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Hi all

Posted: Fri May 25, 2018 7:16 am
by chindley
Thought I would introduce myself.
I ve just ordered a Niro PHEV coming end of June :D
I've had an Outlander PHEV for four years and really love the money saving side of a plug in.
95% of my driving is within 25 miles so my petrol cost for last year was about £100.

Now I realise the NIRO has no tow capacity but as I do a lot of cycling I have a bike rack that fits on a towbar. so does anyone know if you can get a towbar to fit the PHEV?
Google search comes back with results for the Niro towbar but would it actually fit?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Hi all

Posted: Fri May 25, 2018 9:26 pm
by Topicalcat
Apparently it is only the UK version that is not certified for use with a towbar. Perhaps they did not see a market in the UK sufficient to pay the costs involved for obtaining type approval. Your car probably has the fixing points mapped out as I guess that all Niros have the same floor plan, just a question of which side of the car they stick the steering wheel.

So a tricky one. I understand the German version is certified for use with a tow bar and clearly whatever the towing limit is in Germany a bike rack gets nowhere near that. There is someone on the forum living in Germany and hopefully he will see this post and advise further. Just an insirance problem in fittng an accessory which might not be legal in the UK?

On another tack what are the pros and cons of the Niro v Outlander?

Re: Hi all

Posted: Sat May 26, 2018 8:02 pm
by NedKen
Hi all, I have the 1917 Niro Exec purchased in Holland, love it, but to answer the tow bar / traller hitch question...we had it installed as an option, pre-delivery. The legal limits are for a trailer of max 600 kg if trailer has no brakes or 1300 kg if it does have. Further, according to the specs given by Kia, when a hitch is installed they also increase the brake disc size as well as increasing the size of the engine's cooling fan. Hope this helps even though it's not necessarily the same specs as a German model.