There is a dirty little problem with electric vehicles that is going unaddressed. The ability to charge EVs for primary target buyers is very limited. Specifically, people living in urban areas with short commutes. I live in a downtown Boston condominium and I park my car in a common garage. Those garages do not have automotive charging stations and an attempt to plug one’s vehicles into a wall socket would result in an immediate outrage from the neighbors and a scalding letter from building management.
That was my biggest issue with the 2017 Kia Soul EV. I had nowhere to charge it – not at home and not at work. There are street chargers within half a mile from my home but I did not want to park someone else’s vehicle on the street. There are garages with charging stations within a mile, but the parking fees were around $50 for a 24-hour period. I wouldn’t use either with my own car just because they are inconvenient.
For that reason I unfortunately could not review this vehicle for a longer period of time. I had to drive the Soul EV back to the magical garage where press cars are kept as soon as I got it. In fairness, no one knew that I was not able to charge an EV at home or at work and I didn’t know the Soul was going to be an EV. This all goes back to the fact that charging electric vehicles in American cities is challenging.
The 2017 Kia Soul EV comes in three flavors: a stripped down Soul EV-e which is only available in California, the base EV, and the EV+ shown here. The differences between the EV and EV+ are rather minor, limited only to some comfort features such as sunroof, power-folding mirrors, heated and ventilated leather seats, beep-beep parking sensors, and a set of fog-lights. All mechanicals on the two cars, down to wheels and tires, are the same.
Those mechanicals consist of a 360-volt battery with a capacity of 27 kilo-Watt-hours. That sends its power to an AC motor. That motor in turn sends 109-hp and 210 lb-ft of torque to the front wheels via single-speed (fixie, for your hipsters out there) gear-unit. This gives the Soup EV an EPA-estimated economy of 120/92/105 MPGe (city/highway/combined) and a range of EPA-estimated 93-miles. Kia says that the Soul EV can accelerate from standstill to 60mph in 11.2 seconds and its top speed is 90mph.
Some time ago I drove the sporty turbocharged Kia Soul ! (yes, an exclamation point is the trim level). That little car is seriously one the most underrated vehicles on the market. It looks different, it’s quick, drives great, it’s functional, and affordable. The EV version retained a lot of what makes the ! great, but it’s not quick and looks slightly different. While it drives differently than the !, it doesn’t drive abnormally, or different in any significant way than one would expect a modern vehicle to drive. It’s quieter and the sounds are a bit different, but in the world of quiet cars with continuously variable transmissions and engine stop/start systems, different is the new normal.
I had to cover a distance of 36 miles to the garage. The display read that I could travel a maximum distance of 48 miles. I didn’t see that as an issue, as I like to live dangerously, and I’ve seen the “distance to empty” readout approaching zero many times, on many cars. So why would this be any different? I had confident hopes that Kia engineers were precise in the development of this crucial measure.
Knowing that I didn’t want to run out of juice before reaching my destination, I drove this EV focused on gaining the most miles from my e-gallons. I didn’t accelerate hard in the city and while braking recharges the battery, I do not think the rate of recharging was greater than the rate of depletion due to quicker acceleration. On the highway, I kept constant speeds as best as I could. I stayed in the right lane, I didn’t tailgate trucks, I didn’t do anything abnormal or unsafe that some hypermilers do in order to squeeze out an extra inch from a watt. I drove normally but slightly slower than usual, like I would in a conventional car that was low on gas, and the AC was on.
Kia did calculate the driving distance accurately, if slightly conservatively, and that is a good thing. At the end of my 36 mile trip I had 14 miles of travel left. When I hit the 20% mark, the Soul EV politely told me to “Please visit a Nearby Charging Station” and even offered to find one for me. While it made me nervous, I kept reminding myself that most other modern cars do the same thing when they’re low on gasoline.
The thing that would make one nervous isn’t the part about running out of battery power but rather what comes next. With conventional cars it’s a quick trip to a gas station or a small fuel jug, and the car is once again running. An EV needs to be hauled to a charging station, carefully lined up next to it, and plugged it for quite some time. It is that unknown that is giving people such EV range anxiety.
Once you get to the charger and pop the cover on the front grill, two charging ports will be exposed: typical SAE J1772 and CHAdeMO fast charge port. The charge time for the Soul EV is 24 hours at a typical 120v household socket. That time drops to less than five hours if a 240v charger is used. A 480v charger will charge up to 94% of the battery in 43 minutes.
