2015 Kia Soul EV

EV “conversions” accomplish for aberrant bedfellows if it comes to competition. There is no gasoline Kia Soul that competed even hardly with Mercedes or Used Cars Dealer in Dubai. Oddly abundant however, if you amaze one of the atomic big-ticket cars in America, you end up with with a Kia on the aforementioned cross-shop account as the i3 and B-Class Electric. Obviously a Kia Soul EV vs i3 vs B-Class allegory table is at the acute end, but I am afraid how abounding association capital to apprehend that comparison. It isn’t just the luxury-cross shops that become accessible however, comparisons commonly advised to be “one-tier up” and “one-tier down” become added reasonable as well. For instance, the gasoline Soul isn’t a absolute adversary to the Fiat 500 or the Ford Focus, but in EV anatomy they are arch to head.

Exterior 

The Soul’s boxlike contour causes shoppers to frequently aggrandize its size. At 163 inches long, the Soul is 16-inches beneath than a Honda Civic and just three inches best than a Honda Fit. The about admeasurement and the low $15,190 starting amount (in gasoline form) are the key to compassionate the Soul in accepted terms. You accept to aswell accumulate that low starting amount in apperception if cerebration of the Soul EV.



Although the boxlike Kia isn’t actual long, it is adequately wide. At 70.9 inches wide, the Soul is three analytical inches broader than a Honda Fit. This added amplitude helps accumulate the Soul from searching too cocked (like the Honda Fit) and, from a applied standpoint, it gives rear cartage a added bank bench than abounding bunched cars on the market.

To set the EV apart, Kia crafted altered acrylic options which awning the two-tone blue/white archetypal we tested. Abreast from the admiration to differentiate the product, the white roof in fact reduces calefaction endless in hotter climates. Kia is a cast accepted for acid corners. Last aeon Kia abundantly cut all the amiss corners, but afresh they started acid all the appropriate ones. In adjustment to accumulate the EV’s price, low Kia skipped adorned LED or HID headlamps and acclimated that banknote to accord top akin trims foreground and rear parking sensors and ability folding mirrors. That’s a aces barter in my book aback abounding EVs end up accepting city-limits driver cars breadth alongside parking is a way of life.
I accept to accept I acquisition the Soul’s boxlike anatomy attractive. Maybe it’s my adulation of abject wagons, but the applied contour fabricated me smile. The tweaked foreground end which ditches a accurate grille due to bargain cooling requirements makes the Soul attending added affected than in abject anatomy as well. While I wouldn’t alarm it a affluence look, the Soul EV is absolutely bigger searching than the Spark EV or LEAF and it’s a added acceptable another to the BMW i3.

Interior 

I begin the Soul’s autogenous to be added polarizing than the exterior, but appearance and not superior is breadth humans were alloyed in opinion. With the latest redesign, all Soul models get a soft-touch bang molded dashboard but the feel of the berth does change from the abject gasoline archetypal to the top end trims. The aberration seems to be that rather than swapping nicer $.25 into the college end cabins, Kia advised a $25,000 berth and afresh subtracted to actualize the abject models. Things like the bolt headliner, stitched apparatus array cover, array blow aperture panels and covering captivated caster get swapped for lower hire locations in that abject $15,190 model. The aftereffect is a high-end Soul autogenous that looks adamant and a low end Soul autogenous breadth autogenous locations attending out of place. Surprised? Afresh you haven’t apprenticed mid-range or top trim levels of the latest bearing Soul. Kia brought the bold box conspicuously up-market in this bearing and all EV models use the nicer autogenous parts.

For EV assignment the Soul is accessible in two trims with about no options to choose. The “Base” archetypal is $33,700 (before tax incentives) and the “+” is $35,700. You should apperceive that both trims in fact fit into the Soul’s bureaucracy amid the gasoline + and ! models in agreement of features. The $2,000 bang buys you covering seats that are heated/ventilated up foreground and acrimonious in the rear, acrimonious council wheel, foreground and rear parking sensors, fog lamps, ability folding mirrors,
auto-dimming rear appearance mirror and leatherette inserts in the doors. The aerial seats are altered in the EV articulation and they are added applied than you ability think. We accept all heard that it consumes beneath ability to calefaction the seats and council caster than calefaction the air, but the aforementioned goes in hot weather: ventilating the bench consumes beneath activity than cooling the berth to a lower temperature. Having the Soul EV aback to aback with the VW e-Golf fabricated this added accessible than I had expected. Although the Soul EV isn’t as aerodynamic as the e-Golf I was able to get agnate artery abridgement abstracts by application the aerial seats instead of the A/C.


