Official Kia Soul EV thread

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dgpcolorado said:
Is the Soul really in the compact car class? It seems bigger in the pictures (I've never seen one in person before).

The Soul is about a foot shorter in length than a Leaf, but the other exterior dimensions are similar and the interior specs are pretty similar as well.
 
dgpcolorado said:
tractioninc said:
...Now that I've put over 500 miles on my Soul I've started exploring its limits more (acceleration, braking, cornering, top speed, etc). It's proving surprisingly capable compared to other gas-powered compact cars I've driven hard.
Is the Soul really in the compact car class? It seems bigger in the pictures (I've never seen one in person before).

The footprint of the Soul is very small but the styling and height throw off perceptions. It's 16" shorter than a Honda Civic.

Looks can be deceiving!
 
GRA said:
For me and I expect most people, it's just the opposite. I prefer a hard, guaranteed number to a 'maybe, under this, that and the other conditions' number.
A pessimistic number will make people (like my wife) get more range anxiety and perhaps use the Leaf less.

I'd caution against generalizing your perception as that of "most people".

My guess is - most people keep a buffer i.e. they want to see on GOM x+20 miles (or some other number) if they have to drive x miles. That buffer will take care of the variability.
 
dgpcolorado said:
Not necessarily. Even with terrain and speed adjustments the algorithm still won't account for changing weather conditions.
Ofcourse future can't be predicted with 100% accuracy - but like weather forecasting it can get more and more accurate.

For eg. use history to figure out the speed driver uses (above/below the speed limit). Look at traffic for current conditions etc.
 
evnow said:
GRA said:
For me and I expect most people, it's just the opposite. I prefer a hard, guaranteed number to a 'maybe, under this, that and the other conditions' number.
A pessimistic number will make people (like my wife) get more range anxiety and perhaps use the Leaf less.

I'd caution against generalizing your perception as that of "most people".

My guess is - most people keep a buffer i.e. they want to see on GOM x+20 miles (or some other number) if they have to drive x miles. That buffer will take care of the variability.
I think most people prefer a 'real' number, even if pessimistic, to a 'highly variable and maybe attainable provided you've read all the manuals and used all the tricks' number provided by most GOMs. Early adopters, being more interested in the tech and more technically inclined, are more likely to push the limits, but the average A to B commuter doesn't care what's under the hood or how the number's arrived at, as long as they can count on it. They can then apply whatever amount of reserve to that number that makes them comfortable, and KNOW they'll be able to go that far with no worries, unless they decide to try and tow a space shuttle :D For a BEV, I want at least a 10% emergency reserve, and it could be more in inclement conditions.

I believe Tesla allows you to set your own personal mileage reserve in the car, and subtracts that when calculating whether or not you have enough charge to make the trip. That's the kind of mental security that a pessimistic GOM provides - you can almost certainly go further, but you _know_ you can go that far.

As to what 'most people' like, no one seems to complain about the Volt and Spark's very accurate DTE, and no one feels the need to call them GOMs. That's certainly not the case with the LEAF or other cars that use last few mile predictions.
 
GRA said:
For me and I expect most people, it's just the opposite. I prefer a hard, guaranteed number to a 'maybe, under this, that and the other conditions' number.

Without getting really fancy and using gps with topographical info and recording everywhere you drive and at what time you go different places (or forcing you to put an address in the gps) and pulling in real time weather data it would be really hard. After all that there would still be times it's off. The best GOM I think is in the spark EV, it gives three numbers, a high and a low as well as a current driving style.
 
minispeed said:
GRA said:
For me and I expect most people, it's just the opposite. I prefer a hard, guaranteed number to a 'maybe, under this, that and the other conditions' number.

Without getting really fancy and using gps with topographical info and recording everywhere you drive and at what time you go different places (or forcing you to put an address in the gps) and pulling in real time weather data it would be really hard. After all that there would still be times it's off. The best GOM I think is in the spark EV, it gives three numbers, a high and a low as well as a current driving style.
Yes, I like the Spark too, as it gives the cautious, the average and the daring driver the information they want. More importantly is that GM apparently uses a rolling average over the past couple of hundred miles, thus evening out the wild swings that 'last-mile' GoMs like the LEAFs seem to use.

