2023 Kia Niro EV Wave Review – A Huge Improvement For The Niro!

Geralds. Outstanding staff is ready to find the perfect car for you, whether it be new or used. Your next car is waiting for you at Gerald Kia, all right, whats up guys. My name is Zach, and today I am driving a 2023 Kia. Niro EV wave up front is a fully electric drivetrain as well as down below is a single speed transmission. Now I am super excited to be driving this here, Nero EV for a bunch of reasons, but mainly the fact that this is a completely new Nero for the 2023 model year. I think its a lot more handsome. I think its a lot more usable and Im excited to share my other thoughts with you today, but before we get on to anything else, I have a website zackpraddle.com, where you can buy stickers, merchandise. Other things like that. You can also submit your own vehicle to be reviewed by me through a quick and easy submission form, and you get a video of your car just like this one, and you could read my behind the scenes blog to see what Im filming before it comes out On the channel so lets get back to that all electric drivetrain. Well, it gets about 250 33 miles of electric range on average, now, of course, in colder climates, that is going to be a lower number and if you drive it really conservatively that number might be higher, but 253 is what Kia found to be the median mile Range, it makes 201 horsepower 188 foot pounds of torque with a 65 kilowatt hour.

Lithium ion polymer battery alright. So this car does have a couple of different modes, were going to put it into sport mode and do a quick acceleration test now youre not going to really hear anything, because it is an EV. If you hear some things moving around its just my filming equipment. So come to a stop here: Ready Set, Go not bad, not amazing, either its pretty on par. For what I would expect for a more economy EV. You know everyone thinks that all EVS are amazingly fast and they are faster than their gasoline counterparts, but this one is a healthy amount of fast, which is actually really good to see. I sometimes worry that EVS are getting too fast. However, you dont have to worry with the Nero EV now this isnt, the only drivetrain offered in the new Nero you can also buy it in a hybrid and a plug in hybrid. So the hybrids get a 1.6 liter four cylinder combustion engine and they make 180 horsepower, so this actually makes 20 more horsepower than the hybrid variants. All of that is paired to the front wheels of the Nero. There is no all wheel drive option which is fine for this type of vehicle and to be expected. If you do want range, however, the hybrid is the way to go with an estimated 588 miles of range, combining electric power and the gasoline engine, so that stuff out of the way lets talk about the interior.

Now this is the Nero wave theres, the wind and the wave for the electric version. The wind is lower trim level. The wave is the higher trim level, so we have a lot of goodies in here in front of me. I do have a digital screen, its a completely digital gauge cluster. There are no physical instruments and it changes with the drive mode, so I can select between Eco, normal and Sport heres. What it looks like in Eco, this sort of blue digital clock looking faces. Then we can go down normal. This looks like every other Kia that they make and then we have sport. We have white face gauges like its the Fast and Furious in 2002. Everything turns red, and I like the look of that. However, disappointingly about this gauge cluster is that I dont get the blind spot cameras that other Kias do get, and I really really wish I would have gotten that, especially it being the EV and especially it being the wave as opposed to the wind. I think thats a really really great safety feature that Kia offers on a lot of their vehicles and its unfortunate to not see it here in the Nero EV up above the gauge cluster. I do have a really nice little heads up display it doesnt. Give me a whole lot of information besides the speed limit of the street and my current speed, but a really nice little addition for the wave trim level.

Moving on to the steering wheel on the left eye of my cruise control Pages, selector dials and Lane keep assistant off to the right eye of my mode voice, command, skip track volume, favorite and phone a lot of stuff going on here on the steering wheel around The back we do have paddle shifters. These are actually for the regenerative braking, so you can either add more regenerative, braking or less regenerative braking using these paddles and then to the bottom left of the steering wheel. This is actually where you find the drive mode button kind of weird to have it on the steering wheel, not many cars do that the overall look and feel of the steering wheel is actually very nostalgic for me, I always think of like old, like 80s 90s Box Chevys that have this sort of wide Center piece and then just grips around the outside kind of an interesting look for the key off to the left. I do have a climate control vent as well as my gauge dimmer switches, my tailgate hold and my traction control off moving onto the door. I think this is all styled really really nicely. I do have two different memory: seat options. Up top my power mirrors power, locks and power windows, I will say the power mirror switch, feels very, very sturdy. Moving into the center, we have the very typical Kia infotainment, nothing really too new here in terms of Kia. Now this is their more recent infotainment system.

In the last like year or so, and I like it – I think it looks really nice. It looks very hip and modern. It does have quiet mode which is great for kids, itll, quiet down the radio and only play it in the front seat, and I do have a nice EV page, because this is an EV car. And so I could take a look at my battery percentage. How far I can go on that battery with AC on and off how much that changes my range all the goodies, so I do really like that that is a very nice feature of the Nero EV. This does also have Apple, carplay and Android, auto, of course, and well take a quick look at the backup camera pretty standard, nothing really groundbreaking here. Moving down below that, we have two climbing control Vents and our Hazard switch, and then we have our radio controls and our climate controls so Ill show both here theres this little arrow and fan icon. This panel is used for both the radio dials and the climate controls Im very torn on this, because one part of my mind thinks oh perfect. This cleans up the interior a lot. You only have one set of buttons. Thatll do two different things great. However, I can understand it being annoying if you want to change the radio station and not use the steering wheel. Well, you might be just changing the temperature and then youre like why isnt the volume going up – and why am I boiling hot now and all these different things so its a double edged sword.

