Yes there is room, read on…
The spare tire kit is a minimum must have for peace of mind particularly if you commute 120 miles a day like me.
Onto the story, my Niro is less under a month old and I just bought and installed the same spare kit mentioned previously roughly 5 days ago. 1.5 hours into a 6 hour drive we suffered a Driver’s side rear sidewall blowout while crossing a long bridge. The Niro had @1400 miles on it at the time and without that spare kit it would have been a different kind of evening. For this type of tire failure the inflator and can of goo option would be useless.
After getting the spare installed this was the perfect time to verify that indeed, a full sized Niro tire (205/60R16) on the rim fits just fine in the spare tire well, it locks in just like the temp spare and the tool kit fits great inside the rim. It’s a bit taller than the temp donut so the top layer high-density foam cubby-caddy was removed to close the cover panel.
I intend to purchase a full sized tire and rim, either alloy like the OEM or the appropriate Steel size and go with a full sized spare in the future. I’m not sure yet if I’ll go all the way and install a TPMS sensor too?
Thankfully the nearest dealer was about 6 miles away and 1.5 hours later we were on the road again.
Kudos to Michelin who, after fact, agreed to pay for the tire and installation fees under warranty via check. Not sure why the dealer couldn’t have done that but still very happy the OEM tire manufacturer is taking care of it.
A cautionary aside, multiple Tire folks I’ve talked with claim that if you were able to use the inflator and goo to repair your tire temporality due to puncture it generally renders both the tire and TPMS useless after the fact. Meaning that sooner or later when you have the tire serviced you’ll need to replace both the tire and sensor.
Why didn’t the dealer/sales guy where bought the Niro from offer me the spare tire kit in exchange plus an upcharge to cover the delta and just install the spare tire kit right at point of purchase when I asked him?? Seems like a no brainer to me.
Love the car and getting @ 45-50.5 MPG so far.