• Large boot not diminished by batteries
• Plenty of cabin storage
• Not the widest of rear benches

How much space is there?

The e-Niro’s tall, boxy body is good news for interior space – there’s plenty for up to four adults, though five may be pushing it for all but very short journeys. It’s deceptively small, looking larger than it is, so don’t go thinking this will replace something like a Skoda Karoq for passenger or boot space. But against other compact SUVs such as the Nissan Juke it puts up a good show.

It makes good use of the space it has, with wide-opening rear doors concealing plenty of head and legroom for a six-footer to sit behind a similarly-sized driver. There are two Isofix points back here for mounting child seats, and the rear windows are nice and big, helping to make it feel bright and airy.

Though the rear bench is more or less flat, it’s not ideal for seating three adults abreast as there’s a general lack of width. The protruding rear air vents also reduce foot space for a middle passenger. Instead, it’s better to treat the e-Niro as a four-seater, which allows rear passengers to use the generous central armrest.

There’s plenty of storage up front, too, with a large glovebox, centre armrest cubby and door bins.

Boot space and storage

With 451 litres on offer, the e-Niro’s boot is well up there with other family-sized SUVs. When it comes to other pure-electric cars, it’s one of the largest on offer – beating out the 334 litres of the Hyundai Kona Electric or the 435 litres of the Nissan Leaf, but the Skoda Enyaq iV beats it hollow with 585 litres.

It’s a nice, unobstructed load area, too, and the rear seats split 60:40 to make carrying larger loads a bit easier. There’s also some underfloor stowage ideal for keeping charging cables hidden away.

How big is it?

View full specs

Safety

• Five-star Euro NCAP safety rating
• Safety kit all works well…
• … but cleverest tech is saved for top model

The standard Kia Niro scored four stars in the Euro NCAP safety tests, increasing to five stars with a then-optional Safety Pack. The e-Niro comes with all of these features as standard, which means it’s a five-star car.

All models get seven airbags with a cut-off for the front passenger when carrying a child seat and Isofix mountings in both outer rear seats. As for safety kit, all models get autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping assist and lane-following assist (the latter keeps the car actively centred in the lane rather than simply stepping in when drifting over the white line) and adaptive cruise control.

It’s only top-spec ‘4+’ cars that get an intelligent speed limit warning (capable of altering the cruise control speed in accordance with the speed limit) and blind-spot detection, however. Neither is essential but both are useful extras to have.