Towing
Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:49 am
Hi all.
Just wanted to give feedback on my experience towing with the Niro Plug in.
So like a lot of others I was confused as to whether you could tow with the Niro. I spoke to Kia and got an email bac from them stating
"Apologies for my delayed reply, I have had a very busy few days.
A tow bar can be fitted to the Niro, however the official Kia ones are quiet pricey coming in just under £1000.
My advice would be to source one locally, I know a lot of companies like tow bar UK will fit tow bars for a third of that price.
Fitting a tow bar to a lease vehicle is fine all being it is done to a good standard with no major damage to the body work."
Also the manual with the car states that for all EU cars you can tow up to 1300kg with a braked trailer. There is nowhere that says "except UK models"
So with this info I ordered the Brink swan neck towbar £96 and the dedicated electrics £115 from PF Jones.
The installation was a doddle. It does say to lower the exhaust back box to get it in, however with a bit of careful manoeuvring I managed to fit it without doing this.
The dedicated electrics were also a breeze, 1 wire to the battery which is in the boot and one to earth then two wires for the Canbus which are situated against the back of the car under the storage compartment. It did have wires for "Trailer prep" which I don't think the UK car has as I couldn't find a plug for it to fit in to. When I have more time I will investigate this further,
So yesterday I picked up my new trailer from Ifor Williams and towed it the 40 miles home, the car pulled at 60 mph on the motorway with no problems on the straight, going uphill on a motorway bridge it did rev quite hard but stayed at 60mph. I forgot to run the car in Hybrid mode so the battery depleted quite quick on electric alone and then stayed at about 7% running in HEV for the rest of the journey. I would reccommens keeping a full battery and running in Hybrid mode so it has the power when it needs it. Other than that there were no issues.
Just wanted to give feedback on my experience towing with the Niro Plug in.
So like a lot of others I was confused as to whether you could tow with the Niro. I spoke to Kia and got an email bac from them stating
"Apologies for my delayed reply, I have had a very busy few days.
A tow bar can be fitted to the Niro, however the official Kia ones are quiet pricey coming in just under £1000.
My advice would be to source one locally, I know a lot of companies like tow bar UK will fit tow bars for a third of that price.
Fitting a tow bar to a lease vehicle is fine all being it is done to a good standard with no major damage to the body work."
Also the manual with the car states that for all EU cars you can tow up to 1300kg with a braked trailer. There is nowhere that says "except UK models"
So with this info I ordered the Brink swan neck towbar £96 and the dedicated electrics £115 from PF Jones.
The installation was a doddle. It does say to lower the exhaust back box to get it in, however with a bit of careful manoeuvring I managed to fit it without doing this.
The dedicated electrics were also a breeze, 1 wire to the battery which is in the boot and one to earth then two wires for the Canbus which are situated against the back of the car under the storage compartment. It did have wires for "Trailer prep" which I don't think the UK car has as I couldn't find a plug for it to fit in to. When I have more time I will investigate this further,
So yesterday I picked up my new trailer from Ifor Williams and towed it the 40 miles home, the car pulled at 60 mph on the motorway with no problems on the straight, going uphill on a motorway bridge it did rev quite hard but stayed at 60mph. I forgot to run the car in Hybrid mode so the battery depleted quite quick on electric alone and then stayed at about 7% running in HEV for the rest of the journey. I would reccommens keeping a full battery and running in Hybrid mode so it has the power when it needs it. Other than that there were no issues.