<b>Car Review</b>: 2015 Kia Soul EV | Driving |
| <b>Car Review</b>: 2015 Kia Soul EV | Driving Posted: 30 Sep 2014 05:40 AM PDT LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. — Why is this machine not called the Electric Soul? Seriously, picture this: "So, what kind of car do you drive?" "I've got an Electric Soul, baby. And check out my sweet platform shoes. Those are real goldfish." However, "Soul EV" it is. Walk away, not today, disco lady. This smurftastic little tyke is not Kia's first entry into the electric car market, something the company's been toying with domestically for decades, but it is the first electric Kia you'll be able to buy here. The rollout is fairly conservative, with just 11 dealers across the country, concentrated in major centres in B.C., Quebec, and Ontario. All 11 dealerships will provide a free fast-charging point, and Kia will include with each Soul EV both a standard plug-it-into-the-wall 110V charger, and a 240V charger requiring installation. Car Review: 2014 Kia Soul SX Luxury While no sales targets were announced, the indication was that Kia Canada will order as large an allocation as possible to fill demand. Thus, it should be possible to get your hands on a Soul EV if you want to buy one. But should you?  2015 Kia Soul EV Right now, the answer to that question really depends on where you live. In Vancouver, where the city's dense layout demands the sort of shorter-distance stop-and-go trip that actually favours an electric car, the Soul EV is costly to purchase. The base model is $34,995, and the Luxury model $37,995 – by comparison, a fully-loaded gasoline engine Soul will set you back $27,995. The landscape makes sense, but the pricing might not. In Quebec and Ontario, provincial rebates amount to $8,000 and $8,500 respectively, with an additional rebate of $1,000 or 50% of the total cost of installing a charger – whichever is least, naturally. Suddenly, the premium for electric power shrinks noticeably, and when combined with the low cost of electricity and the much lower maintenance requirements of an electric vehicle, the choice comes down to whether or not the limited range will suit your lifestyle. Parked next to each other, an Electric Soul (that name's too good to pass up. I'm keeping it) and its gasoline-powered equivalent border on identical. Thanks to some clever packaging that includes very slim lithium-ion battery packs, the overall passenger and cargo area of the electric version are only slightly compromised. The rear floor is raised by approximately 10 cm or so, but that's about it. Compared to something like the electric version of the Ford Focus with its halved trunk space, this Kia doesn't require the driver to give up much practicality over the standard car on which it's based.  2015 Kia Soul EV The Soul was always an interesting-looking car, and did far better at capturing the youth market than either the Scion xB or the Nissan Cube. The dancing/rapping/dapper hamsters associated with the car are well-known even among those who don't really care about cars, and there's a sense of fun to the exterior styling and colours that seems to draw a smile or two from passers-by. In addition to the look of the trim, you get a unique LED display for your gauges that shows range, speed, and a score on how well you're doling out the power. It looks fantastic, and is backed up by the standard 8-inch touchscreen display with high-resolution navigation and a whole host of available apps. No smartphone app yet exists to check up on your Soul's charge, but Kia assures us there's something in the pipeline. Aside from the range extension provided by the super low rolling resistance tires, and some coaching from the instrument panel on keeping a light throttle, there's also an aggressive regeneration mode activated by shifting into the lowest gear, marked "B". This slows the Soul almost as quickly as hitting the brakes – coming up to stopped traffic, it's like downshifting in a normal car, but has such an effect on speed that the little Kia will actually illuminate its brake lights.  2015 Kia Soul EV Pulling away from that light again, either a deftness on the pedal to save your charge, or stomp on it to unleash an instant wave of torque. Try the latter when taking a right-hander and the Soul will screech its front tires like a little cartoon hooligan. Power comes from a 360V AC motor which produces a maximum of 109-horsepower (84.1 kW) and that immediately-available 210 pound-feet of torque. Performance off the line is pretty brisk. However, this Soul carries a little extra baggage over the gasoline car: nearly 375 kilograms' worth with all the batteries. Total capacity is 27 kWh (slightly better than the competing Nissan Leaf) with a projected range of 149 kilometres, as assessed by Transport Canada. To eke out even more range, particularly in winter, Kia has fitted a few clever ways to keep its Soul charged up. Heating an electric car in the winter can be a real drain on the battery; without the available radiant heat given off by an internal combustion engine, much of it has to be generated electrically, costing Watts. However, electrical components give off heat too, so Kia has fitted a heat pump to scavenge what it can from the motors, controllers, and generators. They've also included a pre-heat function that warms the car up while it's still plugged in, drawing from the network rather than the battery.  2015 Kia Soul EV Once you're on the move, a single occupant can also hit a button to divert air-conditioning and heating away from everyone but the driver. Neat stuff, and you also get a heated steering wheel and heated front seats as standard, so there might not be a need to crank up the temperature in the whole cabin anyway. With the air-conditioning sucking a little power away on a hot California afternoon, the Electric Soul boogied on down the Pacific Coast Highway in almost absolute silence. There's hardly any of the whir of some contemporary electric vehicles to be found here, just the faint sound of the tires on the road, and a bit of wind-noise around the wing mirrors. It's a very easy to drive and comfortable little car, and with a high seating position and much the same road-manners as the standard Soul. That extra weight, however, does blunt the chuckable fun factor somewhat, and despite the prodigious torque, this isn't a car that encourages you to unleash the electrons. Far from it – the goal seems to be to keep the power output in the green range, use your regenerative braking as smoothly as possible, and hit the highest score on the eco-level screen. This'll cause a digital tree on-screen to grow many leaves, making you feel good about yourself, one presumes. And you should feel good, assuming you live in a province where the extra outlay for the electric version of the Soul is reasonable, because this is a very interesting little car. It drives, accelerates, and handles like a normal wheeled vehicle, has more than enough space to carry people and things – generally speaking, it's a regular car. A range of 149 km should be more than enough for the average urban commuter, and with growing infrastructure meaning you can find free plug-in points scattered all over Canada's major urban centres, you might never again spend a dime on fueling this thing.  2015 Kia Soul EV  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from car review - Google Blog Search To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment