with a recent surge in the popularity of electric and electrified vehicles around the world
especially in the domestic korean market and the european market nero has become kia's most
important product the compact crossover is leading in sales in key markets such as germany and the uk
since 2020 making kia the seventh-ranked brand in europe kia niro in particular has single-handedly
helped the korean company to gain 7 of the market share in europe kia has sold 77 498 units of nero
in 2020 up 34.7 from the previous year ranked his second most popular eco-friendly vehicle in europe
out of the all units sold the eevee version known as nero eevee or
e nero accounted for more than half of this total
the reason for the popularity is its affordability and the honest-to-goodness eevee performance
with the price in the low thirty thousand dollar range with the federal tax credit and the
real-life range that approaches 300 miles it's one of the best electric vehicles that money can buy
and it's due to this kind of tremendous popularity that there is now a next generation model upcoming
despite the fact the platform sharing hyundai ionic hatchback is being discontinued with the
next all-new eurofast approaching we will find out all about the upcoming model including the design
specifications expected release date and price so before we go on we would highly appreciate
your support by subscribing and turning on the notification bell if you haven't already
and please don't forget to like comment and vote on the question that's presented at the end of the
video the biggest change that you can look forward to in the next generation nero is the design
based on the habanero concept of 2019 first introduced at the new york international auto show
it was to showcase kia's direction for the suv of the future as a youthful brand as a concept for
the production nero it was also to address nero's perhaps biggest shortcoming it's rather plain and
unexciting appearance habanero featured a stunning design with butterfly doors a red-hot interior and
a tough-looking front-end and skid plate that's home both on and off-road and most of the design
cues including the color-contrasting c-pillar that extends down to the wheel well scene define their
way to the new production nero judging by the spy photos and predictive renderings the crazy
butterfly doors unfortunately won't make the production unfortunately
the provocative augmented reality head-up display navigation from the concept will also make it into
production and the rest of the interior is just as provocative as the latest fifth generation
kia sportage has the all-new kia niro is also to receive the near duplicate of the futuristic
and high-tech interior of the ev6 complete with a dual panoramic 12.3 inch lcd screens for drivers
cluster and infotainment it also features the ev6 styled shift by wire rotating shift dial and two
spoke steering wheel to complete the authentic ev6 ambience another big change that you can expect is
the performance and the efficiency improvements of the hybrid and the plug-in hybrid versions
the sources indicate that the next generation nero would host power plant from the bigger
sorrento hybrid and plug-in hybrid this is a significant upgrade as the older kappa engine
used in the current nero dates back to 2008 first used in cars like the now defunct hyundai accent
the newest sorrento uses the latest smartstream engine that's much more powerful clean and
efficient also used in the latest sportage the kia sorento hybrid power plant features a turbocharged
1.6 liter inline four-cylinder engine with a 44.2 kilowatt electric motor and a 1.49 kilowatt-hour
battery pack for a total output of 227 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque the plug-in hybrid
version features the same 1.6 liter turbo engine but has a more powerful 66.9 kilowatt electric
motor and a larger 13.8 kilowatt hour battery pack to produce a total of 261 horsepower and 258
pound-feet of torque that is capable of achieving 35 miles or 56 kilometers of pure electric range
needing two hours to charge using the level 2 charger in sorrento these power plants rendered 0
to 60 miles per hour time of mid 8 seconds in both versions due to plug-in hybrid's heavier weight
in the application of the much lighter nero the time is expected to be cut by at least one second
with respect to the impending release of the next generation neuro the biggest question
that is raised is whether or not the pure eevee version would continue to be available
unfortunately kia is not making it clear what the future is for the zero emission version of nero
there might be a couple of reasons for kia's ambiguity first as earlier mentioned it's due
to the planned discontinuation of the hyundai ionic hatchback which is a sister car to neuro
ev as ionic is branched off to being a sub-brand of hyundai exclusive to electric cars there is
no plan to produce the next generation model of the current ionic hatchback and without the
donor vehicle from hyundai there may be little chance that kia will get its own electric version
secondly however what is coming is a celto sized 800 volts egmp based dedicated electric crossover
called ev4 which will essentially be a smaller and more affordable version of the ev6 also
the expected arrival time for this sensational compact dedicated electric crossover is nearly
the same time as the release date of the new nero in the second quarter of 2022 which makes it even
harder to imagine that two models sharing the same target market would be released at the same time
however with kia's mission of putting out more than 11 new electric vehicles by 2026
with the ev6 being just first it wouldn't be entirely impossible to fathom a more affordable
non-egmp derivative electric vehicle to be released at the same time as the dedicated ev
the current nero ev still does a marvelous job in delivering the best ev value in the industry
as the top-ranking mass market product and jd power 2021 ev ownership study and we wouldn't be
surprised if the current electric power plant was carried over with a slight modification
this is because the nero ev specifications are truly ahead of their time the current nero eevee
features large for its size 64 kilowatt hour high density lithium-ion polymer battery pack combined
with its highly efficient motor that produces 201 horsepower and stout 291 pound-feet of torque
to put it in perspective the 64 kilowatt hour battery pack is actually larger than the standard
range kia ev6 that's powered by a 58 kilowatt hour battery also nero ev actually packs more
power than the entry-level single motor ev6 model that only comes with horsepower and 258 pound-feet
of torque and outpace the more expensive ev6's 0-60 acceleration time of 8.5 seconds by nearly
1.5 seconds at 7 seconds flat with the new nero growing in size to near the sportage dimensions
as it is to share the same platform as the popular suv there might be room for both electric vehicles
to coexist the ev4 would be occupying the space where the current nero ev would be leaving
with the new neuro ev offering the electric alternative to sportage with a more stylish
passenger car flare there is also a talk of an electric sportage or esportage and you can find
out more by viewing our feature video by clicking on the link at the top right corner of the screen
due to the global chip shortage affecting production the expected release date of the
second generation nero is now second quarter 2022 moved from early 2022 as originally anticipated
the hybrid will be released first with the plug-in hybrid version to follow within the year
the estimated price should only be slightly higher compared to the current model with a starting
price of about twenty seven thousand dollars for the hybrid version and thirty two thousand
dollars for the plug-in version if released the edi version should start from low forty thousand
dollars which would still give you about five thousand dollars cushion from the lowest priced
ev6 as for the end of the video question of the new possible electric vehicle options in the near
future what would be your choice the ev6 base model the celta sized ev4 or the new e neuro and
esportage if they were ever to be produced please vote and share your views by clicking on the link
in the comment section below thanks for watching auto vision your best source for the fastest
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