ELECTRIC SOUL
Brendan McAleer plugs into Kia’s fi rst EV available in British Columbia
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 in South Korea 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- itintothe- wall 110V charger, and a 240V charger requiring installation.
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?
Right now, the answer to that question really depends on where you live.
Here in Vancouver, where the city’s dense layout demands the sort of shorter- distance stop- and- go trip that 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 per cent 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 centimetres 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.
On the exterior, the Electric Soul comes in a number of signature two- tone colour combinations which might as well have been dubbed Batman, Smurf, and iMac. Combined with fan- shaped five- spoke 16- inch wheels and colourcoded accents inside and out, they give this electric version of the Soul a sort of futuristic look. You’d expect to find one shuttling around clone troopers in a Star Wars movie.
The Soul was always an interestinglooking 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 wellknown 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 passersby.
On the inside, the Electric Soul continues its semi- futuristic theme with layered plastic accents on the centre console and the doors. There’s a bit of Tron- style blue piping to the seats, and it looks overall as if the designers were attempting to pay homage to Eve, the sleek white robot who was the love interest in Pixar’s Wall- E. Moreover, about 10 per cent of the trim and fabrics are made with organic materials.
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 eight- 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 illuminate its brake lights.
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 righthander and the Soul will screech its front tires like a little cartoon hooligan.
Power comes from a 360- volt AC motor which produces a maximum of 109- horsepower ( 84.1 kW) and that immediatelyavailable 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 preheat function that warms the car up while it’s still plugged in, drawing from the network rather than the battery.