Kia Niro EV vs Renault Scenic

The Renault Scenic costs £2,000 more than the Kia Niro EV. For that premium it adds 104 miles more WLTP range, 100 kW faster peak rapid charging and 70 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Renault Scenic comes out ahead overall.

The Kia Niro EV is £2,000 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £176 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Kia Niro EV comes out roughly £2,040 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 194 miles for the Kia Niro EV and 274 miles for the Renault Scenic - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Renault Scenic goes roughly 80 miles further between charging stops.

The Kia Niro EV is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 39 mm narrower than the Renault Scenic. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 575 mm of total clearance for the Kia Niro EV and about 536 mm of total clearance for the Renault Scenic. The Kia Niro EV also turns in a 0.3 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Kia Niro EV and 84% for the Renault Scenic. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. The Renault Scenic has the longer battery warranty at 8 years, versus 7 for the Kia Niro EV.