This is one that I have on loan for a few days from McGrath Kia in Cedar

Rapids Iowa ,primarily so that I can learn what's changed between the 2019

version that I own and the 2020. The first thing we can go over is the engine

compartment. If you look on the right-hand side, you'll see the hardware

that is used to interface the 8.9 kwh battery in the back with

the motor generator unit over here and the starter generator unit over there, as

well as manage the interface to the level 1 level 2 charging port in

converting the AC to DC and DC to three-phase power to drive the motor.

The starter generator is right here and it is used to start the car and, when

the car is idling, it can then be used to pull power from the car motor and put it

back in the battery. This is used mostly in the middle of winter when you still

want to drive on electric power but the car has to use the engine in order

to properly heat the cabin. On the right hand side, you will see the connection to

the electric motor. The electric motor sits between the engine and the

transmission it takes the place of the torque converter. So when the electric

motor runs by itself, it disconnects the engine from the transmission and when

the when the gas engine is running it can then provide additional power to

help move the car forward or take a little bit of power away from the engine

in order to recharge the battery pack. Access to the back of the vehicle is

achieved through here. There's a rubberized button underneath that then raises the

hatch. The back of the Nero is the same as it's always been.

The floor here underneath that you have the tire inflator kit and then a little

spot to put the charge cable, a 110 charge cable, and behind that is the

lithium ion battery that is used for propulsion. On the right hand side

there's a little bit of a bump out here and this bump out is where the 12-volt

lead acid battery is housed, that would normally be in the front for a regular

hybrid. But because the front has all the power electronics, it has moved back

here. Perhaps the biggest change in this year is the comfort of the seats. In the

previous model year, the seats were a little bit firm and that could lead some

problems. If you have, as my wife does, fibromyalgia and sitting on hard

surfaces for long periods of time is a problem. Now, along with making the seats

considerably softer, they do have more of a matte finish to them, so if you sit on

them you won't slide into position quite as readily as you would

have before. But these are so much more comfortable, I think it's well worth the

compromise. Just like last year the passenger side seat chair is completely

manual. Manual for the seat adjustment, manual for the for the seat placement

and so that means it is not nearly as comfortable for the passenger as it is

for the driver and that can be an issue. If you want to use this as a family

vehicle, and drive long distances, the passengers won't be nearly as

comfortable as they could be. One nice thing about the passenger seat is that it

does have a very very wide range of motion. It can be... This is like the

default position and you can move way back in the in the rails so if you have

a very tall person with very long legs they will have no problem sitting in the

passenger compartment. If you have a very tall person sitting in the front seat

there is literally no leg room left in the back seat. You might be able to fit a

backward facing child seat, but there's no way even a child could fit in there.

You have about four or five inches of leg

or room to put your legs and that would not be comfortable even for short

distances. With the passenger seat in its normal position, there is no issue with

an average-sized person sitting comfortably in the back seat. There's

about three or four inches left between my legs and the passenger position. There

is a very small hump between the two sides in the back it is about two inches

tall, so it will not be uncomfortable for somebody who wants to sit in there for a

long ride. However, there really is only enough room

in the back seat for two adults. Three children should have no problems, but

three there's no way three adults could comfortably fit in the back seat. The

infotainment center is completely new for 2020. Instead of being a smaller

screen with a thick bezel, this is now, I think, a 12 inch screen with a

completely flat bezel. Somebody with fingers as big as mine can actually get

to the various spots on the screen in the upper corners. If I go to weather,

normally on my 2019, there's a thick bezel right here in the corner and

hitting that with my finger is kind of not reliable. But with the 2020, with it

being perfectly flat, I have access to every part of the screen. Now, with the

main menu is broken into three sections and each of those three sections is

configurable. So, if I go to the setup button->advanced->home screen->edit home widgets

and those are the three ones. By default, it gives you maps, but, since I

know where I am, I've changed that away. To change any of those three items, you

click and hold on the item you want, drag it over, release and now you have the new

value. Hit home, slide left and now it has the clock there rather than the calendar

or whatever. If I want to change it to something else it set up advanced... Now

another one is the custom button, which is the star right here. By default,

it has nothing and I always set it to home because that lets me get to home no

matter where I am, if I'm in CarPlay or someplace else, but by default it is None.

Now, on on my 2019, Home is this

screen and it is kind of annoying to hit the star button and have to slide left

every time. I think that that may be a bug just because it isn't work the way I

would expect it to, but it might be a feature who knows. Nav mode: you go and

enter your destination like you normally would. If you hit in map mode then

there's a little arrow on the right-hand side. If I click it over pops

the CarPlay or plug-in hybrid data or any of those items that you can normally

configure to be on the home screen come up over here. Which is very convenient

because you don't have to go the home screen to see a larger map and what

you want to, do you just go to map mode instead. CarPlay is normal. I haven't had

any issues with CarPlay. it is nice having CarPlay on the full width of the

screen, so you can go back. I can go to my playlists. I can scroll to any one that I

want I can press it and it gives me a list of the songs. You can either scroll

using your finger or you can use the up and down arrows. If you go to the

playing next screen and scroll down, then you choose to go to the next song

in the list. It will keep you scrolled where you were rather than taking you

back up, so if you scroll down a little bit and then the next song starts

playing and when you go back and forth you may lose track of where you are. I

can see advantages to both, it just is kind of surprising the first couple

times that you do it. This is the standard plug-in hybrid screen. It shows

you how many miles you have left, where your closest charging station is,

if you have charging management setup, how you're driving,

how the energy is flowing to the system.

