage that is not the best but
There there is the storage in this door is award you think it no not here here down here um I like it it’s like right at your arm length and it’s not hard to get to a lot of times I feel like the storage in the door it’s there but like
If I were to try to especially like the ones that have the cup holders this may have one it does I’m like well to get a cup in and out of there I’d have to to spill it all over the place to even get
It so why would I do that um but this one is not that way the side door and then uh we do have a glove box with a button to open it uh that is decently sized yeah so that’s not too bad you had a little sunroof I like that
What what how do you feel on space in here for our family of three um I feel like for our family it is a nice amount of space it’s a fine amount of space um for a family of three I think if you had any more it might get a a little more
Crowded especially if you have a couple of teenagers like I think one teenager in the back would be fine um but if you have like a couple teenagers it may be um a little bit that is one thing that I do wish I really like this car a lot
Like only driving it around have I been a a couple of things I’m like h i don’t love that so much so but when I like I’ve already talked about like the black stuff the storage um but you would but when I first got into it and saw the car and
Drove it around my first few days I was like oh this is it I love this car and if it cuss like around the range I think it does this is a great fun car it’s a hybrid you know like C plug and hybrid at that yeah so
We’ll get into that in just a moment CU we were talking space and children now’s a good time to put Tucker’s child safety seat in not only like he’s riding now forward facing but rear facing to see what it does for my passenger space up here putting a child safety seat in the
Back of the Kia Nero plug-in hybrid should be a fairly easy Affair there’s plenty of room in here Kia has really emphasized adding extra space but I will note hard plastic seat backs these are very much like the ev6 seats a lot of the interior of this vehicle really
Reminds me of the Kia ev6 I will note we do have lower latch points on both of the outboard seats nothing here in the center though the center seat belt is actually in the seat itself we do have a 60/40 split bench fairly flat floating folding load floor uh from the back but
Uh the 60% is here on the passenger side where we typically like to put Tucker’s car seat so we’re locking this uh 20% here in the middle upright when we put Tucker chy in we do have top tethers all the way across so that is a nice touch
But again you’re going to need to borrow from the outboard or use the center seat belt uh to put a car seat there in the middle we’ll go ahead and bring Tucker’s car seat into place this is the same Graco extended fit car seat he used when
He was oh oh tight fit here rearward facing make sure we get it all the way there yeah we’re going to have to move that front seat forward just a bit which is an easy enough process because well it is a manually sliding front seat here in this model but you
Can see here we can snug this down with a good bit of room in between let’s check out how much room that leaves for me in the passenger seat climbing in actually not that bad I really like it it’s a comfortable vehicle I could ride with Tucker back behind me in a
Rear-facing car seat for years if I had to but yes they don’t stay rearward facing for all that long but very nice comfortable front seat here even with a compromised space from a rear facing car seat this is much better than our Jeep Cherokee was that is for sure but now
Let’s go flip that uh car seat around and see what it’s like as he has been riding uh this entire time see how easy it is to install so yeah seating position still good up front not compromised too much this really would make a good starter family car and it’s
Economical to boot but we are going to flip Tucker’s child seat around and actually install it see how easy or difficult it is to install in its forward facing format so lift the headrest up drop this top tether down the backside we’ll worry about that in
Just a moment these seats do not recline so we don’t have to worry about matching the angle of the car seat what you get is what you get line it up these lower tethers are fairly easy to get to they’re just kind of in between the seat back and seat
Bottom and because of the height of this vehicle it’s really easy uh to get in and snug this thing down not bad up front here let’s head around to the back to see what that top tether is like and check out that cargo area putting in
That top tether coming back to the rear cargo area this does have Kia’s smart access uh tail gate but that is currently turned off uh we can show you that uh in our solo review but putting the top tether in this it’s fairly easy very interesting how they have it just