The 2017 Soul EV-e is $32,250. The Soul EV is $33,950. The Soul EV+ is $35,950. The only available package, and only on the EV+ model, is the Sun and Fun package (and who doesn’t like sun and fun), which consists of a panoramic sunroof, speaker lights, and LED interior lighting, is $1100. For comparison, a conventional Soul ranges from $16,100 for the Base to $27,695 for a fully loaded ! model.
Looking at other electric vehicles, the Chevy Bolt starts at $37,495 and the all-new 2018 Nissan Leaf starts at $29,990. These are all manufacturer suggested retail prices and do not include any rebates or tax credits. It should be noted that both of these vehicles are much newer designs, have a greater driving range, and more power.
Whatever the electric, or even electrified, vehicle is, the issue of charging them still exists. Other than Tesla, automakers have not really been involved in proving EV charging infrastructure. That is slowly changing as even oil companies are beginning to invest in EV charging stations. But for now many people in large, densely populated cities, who either street park or use common garages, are simply unable to own an electric vehicle of any kind.
[Disclaimer: Kia Motors America Inc. provided both vehicle for the purpose of this article. All images copyright Kamil Kaluski/Hooniverse 2017]
Quick Spin: 2017 Kia Soul EV+
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23 responses to “Quick Spin: 2017 Kia Soul EV+”
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I attempted to cross shop the 2015 Soul EV when I got my Leaf lease in 2015, right at the end of the state of Georgia EV lease boom. Nissan Leafs were leasing for $279-$299/month for a 24 month/24k lease. I tried to find a Soul EV, the ONE dealership that carried them was leasing them for something like $37/month. A HUGE difference. They really weren’t even trying to sell them. I think I have seen 2 or 3 Soul EVs in Georgia, compared to thousands of Leafs.
Also, on the subject of charging stations, I currently drive a 2014 Volt. For several months I was able to charge using a 110V outlet in the parking deck at work. When they finally installed EV chargers in the parking deck, I was told I couldn’t use the 110V outlet. The cost to use the EV charger works out to the equivalent of paying about $4/gallon for gas with a plug in hybrid, IF you remember to unplug after 3 hours, before the rate jumps to $10/hour to charge.-
The Electric Soul is extremely popular in Norway, they’re everywhere. People are belatedly waking up to Kia being the market leader for rational cars here, too, not least with the Niro. My neighbor bought a Soul EV after consulting me, and I have tried it once. Plastics are a bit cheap to the touch, apart from that, it’s glorious.
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When new, they had ten months lead time for any color other than grey… very successful indeed: similar price point like the Leaf, which was a bit long in the tooth until recently, and cheaper than an eGolf or Ampera (that’s Opel’s name for Volt here – my inner physicist is waiting for Chevy Henry, Opel Ohm, and Vauxhall Farad).
I think I’ve mentioned it already, but the internet doesn’t forget: The grey ones were imported from Germany, where they served to improve KIA’s fleet emission stats by “importing” them, but not selling them to end customers. Then they were exported again to Norway. During the relocation they kept the status “used import=no”. Entire thing was legal in both Norway and Germany, mind you.-
So the Ampera is Opel’s current EV?
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I feel like I learned something unforgettable there again. Did the German Souls (sic!) have the standard Scandinavian spec with heat everything?
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@Alfisted:disqus I’m cycling across the neighboring Opel dealership’s yard twice a day. Today, something wrapped in white plastic foil was charging there that was NOT the Ampera I knew, more CUV-ish. I checked, that’s how Amperas look now:
New: http://images.betweentheaxles.net/opel_ampera_e_1st_gen_san_fran_2017/opel-ampera-e-1st-gen-san-fran-200_jppj3v.jpg
Old:
http://www.autolatest.com/upl/imgupl/test-drive/2012/popup/test-drive-cu-noul-opel-ampera-e-rev-epionier-edition-2012–42948.jpg
@Sjalabais:disqus German Souls are indistinguishable from Norwegian Souls, but tend to be gray. Btw., I managed to find used “import=yes” in the road authorities’ database, one out of eight number plates I checked.-
Very Prius-like.