I think I like that KIA is pushing a modern idea. I just dont know if in practice itll get annoying or not, then I do have a 12 volt Outlet, USB USBC, as well as a wireless charger down below thats. What that cubby is very very nice, then I have the center console area to the upper left. This is the start. Stop button for the vehicle. Whats interesting is that it says EV on it, which is fine, because this is an EV. But for me I thought this was just EV mode, but its actually just the on off switch. Then we have the shifter in the middle, its a rotary style, shifter fine, and then we have a bunch of really nice features and Im pleasantly enjoying on this 23 degree day. I have heated seats, ventilated seats, heated steering, wheel, parking, sensors, Auto hold and my camera buttons, as well as my power parking brake to the bottom left. So I get all the really nice goodies here. However, this little camera icon can also be the parking assist option. So, on the key fob, much like a Tesla, you can actually move it forward and backward in and out of a space if need be from just the key fob that is such a cool feature and really really something of the future. Oh, this is weird. Oh, my God, this is weird. Oh Ive never done this before. Oh, my God. This is weird no ones in there.

This is weird, oh God, this I could do rollers like rolling video without anyone else, then down below that we do have cup holders. So we will do a big freaking bottle test here in the Kia, Niro EV and unfortunately it does not pass these cup holders while they are very, very good and very handy because you can open and close them and you can move them away if you dont Want them, or anything like that, theyre, not very good for the big freaking bottle, because when its open its too loose when its closed its too tight, so unfortunately, the Kia Niro as expected fails the big freaking bottle test. Then we get the worlds smallest center console and then we got ta talk about the seats. They are heated, they are power, they are memory, they are ventilated, pretty much anything you want from a modern seat. You get here in the Nero EV. I also like the design of them, I think its fresh, I think its modern. It looks different than what Kia has been doing the last 20 years, and I like that, I like, when a car gets refreshed. It gets the new body style that it actually looks and feels brand new, and this car most certainly does speaking of seats. However, we do have back seats, so lets go. Do a back seat review all right. So, in the back of the 2023 Kia Niro EV wave and a couple of things to note, first of all, this seat is further back than I normally drive it in because I just got out of the front and it moved the seat back.

To help me get in and out so this is further back than it normally would be, so knee room is pretty decent. I am touching the seat now but, like I said that wouldnt normally happen, Headroom Im getting up towards the top, but Im not touching the ceiling, so that gets a pass for me. I do get heated seats back back here, very very nice on a morning like this. I also have two climate control vents down here and I actually do have a wall outlet right by my right knee so its actually like a round which is kind of interesting, and then I do have Chargers on either back of the front seat. So I could plug in a USB and charge through there very, very nice overall. I really really like the size of these cars because its big enough to have a nice second row, but its not trying to squeeze in a third row. So I have a nice amount of space. I really really like that lets hop out its so cold, but lets hop out well take a quick look at the trunk and cargo space and then well talk about the looks all right so around the back of the Kia Niro EV. I do have a trunk popper here on the key fob you press and hold it, and it moves up like that. Once we are in the back, we do have like a little key of roadside assistance thing.

We do a nice little light and you can put the rear seats down. Oh my God is it windy and you can pop this up and you do get some other tools and such like that. Now we got to talk about. The looks – and this is – is the most polarizing part of the new Nero EV. It looks very, very different than the outgoing Nero heres, the outgoing Nero heres, the new one. You could tell its really really different. I, like that, a lot its, not just some type of weird facelift. I think the panel down the side and this color combo isnt exactly a winner. However, I love the fact that KIA is just pushing the envelope with their cars, theyre, really really creating some exciting hip vehicles, and I think, with every passing day, more and more people are learning about it and listening to what Kia is doing, I like that. A lot with all of that being said, lets get on to my final thoughts. What do I think driving the brand new Kia Niro EV wave? Well, I really think that this is a fantastic EV, its very, very usable, its very quiet, its very normal thats, going to be the key to success when it comes to the EVS. Yes, you have your Teslas and lucid and rivians, but those are so far Out Of Reach theyre, so high tech theyre, so this theyre, so that this car is mostly normal.

It just has an electric drivetrain. I really really like that about it. The driving experience has been great, its nice and quiet its very easy to drive its not overly fast. So if I let a 16 year old drive, it Im not super worried that theyre going to put it into a tree. I like that about it, its a very human, its a very likable EV. This thing is great. Now the price tag is pretty steep. This one was right around forty seven thousand dollars almost fifty thousand dollars for a Kia. Niro is pretty stiff but, like I said, the wave is the upper trim and the EV is going to add a lot to that price tag. So if this is the upper end, I guess I can take that overall, I think Kia is doing a fantastic job at the moment, Kia and Hyundai and Genesis. I think theyre creating some really really fantastic and interesting cars and Im very excited to see what they come up with next. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the video huge thank you to Gerald Kia in Naperville. They are absolutely awesome. They only have a couple of these on the lot at the moment, because these are so brand new, but theyre getting more and more by the day. If you would like to check one out for yourself, please, head on over to Gerald Kia in Naperville tell them. I sent you theyve been fantastic to work with, and I cant say enough good things about them.

Their information is up on the screen as well as Linked In the description below, but I hope you guys enjoyed the video dont forget to rate the video comment on the video and subscribe.