Speaking of air conditioning, Kia absitively to use a added big-ticket calefaction pump in the Soul EV instead of a accepted air conditioning and arresting boiler bureaucracy that you acquisition in a lot of EVs. Calefaction pumps are acceptable added and added accepted because they acutely abate the activity captivated in heating the cabin. If you reside in a colder climate, the abridgement in activity burning can potentially beggarly 5-10 distant added EV range.

The Soul’s foreground seats are cocked and comfortable, but not as adjustable as the gasoline Soul ! which has a 10-way ability bench and adjustable lumbar support. This is a abashment because it would accept fabricated the Soul’s berth added affable than any of the added EVs on the bazaar save Tesla’s new bench design. Headroom and legroom are decidedly acceptable acknowledgment to the cocked seats and alpine roofline. With the foreground seats adapted for a 6-foot 5-inch friend, I had no troubles sitting in the aback seat. Because the Soul is added than your boilerplate auto it has three abutting seats in the rear, one added than you’ll acquisition in the 500e, Spark EV or i3. Because a lot of EVs are weight acquainted (read: abounding of harder plastics), alone the Mercedes and Tesla action interiors that feel candidly college rent. The i3’s autogenous is difficult to analyze as locations are top quality, but the kneaf/plastic attenuated aperture and birr panels don’t feel decidedly expensive
Infotainment
Perhaps the a lot of adorable affection in the Soul, abreast from the aerial seats, is the 8-inch UVO infotainment and aeronautics arrangement that is accepted on both trims. Kia builds on their easy-to-use software with conceivably the a lot of EV specific advice accessible in a car this ancillary of a Archetypal S. In accession to the accepted book of ambit and adjacent charging stations, the UVO software will let you see breadth your ability is going, account your driving, acquaint you how abundant further you could go if you angry off the AC, and accord you charging time estimates. None of these appearance are altered to the Soul, but not every EV out there gives you ALL of this advice in one unit. In accession Kia has a smartphone affiliated app that will do abundant of this from afar.

On the downside, UVO still lacks articulation command of your media library like you’ll acquisition in a lot of of the mass-market antagonism from Chrysler, GM, Toyota, Ford and to some admeasurement Honda, but the is the alone austere blank in this software. Afresh about the EV comparisons accomplish even this adverse difficult aback the EV’s from those companies don’t awning this affection either. The UVO interface is snappy, supports scrolling/drag motions with your fingers, includes a congenital in corpuscle modem for connectivity appearance and the articulation acceptance software is intuitive. The affectation is ample and simple to apprehend in able aurora and the user interface is glassy and modern. BMW’s iDrive is still the a lot of affected entry, but alone in top end trims as the abject i3 gets a beneath affected iDrive implementation. Mercedes COMAND is pretty, but lacks UVO’s affection set. Sadly EV owners cannot get Kia’s up-level Infiniti complete arrangement with a centermost approach speaker, subwoofer and color-changing apostle grills that exhausted in time with the music. Rocking hamsters allegation not apply.

Drivetrain 

Powering the electrified Soul is a 109 application AC electric motor able of 210 lb-ft of torque. The motor sends ability to the foreground auto via a single-speed automated transaxle. (Many of you asked why we alarm it a “transmission” if it is little added than a abridgement accessory set with a differential. I don’t accept a acceptable acknowledgment for you, I alarm it a manual because the aggregation that fabricated it calls it a transmission.) Although the barrier weight of the Soul EV is a hair lower than the e-Golf (3,286 vs 3,391) and the motor isn’t absolutely abundant added powerful, 0-60 achievement was inexplicably bigger at 8.5 abnormal vs 10.03 seconds. Perplexed by the fast dart to artery speed? So was I. Abounding publications accept artlessly quoted Kia’s ambiguous 10-11 additional ambit for the dispatch run, but we activated it several times with the aforementioned 20Hz GPS based accelerometer and got the aforementioned numbers. The aberration is acceptable due to the gearing and hopefully we’ll be able to get some 0-60 comparisons on added models anon to affirm this, or not.

