Official Kia Soul EV thread

[TonyWilliams]

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Tony
Able to do the driving test yet?

 

[TonyWilliams]

Tony
Able to do the driving test yet?

Sorry, I'll be in Europe through mid July.

 

[TomT]

Amazing how automated this is compared to the MB B Class EV production line video!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcko4dxFxuk[/youtube]

 

[cwerdna]

Amazing how automated this is compared to the MB B Class EV production line video!

Hyundai/Kia seems to really be into automating a lot of their assembly, more so than most other automakers.

As I posted at http://priuschat.com/threads/ultimate-factories-man-made-chevy-volt-on-ngc.78136/#post-1094478" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you want to see mass production instead w/tons of robots, esp. doing the welding and inspections of the welds, check out Ultimate Factories: Camaro or Factory Floor with Marshall Brian on a Hyundai plant (Factory Floor | Car, Pasta, Snow Blower, Compound Bow | National Geographic Channel) when it's rerun. The amount of automation at that Hyundai plant is beyond what I've seen of any plant I've toured (NUMMI, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota plants in Japan, and a Ford plant).

Toyota's apparently been backing away from extensive automation at least at one of their plants, like the one mentioned at http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/18/news/international/toyota-factory-japan-asia.fortune/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

 

[DeaneG]

Could it be that Kia is planning to build far more EVs than Mercedes? It'll be an interesting comparison by the time both cars have stable production and pricing.

 

[cwerdna]

BTW, re: Hyundai and Kia production, there's a short excerpt of what I saw at http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/machines-making-machines/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

I'm sure if you can find more Hyundai/Kia production videos on YouTube by searching there for stuff like hyundai factory video and kia factory video.

 

[edatoakrun]

Canadian test drive report on the Soul EV below:

2015 Kia Soul EV: Best Range in Class!

http://www.guideautoweb.com/en/articles/25624/2015_kia_soul_ev_best_range_in_class/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Comments on the accuracy of either of these quotes?

...The 282 lb battery...

...In an industry that almost solely relies on fairly normal lithium-ion batteries, Kia has opted for 360-volt lithium-ion polymer accumulators (or “batteries” in layman’s speak). A quick hunt on the Internet revealed that this polymer technology is safer in the event of overload, but its capacity and longevity is reduced...

 

[RegGuheert]

...The 282 lb battery...

That comes to just over 200Wh/kg, which seems reasonable.

...In an industry that almost solely relies on fairly normal lithium-ion batteries, Kia has opted for 360-volt lithium-ion polymer accumulators (or “batteries” in layman’s speak). A quick hunt on the Internet revealed that this polymer technology is safer in the event of overload, but its capacity and longevity is reduced...

I don't know about safety, but I do know that these things do not handle over-discharge well. They blow up like a balloon when that happens and lose a lot of capacity.

Not sure how they handle cycles or heat. LiPo batteries in electronics don't have a reputation for very long life. We should know soon enough!

 

[nosuchthing]

Now, that's not good news. :?

 

[Valdemar]

Maybe lower calendar capacity loss? This what seems to affect Leaf pack the most.

 

[gsleaf]

I do know that these things do not handle over-discharge well. They blow up like a balloon when that happens and lose a lot of capacity.

Don't they have software to manage that sort of thing? That should be an easily avoidable situation right?

 

[GRA]

...The 282 lb battery...

That comes to just over 200Wh/kg, which seems reasonable.

It's a 27 kWh battery. At 200Wh/kg., that's 135 kg. or 297 lb., but that's just for the cell weight. Add the pack framing, cooling etc. and it will be considerably more. Some details of the pack (not the weight) can be found here:

http://www.kia.com/worldwide/about-kia/company/corporate-news-view.aspx?idx=718" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[adric22]

Canadian test drive report on the Soul EV below:

2015 Kia Soul EV: Best Range in Class!

http://www.guideautoweb.com/en/articles/25624/2015_kia_soul_ev_best_range_in_class/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well, at least some good news is they said they were able to do 0-60 mph in 9 seconds, instead of the advertised 11. I was pretty turned off when I first saw that specification a few months ago.