The Southern Group of Motoring Writers likes to think it is the biggest and best group but now it is official… our members are miles better than other regional colleagues.
Don’t just take our word for it. This has been confirmed by none other than Kia UK and its multi award-winning PR team.
Eighteen SGMW members attended our annual Kia driving day at The Vineyard Hotel at Stockcross, near Newbury, in Berkshire.
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After a hectic day driving the latest new and revised models, and braving some inclement weather, Tom Richards, Kia UK press relations manager, said SGMW had outperformed other motoring groups distance-wise at the driving day, covering a total of 1,056 miles in the test cars.
That total was roughly the direct distance to the city of Lviv in Ukraine, Belgrade in Serbia, Naples in Italy or Gibraltar. Of the total mileage, 314 were covered on pure electricity which was 30%.
That is more than the government’s zero-emission vehicle mandate that this year 22% of all manufacturers’ new car sales in the UK must be ZEVs.
Kia’s test car fleet included:
- Picanto 1.0 2.
- Picanto 1.0’GT-Line.
- Stonic 1.0 T-GDi 2.
- Ceed 1.5 T-GDi GT-Line.
- XCeed 1.5 T-GDi 3.
- Niro 1.6 GDi HEV 4 DCT.
- Niro EV 64.8kWh 2.
- Sportage 1.6 T-GDi 2 48v 2WD.
- Sportage 1.6 T-GDi GT-Line S HEV AWD.
- Ceed Sportswagon 1.5 T-GDi 2.
- Sorento 1.6 T-GDi PHEV 4 AWD.
- EV9 99.8kWh Air RWD.
- EV9 99.8kWh GT-Line S’ AWD (six-seat).
Ben Hodges and David Wilkins drove the most cars, with six each, just one ahead of Julian Rendell and Andy Russell.
The most popular cars were the Niro Hybrid and EV at 134 miles each but the X-Ceed was driven least.
Tom also pointed out that SGMW members had shared a world exclusive. During the driving day, a software update, which allowed the speed alert to be switched off, was rolled out for the electric EV9 flagship.
Vice-chairman David Ward, standing in for chairman Ian Robertson who was unable to attend, thanked Kia and the press office team for all their efforts.
“We really enjoyed the day,” he added.
2024 Kia drive day gallery:
