Official Kia Soul EV thread

[nosuchthing]

Santa Rosa Kia told us today Souls are in and they're in selling "like hotcakes." Sales people exaggerate, but if true, watch out Nissan!

 

[GRA]

Santa Rosa Kia told us today Souls are in and they're in selling "like hotcakes." Sales people exaggerate, but if true, watch out Nissan!

There are already a couple of new owners in SoCal on the Soul EV forum; I haven't seen any Bay Area owners there yet, but I expect there'll be some soon. I may head on over to a dealer this weekend to test drive one, although most of them seem to be EV+ and I'd rather drive the base model. [Edit] And there's already a report that at least one dealer's ABB CHAdeMO QC won't charge one person's car.

 

[TomT]

It may be true... Kia Glendale got six (all Pluses) in their first shipment and they are all already gone...

Santa Rosa Kia told us today Souls are in and they're in selling "like hotcakes." Sales people exaggerate, but if true, watch out Nissan!

 

[TomT]

"The Kia Soul EV has received its official EPA ratings. The all-electric range is 93 miles – putting it higher than the Nissan LEAF’s 84 miles, the Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive’s 87 miles, and the BMW i3’s 81 miles.

Interestingly, in the city, the Soul electric vehicle’s city range is 103.6 miles, which puts is on par with the Rav 4 EV that is rated at 107 miles in the city.

Overall efficiency is rated at 105 MPGe, with 120 MPGe in the city and 92 MPGe on the highway."

 

[TonyWilliams]

"The Kia Soul EV has received its official EPA ratings. The all-electric range is 93 miles – putting it higher than the Nissan LEAF’s 84 miles, the Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive’s 87 miles, and the BMW i3’s 81 miles.

Interestingly, in the city, the Soul electric vehicle’s city range is 103.6 miles, which puts is on par with the Rav 4 EV that is rated at 107 miles in the city.

Overall efficiency is rated at 105 MPGe, with 120 MPGe in the city and 92 MPGe on the highway."

The RAV4 EV tends to suck the juice around town, but out on the open road, there's no EV short of one with a T on the front that comes close.

142 miles at 65mph.

 

[nosuchthing]

Wonder what is m/kW number on the Soul...
My Leaf hovers between 3.8 and 4.0

 

[evnow]

Typical costs for regular service at the dealer, on an ICE is about equal or more than the cost of electricity to drive an typical EV. That is about 3-3.5¢ / mile for regular maintenance.

But most people do not do regular maintenance at the dealer. They are too expensive - they go to their local favorite lube shop.

The dealerships I know of treat service and new cars (and used cars) as "separate P&L entities". They will sell as many new cars as they can. Moreover as pointed in the above post most Leaf customers are conquest customers - and would not consider a Nissan but for Leaf. These are net customers gained - not customers lost.

Take a look at Nissan's sales figures for all cars. They speak for themselves.

 

[cwerdna]

The 1st test drive yielded 81 miles range. This is what I was afraid of (27 kW battery).

Wonder what is m/kW number on the Soul...
My Leaf hovers between 3.8 and 4.0

I'm a bit loathe to be pedantic, but you've have had a Leaf WAY longer than me and aren't a newbie to EVs.... For the benefit of others and to avoid confusion, your unit usage is wrong. To partly quote someone else:

kW and kWh are very different metrics. It's the same as confusing gallons with horsepower. Think of kW = horsepower, kWh = gallons.

In both of the above cases, you meant to use kWh. And, the Leaf has a battery w/about 21 kWh usable out of 24.

(BTW, 1 hp = ~0.746 kW. And, http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/evsbs.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; says 1 gallon of gasoline=33.7 kWh.)

Correct usage becomes more important when some numbers are close to each other (e.g. twin on-board chargers available on the Model S, allowing for charging rates from the wall of almost 20 kW vs. ~21 kWh usable battery capacity on many BEVs vs. 85 kWh Model S battery capacity vs. 90 kW Tesla Superchargers, etc.)

 

[nosuchthing]

correction: 3.8 to 4 miles per kilowatt
how's that?

 

[cwerdna]

correction: 3.8 to 4 miles per kilowatt
how's that?

Nope. 3.8 to 4 miles per kilowatt-hour or 3.8 to 4 miles/kWh, exactly as your car's dash display and color LCD says. Do a Google image search for miles/kwh nissan leaf.

If something draws 1 kW (1000 watts) for 1 hour, it has consumed 1 kWh. Same goes for something consuming 1 watt for 1000 hours.

For the majority of residential plans, you're only billed by the # of kWh you consume during your billing period. And, it makes perfect sense that battery capacities of EVs/PHEVs are expressed in kWh.