Kind of a cutout in the seat fabric back here it’s going to be a two-handed process to really snug it down but I will say it is a fairly hard corner back here so you’re not going to be doing too much damage to the seat fabric though
You can see it’s kind of pinching it just a little bit so it’s not going to be too much of a problem but you can see just how shallow this is is not too far of a reach so I give this a a solid A+ I
Have now tightened this down and you can see just a little bit of pinching here on the seat fabric nothing too much to complain about and as you can see a very shallow uh reach in so very easy to tighten this down for me at 510 I would
Say maybe a shorter person uh might have to climb in here a little bit just to get that down but still a nice touch and then being the plug-in hybrid variant we do not get an adjustable floor down here in the bottom this is where all our
Battery stuff is stored and uh you can see our charge cable right there so all that additional storage is taken out by the battery for this plug-in hybrid variant so just so you know this is the Max uh cargo space that you can get and
I do believe uh that is why these seats do not recline you can see they should recline but I’m guessing just because how everything is packaged underneath this floor here uh on the plug-in hybrid they do not just an interesting look there it is a power hatch go ahead and
Show you here I’m 510 just above my head closes very easily and nicely we do have not a dual level rear cargo back in the back because as you mentioned before cutting away to talk about Tucker child safety seat this is the plug-in hybrid version so the battery is stored back
There so we do lose a little bit of overall storage space but I don’t feel like you’re losing a lot uh you just don’t get to multi level that rear storage and oddly enough the back seats no longer recline again I think it’s a packaging issue um being
That this is plug-in hybrid but some interesting sacrifices but being a plug-in hybrid how’s it drive really nice I really like driving this car so I have looked hat it oh you why why you like electric vehicles we’ve got one coming and when I told you you were very
Excited I know you’re just mad cuz it’s not red yes okay okay I definitely hate the color inside and the color outside but we can change the lights to Red yes that we can see at night would that make it better yes all right there you go so
I went and checked as soon as I got back from my trip you’ve driven exclusively on electric power in because I’m a very efficient driver to that end you do get on a full charge based on the EPA 34 miles of all electric range before the
Gas engine chimes in and as long as you don’t floor it or beg uh of all of the Power immediately uh that stays true the uh engine stays off we are in Comfort mode right now you can turn it to sport that will turn the gas engine on but
Uh yeah you’ve driven exclusively while I was gone in electric power we’re at 86% Now 26 mil to go so for a typical commute you would never have to use gas but then you can load all your gear up and take the same vehicle on a vacation
Which is why you and I love plug-in hybrids I love it and we have taken a plug-in hybrid on a long trip and loved the fact that we could do electric or yeah so that was nice yep very much um so that that was pretty good if I don’t
Say so myself and I like how uh we’re not having to pay for gas in this so uh which brings us to those numbers back on the gauge cluster back there I’ve been watching your engine RPMs are at 0.0 because the engine has not come on while
You’ve been driving uh since I reset the trip computer 23.7 miles driven 2 hours uh with the vehicle on 999 MPG and that’s only because that’s as high as that goes up it’s 999 miles per gallon uh you’ve used no fuel and you could use no fuel in this
As long as your commute to and from is under 34 miles and you drove economically which is a huge win of this vehicle um yeah some other features you haven’t mentioned are there is dual seats dual memory seats two I don’t know why I’m getting all funky two memory
Seat buttons which is nice yep um not a head up display yeah but fairly easy to read digital gate yeah it is it’s exactly where I’d want it and the size and all of that um I do wish the back of the back seat of the back of the seat
Was a little softer it’s on the firmer side but not uncomfortable I wish this were a power seat okay and then you do have lumbar at least on this side you don’t have Lumar so that is something we have a che wireless charger usba a interface for Wired Apple carplay and
Android auto USBC power up here for power and USBC power on both of our seats for the rear seat passengers so nice Tucker had something he had to plug in he could he could any other thoughts before I bring out the window sticker uh no we’re done goodness gracious me
