Kia Niro UK Forums

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.

That is good news, what was the code for the Brink towbar as there appears to be more than one for some reason, and more important how bad is the bumper cut?

Here is the one I purchased
https://www.pfjones.co.uk/kia-niro-hatc ... w-bar.html
Bumper cut is 55 x 70 if I remember rightly.

You might want to check your logbook to see if DVLA have approved a towing capacity, as per KIa UK specs The UK Version has no towing capacity. https://www.kia.com/uk/new-cars/niro-ph ... ification/#;

Many thanks , the bumper cut do's not look to bad and hardly noticed as long as the towbar is on

Recycleman wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:02 pm You might want to check your logbook to see if DVLA have approved a towing capacity, as per KIa UK specs The UK Version has no towing capacity. https://www.kia.com/uk/new-cars/niro-ph ... ification/#;

Hi.
As it is a lease car I don't hold the V5. In my opinion if its in the operating manual then they don't have a leg to stand on if they wanted to try to void the warranty. I think Kia would have the means and funds to remove this. They do need to sort it out one way or another. I will only be towing twice a year on short runs and using it for a bike rack the rest of the time.

Good day

I wondered if you can help. Did you connected directly to the hybrid battery under the back seats? I cannot find a battery in the boot and I have removed most of the panels. Would you have a picture or is that too much trouble?

Kind regards

Kingy

My battery is behind the panel on the right side at the very back of the boot, a PHEV

What weight is the trailer ? I would love to be able to tow a small 2 berth caravan with mine.

The government website says that the V5C "often" displays the maximum towing mass. Apparently, the definitive place to look is the chassis plate - inside the front passenger's door. It does not give the towing weight directly, but should give a Gross Combination Weight, and a Gross Vehicle Weight.
The Gross Vehicle Weight is the maximum weight that the laden vehicle is allowed to be
The Gross Combination Weight is the maximum allowable weight of the vehicle, its trailer, and its load (including occupants) ,

Unfortunately, the V5C of my 2018 PHEV doesn't give max towable mass for a trailer, and the chassis plate is blank under the entry for Gross Combination Weight.

It does however, give the Gross Vehicle Weight as 2000 Kg, so, unfortunately, that seems to be the limit. Now, the curb weight for the UK model is not easy to track down, but the US model in EX premium trim weighs in at 1565 kg. Assuming the UK model is similar, then that only leaves 435kg for occupants, luggage, trailer, and its load. By contrast, the Optima PHEV can tow 1500kg.

This looks like another case of Kia cost cutting on the Niro (which it sells in comparatively small numbers to the UK market) by not submitting the case for towing weight/ Gross Combination Weight into the type approval process.