What is "chauffeur stop"? As for the response delay, try it in Sport mode. In eco and normal modes the throttle and steering are a little less sharp.
Niro was mentioned at Reliability Problems Plague Newer Electric Cars, Consumer Reports' Latest Survey Shows: "Kia Niro EV owners reported problems such as having to replace a bearing in the electric motor". Niro EV at https://web.archive.org/web/20201123161426/https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/who-makes-the-most-reliable-cars/ got a reliability score of 18 out of 100, which is very bad and pretty bad for an EV. Since I don't monitor HyunKia forums/groups, I came across Owners Say Hyundai And Kia Isn't Dealing Well With Electric Motor Issue w/some videos of the noise. Some of the electronic noise is just the pedestrian noisemaker but the gearbox/motor noise is pretty bad. Sounds like these problems aren't that isolated given how few of these vehicles have been sold at least in the US.
This issue was fixed ages ago in the UK, not sure why they are still having problems. Kia send out a service bulletin that replaced the parts at issue. They need the car all day, it's not a quick job.