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I’m still pretty new to Georgia, but where I live I hardly see any EVs at all. I see a couple Teslas running around (same ones, pretty sure). I can recall see one Leaf. I saw more EVs in semi-rural Virginia in Hokie country where I moved from,…
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Metro Atlanta area was full of Leafs, especially the northern suburbs, until July of this year. They have been quickly dwindling since then. The $5,000 tax credit ran out in July, 2015, so all the 2 year leases are up now. I missed out/passed on a chance to buy out my leased Leaf for only $6,400. I’ve seen a few used car lots with half dozen or more used Leafs around me.
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Atlanta? I should have known, haha. I stay away from there! The traffic alone,…no thanks.
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I like the Soul, but don’t see a compelling reason to spend so much on an EV. The Leaf is much more aggressively priced, and while I’ve disliked Nissan design for almost two decades, the 2018 Leaf looks pretty good, inside and out. It’s at least a vast improvement over the mutated frog that was the first generation car. The Bolt is pretty impressive on paper and from 10 feet out, but up close and inside feels cheap.
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As a condo dweller, I do hope condo boards will come around on getting (or allowing) chargers to be installed, although I’m not holding my breath. I also know Toronto’s had talks of making charging stations in their municipally owned lots available to EV owners at an affordable rate.
That said, nearly 60% of households in the US have 2+ cars, and over 20% have 3+ cars. Given where EV ranges are getting, that’s a pretty high number of households who could use one for second/commuter car duty and presumably have room for a charger on their own property.-
I read a comment recently that new developments are including charging infrastructure, which will put pressure to retrofit in older buildings to attract or compete for renters. It is physically possible after all, especially if parking spaces are allocated.
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Nice work, Kamil. Good piece.
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Thanks!
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I always wondered how pure EVs were supposed to work for people living in the sustainable urban core and maybe not having anything better for parking at home than a designated spot. It wouldn’t even work well for me in my suburban apartment with just 120V run out to the “2 car” garage and tied into my unit’s meter. With the current state of infrastructure they seem to be meant as a 2nd car for someone living in their own house with off-street parking, and the opportunity to install a 240V charger in their garage or at least accessible from the driveway.
(also I find it hilarious that the turbo model is named “Soul !” because I pronounce ! as “bang” per Unix shell script practice)-
Soul Bang was the working title of Bootsy Collins’ aborted solo album. This may or may not be true.
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For people in townhouses or rental homes with a dedicated garage or reasonably secure driveway spot, one of these https://www.homedepot.com/p/AeroVironment-TurboCord-240-Volt-16-Amp-Plug-In-EV-Charger-Charging-Station-23075-020/205430044 works quite well. Five hours of recharging for the Soul EV above would work out nicely with an overnight charge.
Similarly, HOAs COULD procure/allow the unit owner to procure these if pushed a little.
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“But for now many people in large, densely populated cities, who either street park or use common garages, are simply unable to own an electric vehicle of any kind.”
So true. I live and work in Philadelphia, an EV would make perfect sense except that I rarely get to park in front of my house. The infamous PPA tried for a bit to allow owners of EVs to get a reserved spot in front of your house when a curbside charger was installed but that has since ended. I am looking at a Ford CMax Energi which I think has the best of both worlds, it is a plugin(able) hybrid. -
Kamil- Id love to read your piece on the turbo one? Link?
Soul- they’ve been out long enough, I’ve had at least 1 customer that is on his second Soul. Paid off his first one, loved it so much he bought a new one and kept the ‘old’ one.
Always feels strange asking customers if they vehicle is a “+ or !” Trim level (I can’t recall the other trims?)
I think it’s cool that I’ve seen anything from young drivers to the elderly driving Kia Souls. People that I talk to that own them and drive them seem to be very satisfied.
I have zero actual use for one, but I like them.-
No link. It was one of those cars that just felt between the cracks. Very cool tho and fun to drive.
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The other dirty little problem with EV’s or Hybrids for that matter is the use of lithium. For 1 its extremely toxic. 2. the batteries are only 35% recyclable, (Lead acid batteries are 99.5% recyclable).3. They can explode on impact, so they need to be well protected in the center of the vehicle.
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Then again, gasoline is toxic, 0% recyclable, and can burn or (its fumes) explode on impact. So as long as the batteries are within the steel safety cage but outside the passenger compartment (much like the gasoline tank that everyone is used to sitting next to), it’s not THAT complicated an engineering problem.
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