Who makes the BEST family electric car? Volkswagen ID.3 vs Kia Niro EV? | Electrifying

Battery do start at around 36 000 pounds, depending on how the car makers are feeling that particular week, because prices are going up and down quite a lot at the moment. But whats more interesting is when you dig around at least deals yeah. We found one actually at the moment 450 pounds for each of these cars, so theyre bang on when it comes to monthly repayments on lease yeah. They are very, very similar. Although prices do change and other providers are available and dont forget, you can go and check on electrifying.com because we have all the latest lease deals out there. The interesting thing, though, is that the both of these cars are five seats. Hatchbacks four wheels theyve got steering wheels. Everything is the same. They should cope with pretty much anything that you know. Family life tends to throw out them. What i would point out, though, is that is a bespoke electric car platform, so that should have some inherent advantages, and this one has hybrid versions that do have engines, so it might be a little bit compromised. Well, there is only one way to find out and lets start with the looks so starting with the nero ev. It is all refreshed, and i think it looks particularly handsome. Some of the bits that i do like is the front, looks really technical and quite grown up and a little bit more aggressive than it did before. One of the details is really nice.

You see this kind of black mustache at the front. Well, the sensors for the advanced driver assistance systems are all sort of plugged behind that, so it keeps it all nice and clean. Also, the charging point is here right in the center of the nose, so no more reversing into charge point parking spaces i like it, but a certain miss ginny buckley was not so impressed you didnt even like it when you first store it thats, not true at All it is true thats, not true. I did like it the bit that i wasnt sure of was this kind of color coded panel. I know its got a job to do for aero. How much ive got no idea, and i have actually seen it when its matched so its same color as the car looks a lot better. I just dont like picking it out as a feature. I think it looks a bit old fashioned thinks it looks a bit 80s. I think shes wrong thats why he likes it because hes a bit old fashioned in a bit 80s and also just go and look at the back ford focus. Oh my goodness, youre right. It really does look like a tall ford focus doesnt it, but other than that. I do like the feeling of the robustness that you get. It looks quite chunky. Well, this feels more like an suv. I know, but its not an suv. It kind of is an suv.

No, the marketing team can call it what they like its not. Therefore, its an suv anyway lets talk about the id3. Come this way come on. The first thing to point out about the volkswagen id3 is that this is a bespoke electric car. That means there are no petrol engines involved. I think it looks quite nice, its all been packaged really brilliantly, basically theres a motor driving the rear wheels at the back. Here very space, efficient ginny. It is very space efficient, but i think it looks a bit snouty at the front, its a bit chopped off and – and you said, the most faint but damn and damning praise in that sentence. When you said it was nice, it is but whats really interesting to me is that this might be the bespoke electric car yeah, but actually it doesnt have a frunk. This one does thats weird isnt it. I just think of the two. This just feels a bit more substantial to me, and this is just a bit more okay, all right me! Well, there is one advantage of being a bespoke electric car and thats space efficiency, because actually the id3 has the most space in the back seats. Let us try lets, have a look, then. Oh yeah lets see hi over there, its not without my shoulder space, but it has got a lot of leg room. It has im, not convinced theres, that much in it, though, should check out the boot lets.

Look at boots that boot see easy to get out. It is. I still do like that. I was expecting a powered tailgate. You see, thats not got one. No, i havent got a tailgate, its fine isnt it its perfectly acceptable. It is slightly bigger than a normal average hatchback, so its 385 liters, and it is also a little bit bigger if i do that: okay, yeah tada extra space and somewhere to put your cables brilliant. Well, i do like that, but lets just check out the mirror. As well just to compare okay come on noisy! Oh sorry, right! Ah, but you see look at this a powered tailgate! You do get a few more toys, its just a more usable shape, isnt it. That is quite big. I mean theres all of that under there. As well, this one is 485 liters, so it is a good chunk bigger than the id3, its a more practical car in terms of boot space. Okay inside backseats, oh okay, im small. They always feel big to me, its still quite big, but its not quite as spacious as the igp. It feels a little bit lower in the roof. It does. You feel a bit more enclosed yeah. Do not really matter to us, though, what the view from the drivers seat. So this is okay, its got a nicely spacious feel you notice that theres actually a flat floor down there with the center console. You know that this is a bespoke electric car and its got this 10 inch touchscreen in the middle.

