A real gear-changer for green motoring
Kia e-Niro Circa €33,000
The accolades have been coming thick and fast for Korean carmaker Kia. Its new all-electric e-Niro was recently named Car Of The Year by UK consumer magazine and website What Car?.
Priced around €33,000 (once you factor in the SEAI grant and VRT rebate), it is the first pure electric car – and the first ever Korean car – to win the award since its inception in 1978.
At about half the price of Audi’s all-electric e-tron – a key factor in the judges’ deliberations – and with a range of about 450km, it puts practical electric motoring into the price range of mainstream families, as I reported when I road-tested one in Korea late last year.
The zero-emissions Kia beat 23 other category winners – including petrol, diesel and hybrid rivals – to take the overall title.
It was also named Best AllElectric Car in its category at the annual awards held at Grosvenor House in London’s Park Lane.
And Kia’s perky Picanto won best City Car at the awards for the second year in a row.
The company also recently launched its new ProCeed – adding a new low-slung ‘shooting brake’ style estate car to its range, priced from circa €28,945.
It has the look of one of those super smart German sports tourers from BMW, Audi, Porsche or Mercedes-Benz – but at a fraction of the price.
Not surprising mind, given that Kia’s top design chief (Peter Schreyer who created the original Audi TT) and engineering boss (Albert Biermann who ran BMWs ‘M’ Motorsport division) are both German.
And the firm’s European research, development and design headquarters is in Frankfurt.
There are six variants of ProCeed – based on three engines, two transmissions and three trim levels.
The trim levels are: GT Line, sportier GT, and the top-of-the-range GT-Line-S.
There are three engines: a 138 horse-power 1.4-litre turbo petrol; a 201 hp 1.6-litre turbo petrol; and a 134 hp 1.6-litre turbo-diesel.
Petrol versions are available only with a semi-automatic gearbox, while diesel drivers have a choice of this or a manual gearbox.
The manual needs 10.4 seconds to reach 100 kph, the automatic does it in 10.1 seconds.
FRACTION OF THE PRICE OF AUDI’S E-TRON