Maybe you can help with one more question on the Kia Niro. Sometimes when I start it up it is silent -no engine noise whatsoever -I am presuming it is running on the electric battery? Other times it starts with an engine noise -so, it seems to be running on petrol? Can you explain this or do you know anything about it, please? thanks

Starter solenoid are gone bad. Replace the starter.

Thanks for the prompt answer - BUT this is only a new car?! It hardly needs a new starter already? Another Kia mechanic just told me that this is what hybrids do - sometimes there is enough power in the battery to start and move a short distance (silently) -sometimes there is not - then the petrol engine kicks in -so, it depends on the stored energy in the battery (according tho this mechanic)?? Any comments??

kia's mechanic explanation is sound, hybrids are strange like that

Read your owner's manual.

This is how the Niro behaves. My parents have one, and it'll roll out of the driveway THEN the engine starts up, even with the A/C running. The engine starts to provide more power than the (~40 HP) electric motor will provide, to top up the hybrid or 12V batteries, or to warm up the interior of the car. About the A/C -- I wondered how the car started pumping out cold air without the engine running. It turns out to be a clever, simple change. The A/C system looks completely conventional, including the compressor location. It appears they simply used a shorter "non-A/C" serpentine belt, and put an electric motor on the end of the compressor where the belt pulley would conventionally go.