The drive from the suburbs of Sydney to the picturesque South coast town of Kiama is a great way to test an electronic car over varying speeds from 40km in the inner west to 110km on motorways, including road stretches that are straight, winding, up hill and downhill.
On the day of my range and efficiency test the outside temperature was 22-24C. Inside I had AC on set to driver only at 22C with windows shut. Regenerative braking was set to i-Pedal (maximum) and driving mode to Eco.
I’m not sure of the exact mix but I’d say maybe 50% of the time was spent driving with Cruise Control On (at speed limit) and also 50% with it off on local roads and in heavier traffic.
I started in Marrickville, Sydney with 98% battery and an estimated 446km range left.
I paused after 61km for a break at Sublime Point to enjoy the view.
The altitude had changed from 35m above sea level to a summit of 415m above sea level on a plateau.
Travelling 61km using 16.9kWh/100km, had made the range estimate fall by 66km to 380km remaining.
Driving down the steep slope at Mount Ousley I descended to park at Black Beach reserve, Kiama at an altitude of 10m above sea level.
Thanks to the i-pedal (one pedal) driving mode the car achieved great regenerative braking going down hill. I didn’t need to use the actual brake pedal at all.
Between Sublime Point and Kiama the Kia Niro EV GT-Line travelled 58km using 10.8kWh/100km, which made the range estimate fall by 58km to 322km remaining.
At Kiama I stopped for almost 2 hours to have lunch, go for a walk along the foreshore, see the famous blowhole and enjoy a chocolate brownie at Flour Water Salt.
Then I drove 3km down the road to Bombo Beach car park, leaving a range estimate of 329km left.
You’ve probably never heard of Bombo Quarry but the area is often featured in TV commercials and is the perfect place to test out your photography skills.
During the drive home in the reverse direction I drove back up the steep slope and paused at the top of Mount Ousley rest stop to have a snack.
Between Bombo Beach car park and the top of Mount Ousley rest stop I travelled 44km using 17 kWh/100km, which made the range estimate fall by 66km to 263km.
From the top of Mount Ousley back home to Marrickville I travelled 71km in the Kia Niro EV GT-Line using 11.7kWh/100km, which made the range estimate fall by 57km to 206 km remaining.
From beginning to end the car travelled 237km and the range estimate fell by 240km from 446km to 206km.
This shows that the range estimate for the Australian Kia Niro EV GT-Line 2022 was very accurate during this trip mixing straight, windy, uphill and downhill segments and the car is quite efficient considering it is a SUV not a streamlined car with a low profile.
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