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.
Kia’s good decisions started
with the choice of the Soul as a platform. It’s not only that the trademark
groovy design of the gas-powered Soul is a proven success, on track for some
150,000 sales in 2014. And it’s not just that the hamsters in the ads are so
cute, or that the Soul served as an appropriately modest limo for Pope Francis
on his visit to South Korea in August.
What’s
important is that for a relatively small car, the Soul can carry a hefty 27
kilowatt-hour load of batteries.
“We
actually would have preferred a little bit more,” said Steve Kosowski, manager
for long-range strategy at Kia Motors America.
“But there’s no more room under there.”
Clearly,
Mr. Kosowski had read the memo about battery packs in electric cars: Size
matters, and the bigger, the better, because bigger packs mean more miles of
driving between recharging stops. 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.
By
nature, electric cars have quick, quiet go-power. That’s a given, so there was
no urgent need for Kia to amp
up the low-speed torque beyond the 210 pound-feet supplied by the Soul’s
capable electric motor. The Kia
Soul EV, like most other electric cars, feels a lot quicker than its
109-horsepower rating and leisurely 0-60 m.p.h. times of 11 seconds would
suggest. I applaud Kia’s planners and engineers for avoiding the temptation to
overclock the torque delivery, a surfeit that results in an adolescent chirping
of the tires as you leave a stoplight.
Even
with its restraint, the electric Soul is responsive. There’s plenty of highway
passing power, even though the electric version is some 500 pounds heavier than
the gas Soul. When urged into corners at speed, the Soul maintains the upright
and confident stance of a crossover, a benefit of the low-mounted weight of the
battery pack. Still, when pushed hard, the low rolling-resistance tires readily
reach the limits of their grip on the pavement.
That’s
beside the point. 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. The charge level, expressed as a percentage, requires no fancy
algorithm to translate; with the car’s range at almost exactly 100 miles, a
single percentage point of battery power equates roughly to one mile of
driving.
The
playful but practical feel to the dashboard displays is matched by the
whimsical vibe of both the interior and exterior design. The Soul’s hip, boxy
visual appeal is not everyone’s cup of tea, yet through my week with the car I
heard a chorus of comments like “so cute” and “looks like you’re having fun.”
The
coolness is matched by its utility: the Soul is an especially spacious entry in
this class of affordable small cars.
Additional
dollops of whimsy are added to the EV model with Apple-esque white plastic
accents, blue-tinged headlights and a low-speed pedestrian warning audio that
sounds like a mood track from “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” In the Plus trim
of my test car, the white exterior mirrors, tucked against the car’s royal blue
body when parked, opened cheerily to greet me when the vehicle recognized my
approach with the electronic fob.
Kia had
more fun in hiding the Soul EV’s charging port behind a panel in the area where
a grille would normally be, an ideal location for plugging in. The panel opens
to reveal two ports compatible with popular charging systems from 120 to 480
volts. It was a thoughtful gesture to put a small, powerful light inside that
compartment.
The
Soul is the only electric car that offers as standard equipment (again, aside
from Tesla) a direct current quick charge capability. In the Soul, it’s capable
of adding about 60 miles of range in half an hour.
Kia will have quick-charge
stations in the 16 Kia dealerships that are initially selling the Soul EV. This
is yet another sign of the automaker’s knockoff strategy and a nod to Tesla’s
concept of offering free fuel through its Supercharger network.
Those
quick chargers at dealerships, along with a ChargeUp card granting access to
various public charging networks, make regional trips in California practical
in the Soul. Kia is leaving it up to individual dealerships to decide whether
to charge for the 30-minute pit stops.
In my
mixture of freeway trips and in-town errands, the Soul EV averaged about four
miles per kilowatt-hour of electricity. Translating that to more familiar
terms, it means that utility bills at home for electric fuel work out to the
equivalent of buying gasoline at something between $1 and $2 a gallon. The cost
range is broad because of variations in electricity and gasoline prices around
the country.
Still,
that should soften the blow of the $34,500 sticker on the base-level Soul EV,
which comes standard with navigation, rear camera, power windows, power
driver’s seat, cruise control, a 6.6-kW onboard charger and the port for quick
charging. The Plus model jumps to $36,500, adding amenities like fog lamps and
heated leather-trimmed seats in front and back.
A
similarly equipped gasoline Soul sells for about $19,000.
The
Soul EV qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit, and in California, its
single market for now, the state provides a rebate of $2,500, as well as
sticker granting solo drivers access to the car pool lanes.
Nationwide
availability is in the planning stages. Kia is taking a wait-and-see approach
to production — a few thousand at most in the first year, I suspect.
Yes,
Kia is arriving late to the E.V. scene, but it’s walking in the door smartly
dressed and ready to party.
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