We’ve shared all we could share all right so on the fuel economy front he has 35 uh miles of all electric range as it is rated uh the uh 1.6 L uh 4cylinder engine in this uh can get you up to 48 m per gallon on the highway on gas alone
So if you were road tripping this and you used up the 34 miles of electric range to get you to the highway which we would probably get close to doing based here in Tyler Texas uh by the time you got to the highway you’d be getting 48
MPG which is better than my car wow uh which is a very fuel efficient vehicle this is just stra all the way around um so there is that car to guest the price you seem to have a number firmly planted in your brain do it’s at least a number that I
Hope it is okay um I am thinking 37 too low a little bit Yeah 42 too high oh there we go okay that was my range 37 to 42 41 635 oh see okay um as this one is equipped this is the uh SX touring model it starts at
39490 uh we have the option options of the cold weather package those heated seats and there are ventilated seats in this too so and Tucker’s got heated outboard rear seats um as well carpeted floor mats uh the black exterior trim all adds up uh with destination to
41635 so um and being a Kia product best warranty in the business 10 year 100,000 mile um so excellent you’ve loved Kia this one is obviously no exception no I really like this one yeah I left you with the better of two vehicles when I
Left to Dallas no I I don’t I mean I’m not going to say no um but uh it is one that I I really like I really like driving it I like that KIA are affordable but then their styling and stuff is interesting and and feels like it’s
Luxury um I would rather have an affordable vehicle that feels more luxurious and has more features then drive a more expensive car for the name and it feels like I’m sacrificing for the name sacrificing for the name yeah I would I would rather drw something more comfortable and then we
Didn’t even talk about interesting unique materials but all kinds of fun stuff in here yeah and on that note you want to see more from Holly from Tucker go find her on Facebook and Instagram @ female consumer can find all things GT garag talk at GTG talk Facebook
Instagram X Tik Tok threads YouTube at gtar or you can go to gtar.com but as for us in the Kia Nero SX touring plug-in hybrid electric vehicle until next time Gearheads by bye I blank couple times everybody ready I’m ready I’m not ready I’m ready I’m not ready I’m ready
I’m not ready I’m ready I’m not ready I’m ready I’m not ready I’m ready I’m not ready I’m ready I’m not ready I’m not ready I’m I’m ready I’m not ready okay I’m ready guys guess what what I see C just as R off yeah this stop it me do it it’s so
Terrible there are you frustrated and sad that was a little dramatic oh the cameras are still rolling just so so you’re beefing it up is that how you say it Beef It Up where we going ham amp it up ham ham it
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2023 Kia Niro PHEV SX Touring Specs:
* 1.6L GDI 4-cylinder Engine
* Electric Motor
* 11.1 kWh Lithium Ion Polymer Battery
* 180 Combined System Horsepower
* 195 lb-ft of Combined System Torque
* 6-speed Dual-clutch Automatic Transmission
* Front-wheel Drive (FWD)
* Rotary Gear Selector
* Drive Mode Select with 3 Drive Modes
* Eco
* Sport
* EV
* MacPherson Strut Front Suspension with Coil Springs
* Independent Multi-link Rear Suspension with Stabilizer Bar
* Heated Windshield
* Seating for 5
* Heated Steering Wheel
* Heated and Ventilated Front Seats
* Heated Rear Outboard Seats
* SynTex Leatherette-trimmed Seating & Steering Wheel
* 10-way Power Driver’s Seat with 2-way Lumbar
* 2-person Driver Seat Memory Settings
* 6-way Manual Passenger Seat
* 60/40 Split Fold-down Rear Seatback
* 18-inch 5-spoke Alloy Wheels
* 225/45 R18 Continental ProContact Tires
* 19.4 Cubic Feet of Storage Space Behind the Rear Seats
* 54.6 Cubic Feet of Storage Space with the Rear Seats Folded
* 10.25-inch Infotainment Screen with Wired Apple CarPlay® & Android Auto™
* Digital Gauge Cluster with 4.3-inch Driver Information Display
* 7-speaker Harman Kardon® Premium Audio System
* Qi Wireless Charger
* Dual-Zone Automatic Climate Control
* Backup Camera
* Adjustable Interior Ambient Lighting
* Kia Drive Wise Technologies
* Blind-spot Collision Warning
* Forward Collision-avoidance
* Rear Cross-traffic Collision Avoidance
* Park Distance Warning
* Lane Departure Warning
* Lane Following Assist
* Navigation-based Smart Cruise Control with Stop & Go
* Highway Driving Assist
* Intelligent Speed Limit Assist
* Driver Attention Warning
* Proximity Key with Push Button Start
* Smartphone Digital Key
* EPA Fuel Economy 48 mpg Combined (Gas Only)
* EPA-estimated 34 Miles of All-electric Range
* Starting MSRP $34,290 (EX)
* Price as tested: $41,635
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