I am a new Kiro PHEV owner. Having owned the car for only three days, and 1000 miles away from home, I have not had a chance to "plug in" until today.
First, although I think the UVO eco app is pretty awesome, its list of charge locations is woefully inadequate. I don't think "out of date" is applicable since there are charge locations that have been here over five years that are not on the app. Although I don't have much experience with other apps, I have found the PlugShare app to be pretty useful since it helped me find a free Level 2 public charge station just 2 miles from where I was this morning. If anyone has other apps to recommend, please let us know!
Second, the location I was at had two free L2 chargers with the J1772 plug that the Niro and almost every other vehicle uses in the US. Since I was the only one there, I grabbed one and plugged in my Niro for the first time! Since the Niro can only charge at 3.3 KW, I would have been there for 2 hours and 35 minutes for a full charge. I wasn't keeping track to determine the time to 80%, but I was certainly glad to be in my PHEV hybrid Niro and not a Tesla.
So, after talking to my wife who had stayed back at our motorcoach, I decided I had enough fun charging and went to remove the J1772 plug and it would not release! Kia roadside assistance was no help but they would send someone out. I knew from reading the manual that there was a button on the lower dash to push to lock in the connector, but I had not pushed that button. Since I was desperate, I pushed it on and off to no avail. I had texted my wife who did a search and recommended I push the Unlock button on the Kia remote two times. Although I did not remember reading anything about this, I tried it and it worked! Something to keep in mind!
-Bob
First, although I think the UVO eco app is pretty awesome, its list of charge locations is woefully inadequate. I don't think "out of date" is applicable since there are charge locations that have been here over five years that are not on the app. Although I don't have much experience with other apps, I have found the PlugShare app to be pretty useful since it helped me find a free Level 2 public charge station just 2 miles from where I was this morning. If anyone has other apps to recommend, please let us know!
Second, the location I was at had two free L2 chargers with the J1772 plug that the Niro and almost every other vehicle uses in the US. Since I was the only one there, I grabbed one and plugged in my Niro for the first time! Since the Niro can only charge at 3.3 KW, I would have been there for 2 hours and 35 minutes for a full charge. I wasn't keeping track to determine the time to 80%, but I was certainly glad to be in my PHEV hybrid Niro and not a Tesla.
So, after talking to my wife who had stayed back at our motorcoach, I decided I had enough fun charging and went to remove the J1772 plug and it would not release! Kia roadside assistance was no help but they would send someone out. I knew from reading the manual that there was a button on the lower dash to push to lock in the connector, but I had not pushed that button. Since I was desperate, I pushed it on and off to no avail. I had texted my wife who did a search and recommended I push the Unlock button on the Kia remote two times. Although I did not remember reading anything about this, I tried it and it worked! Something to keep in mind!
-Bob