 

[mtndrew1]

I just picked up my Soul EV + this afternoon. Dealer got five in on Monday and they now have one left on the lot, so at least in LA they're moving quickly.

Was intending to get the Leaf but I'm still a tiny bit leery about battery degradation until the Lizard battery has proven itself, and the Soul has a rudimentary battery TMS. It's not as sophisticated as the Volt's, but much better than a sealed metal box of cooking batteries (IMO).

The Volt was my gateway drug to all-EV driving and I'm glad it was there as a stepping stone, but I'd like to move on from gas. Crossing my fingers for many happy miles in the Soul!

 

[jhm614]

I just picked up my Soul EV + this afternoon. Dealer got five in on Monday and they now have one left on the lot, so at least in LA they're moving quickly.

'Grats on getting off the oil! Make sure you come back and give us a review!

 

[lorenfb]

I just picked up my Soul EV + this afternoon. Dealer got five in on Monday and they now have one left on the lot, so at least in LA they're moving quickly.

Was intending to get the Leaf but I'm still a tiny bit leery about battery degradation until the Lizard battery has proven itself, and the Soul has a rudimentary battery TMS. It's not as sophisticated as the Volt's, but much better than a sealed metal box of cooking batteries (IMO).

The Volt was my gateway drug to all-EV driving and I'm glad it was there as a stepping stone, but I'd like to move on from gas. Crossing my fingers for many happy miles in the Soul!

We're keeping our fingers crossed too, that the battery doesn't degrade as you hope!
Also, there're potentially many unknowns besides just the battery, which have been
exposed on this forum about the Leaf over the years, i.e. very few other than the battery.

 

[hill]

"The Kia Soul EV has received its official EPA ratings. The all-electric range is 93 miles – putting it higher than the Nissan LEAF’s 84 miles .........snip...........

.....oh the irony ~ Nissan goes to great lengths to make the Leaf aero shaped .... and the Kia - a car shaped like a BOX blows it's range out of the water. At least the Kia's ugly factor gets better range. What excuse does the Leaf have now ...
:lol:
.

 

[Smidge204]

...oh the irony ~ Nissan goes to great lengths to make the Leaf aero shaped .... and the Kia - a car shaped like a BOX blows it's range out of the water. At least the Kia's ugly factor gets better range. What excuse does the Leaf have now ...
.

It's so ugly the air gets out of its way :roll:

The Soul isn't THAT ugly, TBH. It has a CdA of ~11.76 compared to the LEAF's 7.80. The Soul EV is also ~300 pounds heavier. Virtually all of the improvements could very well be attributed to the battery back's chemistry, design and capacity. Time will tell if it holds up over the years.
=Smidge=

 

[Randy]

"The Kia Soul EV has received its official EPA ratings. The all-electric range is 93 miles – putting it higher than the Nissan LEAF’s 84 miles .........snip...........

.....oh the irony ~ Nissan goes to great lengths to make the Leaf aero shaped .... and the Kia - a car shaped like a BOX blows it's range out of the water. At least the Kia's ugly factor gets better range. What excuse does the Leaf have now ...
:lol:
.

The Soul EV has a 27 kWh battery pack, so it kinda makes sense.

 

[TomT]

The Soul EV has a 27 kWh battery pack, so it kinda makes sense.

Not really, the Soul's battery is 11% bigger than the Leaf's, yet its range is virtually the same 11% greater, despite being heavier and less aerodynamic... Thus, it is doing better than it's greater battery capacity alone would account for...

 

[mkjayakumar]

Given that it is heavier and less aero, 11% more kWh will not get 11% extra range than Leaf.

So I am wondering if the range is not all that is made out to be.. maybe ?

 

[Randy]

I think there's way too many variables for us to figure out the exact comparison. It's close enough within a few percent. I wouldn't worry about it...

Back to the Kia Soul EV...I had a nice conversation with the fleet/EV manager from a local Ford/Kia dealer yesterday at a meeting we were both attending, and his understanding was that they were going to get 6 vehicles per month to sell...He's already been approached on the phone to sell and ship cars to the east coast by eager buyers...

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

The Soul EV has a 27 kWh battery pack, so it kinda makes sense.

Not really, the Soul's battery is 11% bigger than the Leaf's, yet its range is virtually the same 11% greater, despite being heavier and less aerodynamic... Thus, it is doing better than it's greater battery capacity alone would account for...

unless its reserve or "untouchable" capacity is also 11% larger than the LEAF, it does not have to have more efficiency than the LEAF to go farther