BERKELEY, CALIF. — Laggards rarely garner praise. But the foot-dragging way that Kia went about producing the 2015 Soul EV, the company’s first all-electric model in the United States, was a stroke of slacker genius.
The battery-powered Soul went on sale in California last week, its arrival trailing more than 20 other electric and plug-in hybrid cars that have been offered to American customers.
Unlike Nissan, for example, which made a multibillion-dollar all-in gamble on E.V.s, Kia held back, watching and carefully tallying the progress. More important, perhaps, Kia took note of the missteps of major automakers and the many stumbling E.V. start-ups as it readied battery-powered cars for the road...
What’s important is that for a relatively small car, the Soul can carry a hefty 27 kilowatt-hour load of batteries...
The Environmental Protection Agency rated the Soul EV’s range at 93 miles. Other carmakers, using less accommodating vehicles as their foundation, ended up compromising on driving distances: the Ford Focus Electric is rated at 76 miles, the BMW i3 at 81 miles and the Nissan Leaf at 84 miles. Ten extra miles can be the difference between making it home or running out of power.
In my week with the Soul EV here in the Bay Area, I consistently managed just shy of 100 miles of driving range per charge, using no extraordinary eco-friendly maneuvers. That is more miles than any other E.V. available, aside from the Tesla Model S, a far more expensive car that is available with battery packs that provide 208 or up to 265 miles of range.
Were Kia’s engineers actually slackers, they could have complied with California’s zero emissions mandates with far less effort by simply wedging a 16 kilowatt-hour battery into a Rio compact and calling it a day. That would have met the minimum to qualify for a $7,500 federal tax credit to buyers, resulting in an E.V. with a capability similar to Mitsubishi’s 62-mile i-MiEV.
Kia also did its homework when it came to determining how the electric Soul should drive, recognizing this essential insight: How an E.V. brakes is more important than how it accelerates. It’s a view I agree with wholeheartedly...
The place to get aggressive on electric cars is with regenerative braking. Like the Tesla Model S and BMW i3, the Kia Soul EV (when slipped into B position) provides one-pedal driving. Lifting my foot off the accelerator pedal, the car came quickly to a stop without touching the brake. In this regenerative braking action, the motor-turned-generator does the work of slowing down the vehicle as it recaptures kinetic energy and charges the battery pack.
Rather than switching back and forth between the right and left pedals, I pushed or slightly relaxed my foot on the accelerator to keep pace with traffic. One-pedal driving is a kick, but its purpose is to conserve battery power and increase range.
Kia also provides drivers a smart set of E.V. dashboard screens, the best in the class from my perspective. The display shows a remaining range estimate, a list of the five closest charging stations that refreshes on the go and most important, the battery’s state of charge...
