I'm wondering if the heater in my 2019 Niro EV is working as expected. I live in SoCal so it did not come with the heat pump. Even maxed out at 82 or whatever the limit is, it doesn't really heat the car well at all. The steering wheel and seat heaters do help, but the blower temp is anemic at best. I've owned several Volts prior to the Niro, and those also suffered from poor heating unless the ICE kicked in. Maybe this is the norm for all EVs (heat-pump excluded)?
I'm in Canada and have the heat pump version. Mine blasts hot air and will heat the cat up in 5-10 minutes.
I don't know if it's the same in your 2019, but in my 2020 Niro EV premium you can customize the climate control mode in each drive mode. This certainly implies that climate control is affected by which drive mode you're using.
The owners manual shows different settings for the heater depending on driving mode. Climate Drive Mode by DamnIHateThat posted Feb 25, 2021 at 12:58 PM
You are right, heating is less. I think that defrost is the same though, when I turn on my defrost it blasts a lot of heat and heats the car up fairly fast.
