Kia is hoping to start a new chapter in the Book of Hybrid with an all-new crossover SUV that's targeting a fuel efficiency of 50 mpg. But first, they need to convince people that hybrids can be cool.
Orth Hedrick, Kia's vice president of product planning feels the Niro will do just that.
“This basically answers the question in the hybrid space of having something that looks cool, that drives cool, still gets great mileage but has utility and versatility all in one package,” Hedrick said from the floor of the New York Auto Show.
In the late aughts and early 2010s, staggering gas prices made the sloping hoods, rounded roof lines and overall lack of sexiness on hybrid sedans like the Toyota Prius widely palatable. On top of that, the cost-savings at the pump helped make up the difference between the pricier hybrids and their conventional counterparts.
Today, with gas prices at or below $2 a gallon, the desire for fuel-efficient cars has gone the way of MySpace and the Zune. Now the focus is on the SUV. Drivers want to ride high, feel comfortable and have room to transport their stuff. Environmentalism be damned.
But Kia Motors America Chief Operating Officer Michael Sprague hopes buyers won’t be so short-sighted.
“I like to remind people that this is a point in time, we’ve seen this cycle before,” Sprague said. “While gas prices are low now, gas prices will not necessarily be low two months, six months, five years from now. Five years ago gas prices were four and five dollars a gallon and people were thought we were going to have high gas prices for the rest of our lives.”
Still, the current cost of gas could put Kia in tricky situation.
In 2012, a dedicated hybrid utility vehicle would have been a game changer, but the game has changed on its own, in a way that might not be so kind to the Niro. When it hits dealerships next January, it will enter a field of compact SUVs that's more crowded now than it's ever been, mostly by vehicles that aren't tied to the hybrid moniker.
"It’s a tough sell right now because customers really look at it as a practical thing," Hedrick said of the hybrid market. "(They say) ‘I’ll buy it if I can save some money down the road.’”
Without being able to offer the same return on investment that a 50 mpg hybrid provides to drivers in places like Japan and California (both of which employ aggressive cap and trade laws to curb pollution) to drivers elsewhere in the U.S., Kia has had to get creative to make the Niro marketable.
"Hybrid solutions up to this point have always been to maximize fuel economy and the tradeoffs associated with that are you give up a lot in space and design and drive performance and the overall ownership experience just to get that mileage," Hedrick continued. "So we backed off that just a little bit, enough to get a much better solution. It's basically offering choice in the market place."
That choice is a hybrid that doesn't look like a hybrid.
The Niro is hardly hulking, but it presents a much stronger image than that of the standard 50+ mpg vehicle. Sharp headlights, broad shoulders, sporty contours along the hood make and a roof overhang on the backside turn the stereotype of nebbish hybrid on its head.
Even Kia's signature tiger-nose grille adds a hint of meanness to the Niro's front fascia.
Much like the Soul, Kia's subcompact crossover, the Niro features elevated seats and provides more space inside than one might expect. The power seats are cushy and the cabin is roomy enough for a 6'2" auto writer to stretch his legs comfortably.
Like most hybrids, the Niro does have a sloping windshield to reduce drag, but it manages to do so without dramatically altering sight lines, an issue with some smaller hybrids like the Prius and Honda Civic. On the flipside, there also appears to be considerably more cargo space than the typical sedan hybrid, as one would expect from an SUV.
Though it will be absent from the initial batch of Niros, Kia’s “Drive Wise” advanced driver assistance system will be implemented in the line in the near future, Hedrick said. This includes automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning and lane-departure assistance, all of which will serve as primers for self-driving Kias, which are set to roll themselves out by 2030.
“It’s our move toward autonomous driving, this is the first step and we’re centering it around safety,” Hedrick said. “Basically, it’s all the activity that the department of transportation is pushing for and it’s the next phase of automotive development.”
What Hedrick feels will most separate the Niro from other hybrids and keep it competitive in the compact utility vehicle marketplace is its drivetrain, which features a 103-horsepower 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine paired with a 43-horsepower tractive electric motor as well as a six-speed dual transmission clutch, a first in the hybrid world.
To reduce the weight of the vehicle, Kia also swapped out the traditional 12-volt battery with a lightweight 1.56-kilowatt hour Lithium Ion Polymer battery, which is placed under the back seat.
A plug-in version of the Niro will debut late next year, Hedrick said.
Kia has yet to release a starting price for the Niro but expect it to notable increase from the Sportage, Kia’s current compact SUV, which starts just under $23,000.
Consider that the Soul EV, which was released on the west coast earlier this year and has a range of 93 miles, costs $31,950 (before a $7,500 federal tax credit) while the regular Soul has an MSRP of $15,800. Don’t expect the increase to be that drastic, but be prepared to pay a little extra for double the gas mileage of the Sportage.
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