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I’M writing this week’s report in Seoul, which I’m sure you all know is the capital of South Korea.

It’s also the home to two giants of the car world, Kia and their owner, Hyundai.

As I write this, it would be all too easy to say the trip has “uplifted my Seoul”, only I don’t do stupid puns like that.

I’ll just say, instead, that I feel a hell of a lot better about the future prospects for planet Earth.

You see, despite Seoul being the world’s third biggest metropolitan city, behind Tokyo’s 35million and Delhi’s 26m, the 25m who live in or around Seoul can now see a time when they no longer have to walk around with masks covering their mouths.

Mist

The air here is not good and an appalling and obnoxious black mist of pollution hangs over Seoul on even the brightest days. It is, of course, caused by the millions of vehicles that bring the city to a standstill on a daily basis.

I came here to drive Kia’s new, allelectric car, the Kia e-Niro. The letter “e” stands for electric.

With a range of 301 miles, increasing to 382 miles when the car is crawling around in cities, coupled to zero emissions, it’s a car you can happily drive without the worry of recharging it.

And don’t think about it as being a small city runabout, or even a cheaplooking, poorly equipped excuse for a proper car.

When it goes on sale in the UK next April – at £32,995 including the Government grant of £3,500 – it will be a beautifully made, hugely equipped, proper family car. Better than that, it also comes with Kia’s seven-year, 100,000mile warranty that covers the whole car, including its battery and electric motor.

So what’s it like? Step inside its luxury feel, double-stitched black and white mix of real leather and leather-look interior, with shiny piano black inserts on the dash, doors and even the steering wheel, and it’s impressive.

All four doors have silver e-Niro kick plates, there’s a smart grey and silver slash of steel all along the top of the glove box and there’s more piano black and silver in the doors. It’s posh. No doubt about it. The boot is easily big enough for your family holiday luggage, while folding down the rear seat backs turns it into a 4ft 6in load lugger for trips to the tip, now known as a reclamation site.

Shock

Then there’s the car’s performance, and that’s when the e-Niro turns from a decent-sized family car into a startlingly quick mean machine. The shock as it silently bullets from 0-62mph in 7.7 seconds is, well, electric. That’s because the e-Niro’s full power pack of 204hp and 395Nm (292lb) of torque is all released immediately.

No waiting for the old-fashioned revs to build up into an equally old-fashioned racket. The e-Niro’s top speed of 104mph quickly follows in the same voiceless manner. It’s weird as all you can hear is the tyres making contact with the Tarmac and it gets quite scary.

If you think 104mph makes this a slow car, think again. How many times do you do that sort of speed? Exactly.

The e-Niro is, beyond doubt, a wildly encouraging look at the future which makes me think how this car should be advertised. My suggestion for a slogan is: “Be a planet-saving hero with emissions of zero in a Kia e-Niro.”

OK, I’ll stick to my real job.