The Kia Niro may have just arrived in Australia but it’s at the end of its lifecycle, with a new one spied testing by our photographers.
The latest photos give us our first look at the interior of the new Niro, set to launch in 2022.
This appears to be a top-spec model as heated and ventilated front seats are present.
The Niro looks to be adopting a similar interior set-up to the upcoming, all-electric EV6, with a large digital instrument cluster and touchscreen infotainment system in one assembly.
The centre stack is quite minimalist, with little in the way of switchgear.
On the centre console, there are switches for the parking brake, drive mode selector, heated and ventilated seats, and parking sensors and cameras.
There’s also a start button with an elegant, knurled metal surround and a rotary dial transmission shifter that looks fresh out of a Genesis.
The 2019 Habaniro show car was clearly the inspiration for the second-generation Niro’s exterior.
However, the concept’s butterfly doors and flush-fitting door handles have been, predictably, junked and the side surfaces are notably flatter.
Although this prototype is fitted with a shroud, we can see it has a version of the concept’s hockey stick-style tail lights.
That could also mean the next Niro could be the first Kia in years to go without the ‘tiger nose’ grille, much as the Habaniro concept did.
Expect the Niro to continue to offer a choice of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric powertrains.
Rather than move to the Hyundai Motor Group’s all-new, dedicated electric vehicle platform, known as E-GMP, the Niro will continue to use a front-wheel drive platform.
Closely related to the Hyundai Kona, which also features an all-electric version, the current Niro was revealed at the 2016 Chicago motor show and was introduced in markets like Europe and the US later that year.
Pictured: the current Niro 
It finally arrived in Australia in 2021, with Kia citing global demand and Australia’s weaker emissions standards as reasons why it took so long for the Niro to get here.
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