But oh my goodness, i have tried this infotainment system in several different cars now, including id3s and id4s, and i find it lightly infuriating its laggy. It doesnt always work, sometimes its fine, which makes it more frustrating not less, and this bar underneath it doesnt light up at night. If you dont know exactly where everything is and because theres no buttons you cant feel for it, you cant really see what youre supposed to do and that controls the temperature for the aircon with those buttons and the volume for the stereo. So it just feels like its missed loads of little bits of detail that would make this car a lot easier to use thats very frustrating. I think the weird thing is that vw seemed to design something that looked really nice for early vw id models, but then, when they got it out, it didnt really work as they intended and theyve, not quite caught up with the software. Yet so it looks pretty. But it still doesnt work, and that means its pointless. It does depend on what spec you go for and if you want to know more about the different options on specifications and the different models, please do log on to electrifying.com and well help you figure it all out. It does drive perfectly nicely, though it steers nicely and because the motor is packaged at the back and driving the rear wheels. Its got a really nice tight turning circle because its not trying to also drive the front wheels so thats, all very nice.

It will be very useful in the city, in fact, theres not really an awful lot about the driving experience that will put you off. It does have quite a large blind spot in the c pillar back there, but other than that, its quick enough, its accurate enough. Its quiet everything youd need really all in all. I think its a perfectly acceptable, actually quite nice, little pure electric car, although its worth remembering that, if you want to order a new vw id3 from vw, then youll probably have to wait between 12 and 18 months because of supply chain issues that affecting the whole Car industry – that is a lot of time to want a fairly average electric hatchback youre, going to be sitting on that for a while and new things will come out and that will make you regret that long waiting list. I think there is nothing wrong with the id3. I just think its a little bit average and new things are coming out all the time which slightly make this car look like its already a little bit on the back foot, especially with the technology, because some of it doesnt work ive just tried to change a Few things on this screen and honestly the whole thing just didnt react and then now its reacting perfectly and i dont understand the inconsistency. If this was my car and i drove it every day that would drive me insane. I cant get away from the fact that everywhere you look the slightly cheap plastics, it doesnt feel like its built out of anything nice.

I sometimes think that i sound a little bit down on an id3 like im, consistently unimpressed with it and its, not that. I think an id3 is actually a really good car. The problem that volkswagens got is that there are quite a few other cars out there that do stuff better than the id3, and considering that this was supposed to be, you know the forward thinking modern electric vehicle on a bespoke electric platform, which is the meb volkswagen Group platform, it already feels like its a little bit behind the times, especially with the infotainment, especially with the quality. I wonder sometimes, where the volkswagen launched this car too quickly and didnt actually finish off the things they were going to finish or that they had to pair some of the cost out of it. So the interiors suffered because the car actually felt quite expensive and then, when you get in it feels a bit tinny. I think youll find that if you havent already pre ordered a nero ev youre going to be looking at around six months waiting list. You know, electric cars are increasingly popular and the car market is in a wobbly place right now. What isnt lovely, though, is the inside of this kia. I know that was a really awful segway wasnt it can. I just point out that tom actually wrote that one shouldnt have said it should i, but it is appropriate because very much like big brother kia ev6 with this curving display and button bar underneath lots of really good quality materials.

It feels much more sorted than the old nero and even though this car is a top spec, 4 grade, the more basic nero evs arent, actually all that basic and they get the same battery and performance across the range, its just. The kit list. That changes, which does keep things really nice and simple. You know i reckon that kia really listened to the criticisms of the old nero and made an effort to correct the issues, because it does feel a lot more grown up in here, although it isnt quite as playful as the id3, and it doesnt necessarily have that Modern feel it is still a huge improvement on the outgoing model, though a much nicer place to be. As for the driving, though well theres, a big plus point for that, i used to think the old in era was a bit too aggressive for a family car used to scrabble. Its ties in the wet could be a bit jerky at times. This one just feels so much smoother its actually a bit slower than the old one, because the power arrives more calmly. It feels a more relaxed easy drive. It does, however, feel larger on the road than the id3, and that might well be important to you. If you do most of your driving around town, what it doesnt feel is much slower than the id3. They have the same amount of power. After all, however, the id3 does have a lot more torque, so i guess it feels more urgent than this.

