Kia Niro UK Forums

Glad you're enjoying the car Jane, it's very good to drive and much quieter than my previous Octavia diesel. Mine is also Gravity Blue which looks really good when it's clean and shiny but unfortunatly with the recent weather it doesnt stay that way for long!

I suspect like you I will get a standard install with a separate 10m cable which should just about meet my requirements. My current thought is for the Chargemaster as you have the 7.2KW version for an extra £20. The dealership recommended these for a charger:

https://www.chargedev.co.uk/at-home

They seem to get good reviews and pricing is reasonable.

Brian

Decision made. I've ordered the 7.2KW Chargermaster one from ChargedEV. Will share my (hopefully good) experience once it's fitted

Brian

Looking forward to hearing about it.

Taken slightly longer than I expected but have finally got my charger install date - 27th March.

Charger installed yesterday, installer did an excellent job, no visible cables on outside wall. Charged from zero electric miles to full in just over 2 hours so reduced charge time considerably. Can definitely recommend ChargedEV as an installer.

I went for a Rolec unit, I previously had one of these installed for my wife's Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and was pleased with the look and build quality of the unit. I've also learnt from that install to not go for a tethered unit, and have gone for untethered for my Niro, the main reason being that the Outlander is a type one connection and the Niro a type 2.

I only use the rolec unit (which is a 7kw 32amp) box when I want a quick top-up if I'm going back out again later, for a full charge I use a granny cable in the garage, which is fine for a slower overnight charge. The Niro will only take 16amp feed but the charge unit is future proofed.

The original granny cable overheated and stopped working (after nearly melting the plug), and Kia have agreed to replace under warranty... however they couldn't get a new cable until end of June (melted in March) so I bought a generic type 2 granny cable which has been fine (and was delivered next day). Has any else had problems with the Kia granny cable?

My plug did melt half way through a charge on Monday evening.
I changed the plug on the 13amp charger and connected it to an indoor plug.
It had been on an external socket with RCD, so I then connected it to an indoor plug with a separate RCD and it seems ok after 3 charges.
I will take apart the external socket this weekend to see if there was an issue with the socket.
The car is charging ok at work on the multipin socket.
It had been charging fine on the 13A socket since when I got the car in April
Any ideas?

Just a word of caution on this - I have a 32 Amp charger at home and often use a 13 amp one at work. I have twice had the 13 amp charger fail and overheat. Today the fuse failed, but not before partially melting the fuse holder.
Whilst the manual says that the 13 amp charger is for emergency use only, it seems very mush like a unit which cannot be trusted. The very statement that the charger should be used in an emergency only is quite farcical as what situation would you have no fuel, and no opportunity to re-fuel but would have easy access to an adequately robust 13 amp socket near enough to run the cable to??
I'd welcome any comments or especially any other similar experiences.

If you are heading for the PHEV, there is absolutely no need to go for a specialist charger. The Niro PHEV cannot fast charge even if -plugged into one.
I did a belt and braces job for mien - I had a dedicated circuit box installed terminating in a single twin 13 amp socket outlet. Charging from absolute zero on the main dials, takes about 3hhrs 50 minutes. You can just use a standard 13amp socket outlet. Doing it this way, should I decide to go for an all electric, it is a simple matter to change the RCD in the circuit box and wire up the fast charger. All of the above predicates you in UK - what the situation is elsewhere I have no idea.