Like a
desperate team in the final seconds, time was running out one afternoon in my
2015 Kia Soul EV.
Heading
home from a racetrack in South Florida, the remaining charge on the plug-in
electric Soul was shrinking by the minute. Five percent, it said. I looked down
a minute later: I flatlined the son-of-a-gun.
But the
Soul kept creeping along.
C'mon, two more miles! I reduced speed to 45 mph, shut off the air, and the icy
blue Kia Soul EV took its last breath in my driveway. Good thing, since a can
of gas on the roadside would have been worthless to me.
Such is
the life of an EV driver: Always know the battery's remaining charge and, more
important, where the next one is coming from. Fortunately, Kia's UVO communications
platform can tell you exactly where the nearest charging stations are.
Unfortunately, you'll need to find something to do while waiting for the
"fill-up." More on that momentarily.
The Kia Soul EV is the latest of the
plug-in electric vehicles to quietly hum down the road. And, to its credit, it
has greater range than most of them (EPA-estimated 93 miles) and more cargo
capacity, too.
Moving
the front-wheel-drive, 4-door hatchback down the road is an 81 kW motor that
delivers 109 hp and 210 pound-feet of torque - which is available right from
the get-go. The motor is energized by a 27 kWh (kilowatt hour) lithium ion
battery pack.
Keeping
that pack charged is your job and it takes a while - 24 hours for a full charge
- if you're plugging into conventional 120-volt household current. If you have,
or can find, 240-volt current, you can trim that time down to 5 hours.
And if
you're on a road trip (not highly recommended), you'd better keep an eye out
for Kia dealerships, where
you can usually find a 480-volt source that reportedly will pump you up to 80
percent in 33 minutes. A regenerative braking system also helps recharge the
battery whenever it decelerates - when is the last time you heard stop-and-go
driving is a good thing?
Since
most will plug in at home, it helps to have a garage to leave it in overnight.
Bright blue lights on top of the dash will monitor the charging and, while
parked in the driveway, it provided a light show on the front of my house - too
much attention. I figure it's just a matter of time before the charging cable,
which looks like a small fuel pump, goes missing.
On the
plus side, the flashing blue light makes it easy to glance out your bedroom
window and see how the charge is going.
The
cable, by the way, plugs neatly into a port behind a sliding panel in front of
the car. A second port accommodates the 480-volt supercharge.
The EPA
says the Soul EV
will use 32 kWh per 100 miles of travel, which is consistent with the rest of
the EV gang (think Ford Focus Electric, Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen e-Golf).
So
what's this overgrown golf cart like to drive? Surprisingly nice. It's a quiet,
comfortable ride with just enough wind noise make you forget there's no
internal combustion engine. In other words, it's not overly quiet.
It
takes a leisurely 10 seconds to hit 60 - this ain't no Tesla - and don't get
daring in the passing lane. But once up to speed on the highway it holds a
steady, comfortable pace.
The EV
tranny has only one speed so there's no upshifting or downshifting issues.
Steering is short on feedback but the Soul has a nimble
feel. Handling is enhanced by the low-riding, heavy battery pack under
rear-seat floor.
On the
minus side, that battery pack robs rear-seat riders of some head and leg room.
But
there is still good cargo space, considering some battery packs steal that,
too. In the Soul, there are 18.8 cubic feet behind the rear seats and 49.5
cubic feet with the rear seats folded down. Further, lift out the cargo floor
and it opens up another 11 cubic feet.
The
interior has the same quality materials found in the regular Soul plus a few touches of its
own, like white-gloss plastic trim around the shifter and its own instrument
grouping with big numerals showing the charge status. An 8-inch touchscreen
shows power flow and offers charging locations - just press on it and it'll
direct you to them.
Yet
some from the gas-engine Soul didn't make
the trip to the EV: no sunroof available, no xenon headlights and no power
seats. These are missing due to their battery-sapping desires.
The
five-seat Soul comes in two
trims, the base and Plus. The base gets 16-inch alloys wheels, auto headlights
and climate. Tech features include Bluetooth, 6-speaker audio with iPod/USB
interface and voice controls, navigation and rear-view camera (needed with this
boxy design).
Among
the added goodies in the Plus are leather seats, fog lights and parking
sensors.
Coming
in at approximately twice the price (without any credits applied), the Kia Soul
EV makes going green a little hard to digest. That's if you can come up with
one; the EVs are available only in California now, though Kia promises it will expand
to some but not all states.
But,
with 90-plus miles of range, running all the errands around town without
flat-lining the sucker should be an unpolluted breeze.
No comments:
Post a Comment