LET’S be brutally honest for a moment. With certificate of entitlement (COE) prices at or near all-time highs, for a large chunk of the market, buying a car right now is all about wealth signalling.

That leaves carmakers like Kia on the sidelines, because no matter how nice its products are at the moment, you can’t tell everyone how well you’re doing by buying a Kia.

But the brand’s new Niro range does at least offer the chance for some virtue signalling.

The Niro EV, a pure electric version, not only ticks all the boxes on the list of things you expect from a family crossover, it zips around without tailpipe emissions (which is hardly surprising, since it doesn’t even have a tailpipe).

Somewhat less-clean, but still admirably low-carbon, is the Niro Hybrid, which has a petrol engine, but sips so carefully from the tank that some motorcycles use more fuel than it does.

Whatever they have under the bonnet, both are lovely cars, well executed by a car company that clearly knows its engineering.

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Its design department is doing well, too, especially if its goal is to avoid anonymity. The Niro gets its quirky styling from a spicy concept car that Kia playfully christened the HabaNiro, which donated its distinctive headlights and eye-catching boomerang-shaped tail-lamps.

There’s no mistaking the Niro for anything other than a sport utility vehicle (SUV), what with its chunky lines and the rugged-looking plastic cladding on its lower flanks, but the slim grille between its headlamps suggests that there’s at least a smidgen of whale shark in its DNA.

The car itself is no whale (Kia’s popular Cerato compact sedan is 22 cm longer), but the Niro does a lot with its real estate. The cabin is at least roomy enough to transport five; its rear seats fit three adults with ease. They fold down to expand the boot, which isn’t massive to begin with, but can form part of a flat cargo platform that ought to swallow the paraphernalia of most lifestyles.

Meanwhile, the dashboard wouldn’t look out of place in a BMW, with a freestanding screen that houses both digital driver displays and a simple touchscreen interface, built around easy-to-recognise icons.

What the Niro makes clear is that Kia is, in some ways, Korea’s answer to Skoda, in its ability to build practical cars that offer lots of useful features.

Some of those are just thoughtful. For instance, the SX trim comes with front seats shaped for hanging handbags or jackets, which should be handy if February’s freakishly chilly weather ever comes back. Each front chair has a USB charging port, and the car has sensors to let you know if you left something or someone behind in the back.

Other features are more playful, like a selection of background sounds from nature to accompany your drive, like “Calm Sea Waves”. The front passenger seat has a sort of La-Z-Boy setting that lets the person there recline for a snooze, presumably lulled to sleep by the sound of the ocean hitting the surf.

There’s also plenty of serious stuff in the form of active driving aids. The Niro won’t let you steer out of a parallel parking spot into someone’s path, for example, slamming on the brakes automatically if it detects an approaching vehicle.

Likewise, it buzzes the steering wheel and sounds a warning if it thinks you’re about to reverse out of a parking spot into the path of a crossing car. That’s particularly handy in the Niro EV, because chances are you’ll often park it nose-first, since that is where the charging port happens to be.

Opening that port to plug in a charger is something most drivers here would need to do once every nine days (the car’s trip computer estimated my total range at 458 km), which makes the Niro EV a medium-range electric car. An hour with a 50 kilowatt charger, the kind you find in malls everywhere these days, ought to put enough juice in the Kia for a typical week’s motoring.

Of course, if you can’t see yourself doing all that, there’s the Niro Hybrid. It pairs a 1.6-litre engine with an electric motor, juggling the two to boost efficiency. In theory, driving with monk-like restraint would let you stretch a full tank past 1,000 km. But even if you’re liberal with the gas pedal, you could probably make it to three weeks before stopping to take on fuel.

Mind you, behind the wheel is where the Niro Hybrid feels most ordinary. While it’s reasonably engaging trying to drive in a way that makes the most of the hybrid powertrain (anticipating traffic flows to keep your momentum going, trying to accelerate gently enough to not rouse the petrol engine, that kind of thing), the Kia isn’t a memorable car to drive.

The performance is languid, the steering stays light all the time, and the chassis just serves up little payoff for trying to hustle the car speedily through corners. At least the petrol engine seems to cut in and out more smoothly than in the previous Niro Hybrid.

If driving pleasure is at all important to you, the EV is the one to go for. It exemplifies much of what people find appealing about electric cars. The motor responds instantly to every twitch of your right foot, and the chassis feels better balanced through bends, with the hefty batteries’ underfloor position also giving it a lower centre of gravity, which aids stability.

More to the point, it’s whisper-quiet on the move, and even though it has firm springs, it manages to avoid the fidgety ride that afflicted early electric vehicles (EVs). As electric cars go, the Niro is one of the best on the market from a non-luxury brand.

What Kia has come up with overall is a pair of cars that are appealingly well-equipped and modern, with enough practicality and safety features to nail the family-car brief. But what makes the Niro interesting is that it offers you a way to experience conclusively what EVs are like.

If the Hybrid has made your shopping list, it’s worth asking for a go in the Niro EV while you’re at it, to see if you’re won over by what battery power has to offer.

The one thing the Niro EV won’t do is save you money. It costs S$29,000 more to buy than the Niro Hybrid, and won’t even save you money at the pumps. Assuming you do 15,000 km a year, and with petrol and electricity at S$2.09 a litre and $0.594 a kilowatt-hour respectively, the Niro Hybrid would cost S$1,255.40 per annum to keep running — S$188 less than the Niro EV.

Ultimately, what the Niro pair could end up demonstrating to people is that an EV is worth considering, not because it is a more economical kind of car, but because it is a better one.

Kia Niro EV Motor Power / Torque 147hp / 255Nm Battery Type / Capacity Lithium-ion, 64.8 kWh Standard Charge Time / Type 7 hours / 11kW AC Fast-Charge Time / Type 41 minutes 10 to 80 per cent / 80kW DC Electric Range 463 km 0-100 km/h 7.8 seconds Top Speed 167 km/h Efficiency 16.2 kWh/100 km Agent Cycle & Carriage Kia Price S$207,999 with COE and VES Available Now

Kia Niro Hybrid SX Engine  1,580cc, inline 4 Power 104 hp at 5,500 rpm Torque 144 Nm at 4,000rpm  Gearbox 6-speed, twin-clutch automatic Electric Motor 43hp Battery Lithium ion, 1.32kWh  System Power 130 hp System Torque 265 Nm 0-100km/h 10.4 seconds Top Speed 165 km/h Fuel Efficiency 4.0 L/100 km  Agent Cycle & Carriage Kia Price S$178,999 Available Now