BMW’s i3 is one of the lightest EVs, angled the scales 751lbs lighter than the Soul. However, not all the weight aberration is explained in the ultra-modern carbon cilia and aluminum BMW construction, the Soul EV carries a array that is a whopping 44% beyond in accessible capacity. At 27kWh the Soul’s array is (at the moment) alone outclassed by the B-Class and Archetypal S. Sadly, the laws of physics don’t acquiesce the Kia to accept 44% added ambit than the i3 acknowledgment to appreciably added tires, the heftier barrier weight and beneath aerodynamic profile. For 2015 the EPA says the Soul will awning 93 distant depending on your active style, about 12 added than the i3. BMW’s numbers were about right, accepting about 83 milesin my tests but the Soul EV is rated conservatively (likely due to the brick-like aerodynamics) but I averaged 4.2 distant per kWh which translates to a 113 mile ambit on my circadian commute. Not accommodating to advance things, I did administer a 90 mile cruise with about 16% of the array left.


Kia’s acclimation act amid appearance and befitting costs in analysis can be apparent in the drivetrain as well. The accommodation for the ample array accommodation is a accepted 6.6kW charger which is not slow, but it is slower than the 7.2kW in the e-Golf, 7.4kW in the i3 and 10kW in the Mercedes. Thankfully all Soul models appear accepted with the CHAdeMO DC fast allegation adapter up foreground (the ample adapter on the appropriate in the account above). The new SAE (aka CCS) adapter may be slimmer and newer, but CHAdeMO outnumbers the newer stations by added than 4:1 in the SF Bay Breadth and the charging amount is about the same. Charging at 120V will yield you over 24 hours, at 6.6kW 240V that drops to 4 hours and the little dejected box will chase from 5% to 80% in beneath 30 account at a coffee boutique with a CHAdeMO station.

Drive 

The Soul has never been a driver’s car. The prime acumen is Kia’s accommodation to use a semi-independent abeyance in the rear to advance burden allowance and amount capacity. This agency the rear of the gasoline Soul gets agitated over heavily torn pavement if active in a beeline line, and in corners asperous pavement leaves it unsettled. By abacus 500lbs to the car and alive the weight antithesis nearer to 50/50 to the rear, the Soul EV delivers bigger feel after any aloft automated changes. Because the Soul’s wheelbase is still adequately abbreviate the ride can feel hardly inclement on freeway amplification joints, but the added weight brings added brightness with it and in fact helps achieve the rear in corners.
There isn’t an EV out there that excels at administration (even Archetypal S tests on the skidpad yields lower numbers than the gasoline competition) and the Soul is no different. The EV Soul has in fact bigger antithesis than the gasoline model, and that is accessible on ambagious roads, but the 205-width low rolling attrition tires and added weight beggarly that administration comes in just aloft the abject Soul archetypal (which wears even skinnier tires.) I begin the Kia added agreeable than the Nissan Leaf, but beneath agreeable than the Focus Electric and e-Golf. In arduous alley captivation numbersm the Soul and i3 are absolutely abutting according to absolute metrics, but the the i3’s RWD blueprint makes it added fun. The Soul’s council caster gives adored little acknowledgment but the accomplishment akin is adjustable in three levels and no EV’s council is a “team player” anyway.

Driving dynamics aren’t the Soul’s Forte (see what I did there?) but afresh again, no EV on the bazaar today does awfully able-bodied in this breadth either. Instead, the Soul EV checks all the acumen and account boxes from a ample and applied burden breadth to activity extenuative appearance like the accepted calefaction pump and accessible aerial covering seats which you don’t acquisition on even the i3 or B-Class. Making the Soul EV conceivably added acute is Kia’s continued accepted assurance and the basal line. If you authorize for the best in incentives, the Soul EV ends up accepting alone $1,000 added than a commensurable gasoline Soul while costing $800 beneath to accomplish on a annual basis. It may be a low bar, but the Soul EV is calmly the best all-around EV on the bazaar today. The added hasty takeaway about is how able-bodied the Soul in fact endless up adjoin the high-end antagonism admitting accepting based on a $15,190 econo-box.