You can see data coming from the

engine, going to the battery and so on. One thing that changed going from the

2019 to the 2020, which I do like even though reduces range, the full

charge is now at 95% of the battery full rather than a 100%. The

number you see here is not really the number that the battery management

computer is providing. This is one that's been massaged a little bit to provide

more of a user battery level rather than the real battery level.

95% from the BMS (Battery Management System) equals 100%. Here, it's down a little bit

because I've been sitting with the car on and it's gonna be,

of course, pulling power from the battery. If I had my ODB2 reader software up,

you would see it's probably pulling about 3 amps out of the about

400 volt battery to run all the electronics and so forth.

When you backup, one of the things that happens is, in addition to turning on the backup camera,

is it will mute whatever audio source you have. So if you have radio on, if you

have mp3s playing, or whatever, it will reduce that volume to level 5

out of the max at 45, so that will help reduce the distractions that

you have. It doesn't reduce it to a certain volume level, so if level five is

still pretty loud it will still be pretty loud, but it will least quiet it

down. Another thing that it will do is it shows you the three backup zones, so if

there is any obstacles in your path, it will like that and then generate

a tone. And that tone is in stereo so if it's on the right-hand side of the car

you'll hear to the right-hand side of your ear, if it was on the left-hand side

of the car you'll hear of your left ear, if it's behind you'll hear out of both

as well as being able to see what's going on. Another thing is there's

another mode for the backup cam and that is straight down from the back bumper, so

that you can see any obstructions that might be

immediately behind you as well as those that are a little further away. It

will also give you your velocity vector, so it shows me where I'm going as I back up

as well as hearing the backup tone to let you know. Then, as I turn the

steering wheel, you'll see my velocity vector changes so that I can see how the

car is going to travel and whether I'm going to miss the objects or not.

One of the other changes that has taken place inside the cabin, is there used to be a

little little cubby hole here that would be about good size for a garage door

opener. What happened is they've moved the parking brake from being a

pedal on the floor to being a button here. So, basically it's a it's a bit

easier to integrate. It also has an auto hold button.

For me I liked having the little tray right there, because I'mnot one of

those people who likes attaching the garage door remote opener to their visor.

It tends to hold the visor down a little bit. Because of that, it would be nice if, on the

technology trim package, they would give you the option of a built-in garage door

opener that you could just have it learn your regular garage door opener, as well

as a 360 camera. Because the backup camera, while being nice, is not helpful

when it comes to parking and the parking assist does not help you when and you

are trying to pull forward. I know they have it on other vehicles, it would

just be a nice addition to the technology package to be able to see

what's in front of you what's the sides you as well as what's behind, so that way

you can more easily pull in the parking spots. You can see who's in front of you

when you're pulling forward in the parking lot, or a parking space, and it

would just make life a whole lot easier.

I also almost forgot they have changed the power in front. It used to be that the

was two of these old-style 12-volt interfaces now in addition to having the

the CarPlay and Android Auto plug,

they have a power only plug right next to it so that way you don't need to

bring an adapter to be able to charge your passengers phone.

One of the other major improvements I've noticed, in the car, has been just the level of noise

that the cabin experiences. In the 2019 Niro that I own, it can be kind of loud.

If there's cross traffic, you definitely notice it. If the car passes even notice

it. I don't notice it nearly as much in the

2020. Another issue is when the gas engine kicks in, it is very very loud in

the 2019 and I haven't really noticed it in the 2020. Highways noise is

considerably less. I've measured with my phone a volume of 72 decibels with my

Niro and this one on the same route with the gas engine running it was only 66

decibels, which is a big big improvement and one of the biggest complaints I've

heard from people who've been interested in buying in here.

The lane keep assist is rather aggressive, which is good. It seems the

cameras have improved quite a bit. In some spots the car, would too

late realized that that was in the proper lane. Right now, in

some of the spots where I had problems in the past, I don't have any problems right now.

Also, if I get a bit closer to the lane it will automatically steer you

back. My wife's vehicle has Lane keep assist and it is not quite as nice.

If I force it across on the center line, we'll get beeped as well

as have to fight the steering wheel a little bit. I must prefer this more aggressive

lane keep assist as opposed to some of the more passive ones.

It also will do its best to keep you in the center of the lane, if you choose to

let it. I try not to just because it tends to make me bit lazy,

but if I do try to test that out it will correct and then come back to the

center of the lane rather than pinging you from lane from side to side. It will keep

you straight and level.

When I was doing my EV testing, what I