[calvinstrikesagain]

So I ordered and bought the very first Kia Niro Plug-in Hybrid in New Mexico. I've had it about three weeks now. Some interesting things I've noticed so far:

The coasting coaching feature is a great intro to coasting for a new hyper miler, but it only works based off of the built-in navigation, which may not pick the best route on its own. Use the waypoints feature to move the route to a better terrain or traffic choice if the other reporting options don't move it appropriately.

The 26 miles of all electric range is during the day with climate off. Lights, climate, heated and cooled seats, and the Advanced Smart cruise control all use up juice. Being more judicious with route planning, and accelerating at the electric edge to speed and then coasting, I got 34 miles on a charge.

There is no regenerative braking position on the shifter. The system does maximum regenerative braking when a destination is entered for the predictive energy management system to plan for, and cruise control is set. So far, all my gas miles are highway miles, so it's doing somewhat better than the EPA highway mileage of 44. Letting the PEMS, or what Kia calls Prenergy do the work is pretty smooth and it just works.

Sport mode forces the engine on and uses the electric motor as a MacGuyvered turbo. It's pretty useful for attacking a big hill, or getting out of the way if you can't avoid the traffic at all. It's not quite as fun as wringing it my old Fiesta, but it's pretty close. The Sportmatic Dual Clutch is smooth, if a bit of a delay on the first shift. Since print the transmission in to the manual shift mode forces the engine on, you're not going to use that to further hyper mile the vehicle.

Back to climate control, the vehicle had a traditional heater and AC system, so if engine coolant temp falls below 57°F, it will duty cycle the engine when the heater is on. The heat is slow enough that it doesn't warm the cabin very quickly, so you're better off leaving it off and using the heated seats and wheel for a smaller range penalty.

Things I really love: it's super quiet. I can drive down the road listening to pianissimo violin solos and hear every single note crisply on the Harmon Kardon audio. Charging either from level one or two is a breeze. Scheduled charging works exactly as advertised. When it's done charging, it unlocks the charging cable so that someone else can use it. The seat warmers and ventilation are fantastic. All the factory instrumentation is spot on compared to my Scan Gauge II, and is super easy to read and use. Customizing menus and options is simple, and your can turn on our off the Advanced tech features intuitively and workout digging through a lot of menus. Most of all, I love the space and the comfort. I'm easy getting spilled by the smooth quiet ride, and enough space for my time trial bike, range bag, groceries, and girlfriend all at once. Even though she's a touch technophobic, she and the car have made peace, if not outright liking each other.