2015 Kia Soul EV
Vehicle type: front-motor, front-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 5-door wagon
Base prices: Soul EV, $34,500; EV Plus $36,500
Motor type: Permanent-magnet synchronous AC electric motor, 109-hp, 210-lb-ft; 27-kWh lithium-ion-polymer battery pack
Transmission: 1-speed direct drive
Dimensions:
Wheelbase: 101.2 in
Length: 163.0 in
Width: 70.9 in Height: 63.0 in
Curb weight (C/D est): 3400 lb
Performance(C/D Est):
Zero to 60 mph: 10.7 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 17.9 sec Top speed: 90 mph
Fuel economy: EPA city/highway: 120/92 MPGe
Like a desperate team in the final seconds, time was running out one afternoon in my 2015 Kia Soul EV.
Heading home from a racetrack in South Florida, the remaining charge on the plug-in electric Soul was shrinking by the minute. Five percent, it said. I looked down a minute later: I flatlined the son-of-a-gun.
But the Soul kept creeping along. C’mon, two more miles! I reduced speed to 45 mph, shut off the air, and the icy blue Kia Soul EV took its last breath in my driveway. Good thing, since a can of gas on the roadside would have been worthless to me.
Such is the life of an EV driver: Always know the battery’s remaining charge and, more important, where the next one is coming from. Fortunately, Kia’s UVO communications platform can tell you exactly where the nearest charging stations are. Unfortunately, you’ll need to find something to do while waiting for the “fill-up.” More on that momentarily.
The Kia Soul EV is the latest of the plug-in electric vehicles to quietly hum down the road. And, to its credit, it has greater range than most of them (EPA-estimated 93 miles) and more cargo capacity, too.
Moving the front-wheel-drive, 4-door hatchback down the road is an 81 kW motor that delivers 109 hp and 210 pound-feet of torque — which is available right from the get-go. The motor is energized by a 27 kWh (kilowatt hour) lithium ion battery pack.
Keeping that pack charged is your job and it takes a while — 24 hours for a full charge — if you’re plugging into conventional 120-volt household current. If you have, or can find, 240-volt current, you can trim that time down to 5 hours.
And if you’re on a road trip (not highly recommended), you’d better keep an eye out for Kia dealerships, where you can usually find a 480-volt source that reportedly will pump you up to 80 percent in 33 minutes. A regenerative braking system also helps recharge the battery whenever it decelerates — when is the last time you heard stop-and-go driving is a good thing?
Since most will plug in at home, it helps to have a garage to leave it in overnight. Bright blue lights on top of the dash will monitor the charging and, while parked in the driveway, it provided a light show on the front of my house — too much attention. I figure it’s just a matter of time before the charging cable, which looks like a small fuel pump, goes missing.
On the plus side, the flashing blue light makes it easy to glance out your bedroom window and see how the charge is going.
The cable, by the way, plugs neatly into a port behind a sliding panel in front of the car. A second port accommodates the 480-volt supercharge.
The EPA says the Soul EV will use 32 kWh per 100 miles of travel, which is consistent with the rest of the EV gang (think Ford Focus Electric, Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen e-Golf).
So what’s this overgrown golf cart like to drive? Surprisingly nice. It’s a quiet, comfortable ride with just enough wind noise to make you forget there’s no internal combustion engine. In other words, it’s not overly quiet.
It takes a leisurely 10 seconds to hit 60 — this ain’t no Tesla — and don’t get daring in the passing lane. But once up to speed on the highway it holds a steady, comfortable pace.
The EV tranny has only one speed so there’s no upshifting or downshifting issues. Steering is short on feedback but the Soul has a nimble feel. Handling is enhanced by the low-riding, heavy battery pack under rear-seat floor.
On the minus side, that battery pack robs rear-seat riders of some head and leg room.
But there is still good cargo space, considering some battery packs steal that, too. In the Soul, there are 18.8 cubic feet behind the rear seats and 49.5 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down. Further, lift out the cargo floor and it opens up another 11 cubic feet.
The interior has the same quality materials found in the regular Soul plus a few touches of its own, like white-gloss plastic trim around the shifter and its own instrument grouping with big numerals showing the charge status. An 8-inch touchscreen shows power flow and offers charging locations — just press on it and it’ll direct you to them.
Yet some from the gas-engine Soul didn’t make the trip to the EV: no sunroof available, no xenon headlights and no power seats. These are missing due to their battery-sapping desires.
The five-seat Soul comes in two trims, the base and Plus. The base gets 16-inch alloys wheels, auto headlights and climate. Tech features include Bluetooth, 6-speaker audio with iPod/USB interface and voice controls, navigation and rear-view camera (needed with this boxy design).
Among the added goodies in the Plus are leather seats, fog lights and parking sensors.
Coming in at approximately twice the price (without any credits applied), the Kia Soul EV makes going green a little hard to digest. That’s if you can come up with one; the EVs are available only in California now, though Kia promises it will expand to some but not all states.
But, with 90-plus miles of range, running all the errands around town without flat-lining the sucker should be an unpolluted breeze.
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