When you put your foot down now, you can change through three driving modes on the nero ev. You have got normal eco and sport, put it into sport that obviously just tightens things up, tightens the steering slightly more urgency about it and being completely honest, im, not noticing a huge difference. I drive it quite a lot of the time in eco mode, which ill just flick it into there, because i like to get the the most out of my battery, but you will probably end up using normal most of the time and the car feels you know Perfectly fine in that one thing, i think you will use a lot, though the paddles here on the steering wheel, which control the levels of brake regeneration. So this is when that energy that you would often lose through braking, gets recouped and put back into the battery, and you can opt for different levels in maximum, which i use quite a lot of the time you can really get away with one pedal driving. I actually take great pride in the fact that i can now judge my distances when im driving the nero and im actually able to bring the car to a complete stop without using the physical brake pedal at all its actually quite a fun. Little challenge to set yourself – maybe i do just need to get out more facts here. The id3 gets a 58 kilowatt hour battery and an official range of 249 miles, plus it gets 11 kilowatt, ac charging and a decent peak charging rate of 130 kilowatts, so youre.

Looking at half an hour 10 to 80 on a big enough public rapid charger, and just over an hour on a 50 kilowatt, oh and thats, about nine and a quarter hours on a home wall box all perfectly decent numbers for this kind of car. It is worth noting that a heat pump to aid efficiency is a cost option, though, and if you look at the specs, a granny charger also costs extra so be aware of that. When you get an id3 or buy one second hand, they are useful and they cost money. The new nero ev actually has a lower charging peak rate than the old one at just 72 kilowatts theres a butt. Here, though, it maintains a better average charging rate over that time, so you actually spend less time on the charger. Does it quicker, but there is no getting away from the fact that it cant handle larger power, outputs on a fast charger youre looking at 45 minutes, whereas the id3 is charging up in 30 youre going to be away a lot quicker in the volkswagen, you might Get away faster, but youll have fewer miles of range as the kia has a bigger battery and is more efficient. That is true. Mr ford spend 50 minutes on a rapid charger in the vw and you would add 91 miles of range. Do the same in the kia and youll add 77., but in the kia you might not have needed to stop in the first place, because youd have left home with an extra 35 miles of range.

That is a useful amount more and if you use the sat nav the nero preconditions the battery for more efficient charging as it approaches a stop. So i reckon this car will be pretty efficient other than that there is 11 kilowatt ac charging and it will take around 10 hours and 15 minutes to charge from flat to full on a home wall box a bit longer than the id3. Because of the bigger battery and again a heat pump is optional and the higher grade nero evs also get vehicle to device charging ability, which means you can power anything from the car itself, even power tools, since when do you need power tools? Never so ginny. Would you rather a vwid3 or a new kia, nero eevee evie every time? Yes, we dont agree very often, but it feels good. When we do. Are we on the same page? We are exactly, i mean, i know, im a very boring human being yeah, but i like the fact i like the fact that this is slightly bigger its slightly more practical. I like the fact that its got a bit more space and you get more toys as standard with the kia, and you know what i dont really care that its not a bespoke electric car, because i just think its really good im gon na throw in there. The seven year care warranty its a bit better than the volkswagen yeah and you can tow with it, which is going to make a lot of people watching very happy theres, nothing wrong with this, but i just think thats more of a car, but without the side Blades youve got a drill, though oh yeah, the drill you can get the side blades of something different theyd have to make them colour coded theyd have to be colour coded about this before i know, and the drill is great and if youd like to know more About either of these two cars or any of their competition, then please do log on to electrifying.