Tesla is attempting the method in your first sentence. Presumably no one would bother to enter a destination for local trips that you know won't be a problem for you, so it's just for the edge-of-the-envelope ones (i.e. trips) that you'd care.
 
tractioninc said:
We have both a 2014 Leaf SV and a 2015 Soul + EV in our driveway, so I will try to remember to take some comparison photos of the hatch areas soon.

I find the cars to be very, very similar by objective measures. So close in terms of size, practicality, creature comforts, driving experience, etc., that the chief differentiator is the styling.

Comparison photos:

tumblr_nnut5rlUb21qc8yzvo1_1280.jpg

tumblr_nnut5rlUb21qc8yzvo2_1280.jpg

tumblr_nnut5rlUb21qc8yzvo3_1280.jpg
 
You'll notice that the roof of the Soul is higher than the Leaf, but that's mostly due to the higher ground clearance. The Leaf is nearly a foot longer than the Soul, and part of length extends the floor of the cargo area. The floor of the Leaf's rear hatch is noticeably larger than that of the Soul and is deeper, too. However, the Soul's cargo area has a false floor to make the load area more even when the seat backs are folded down--removing that floor gives the hatch area about the same vertical height as the Leaf. It's noteworthy that the hatch space of the Soul is very rectangular, while the Leaf's space is almost wedge shaped due to the steeply sloping rear hatch. The result is the rear headrests are about twice the distance from the rear glass in the Soul than in the Leaf.
 
Thanks for sharing the article - you make some really great points.

One additional note is that I prefer the black interior of the regular Soul to the gray that interior of the Soul EV. The interior materials in my car are nice to touch, but just don't look as rich as they would in black:

2015-kia-soul-EV-interior.jpg

2015-kia-soul-interior.jpg

2015-Kia-Soul-Wagon-Base-4dr-Hatchback-Photo-10.png
 
Yes, that's definitely a personal taste issue. Personally, I prefer beige or charcoal interiors. Black interiors in Texas are HOT! When I added leather to my "12 LEAF, I made them two tone so that the backs and sides matched the light grey of all the plastics touching the seats, but the seating surfaces a darker charcoal to match the darker plastics and give it a richer look.
 
The gas Soul has a really lovely (to my eyes) black/caramel interior that I would have preferred to the grey/grey in the EV.

Kia also offers "The Whole Shebang" package on the gassers that includes things like Infinity audio, panoramic sunroof, LED headlights, etc. A few weeks back I got a survey from Kia asking if I would have paid extra for such a package had it been available and I responded enthusiastically in the affirmative.
 
So of you take out that false floor (I never carry L1 chargers around with me anyway), do you get a lot more trunk space? That's really the only issue I have with the Soul; the smaller cargo area.
 
pkulak said:
So of you take out that false floor (I never carry L1 chargers around with me anyway), do you get a lot more trunk space? That's really the only issue I have with the Soul; the smaller cargo area.

The fan for the TMS resides in that space and does take up some room beneath the false floor.
 
My interest in Soul EV has plummeted ever since the rumor (?) of 30 kWh Leaf MY16 came out. There would be little reason to get Soul over Leaf esp. given the likely street price difference.
 
evnow said:
My interest in Soul EV has plummeted ever since the rumor (?) of 30 kWh Leaf MY16 came out. There would be little reason to get Soul over Leaf esp. given the likely street price difference.

The battery capacity warranty is a big reason to consider the Soul EV over the LEAF if you plan on a long-term purchase. However, the cost of a Soul EV battery replacement (after warranty) is still unknown.

Kia Soul EV:
70% capacity, 10 years, 100,000 miles
(80 months if you drive 15,000 miles per year)

Nissan LEAF:
66.25% capacity, 5 years, 60,000 miles
(48 months if you drive 15,000 miles per year)

The wording on both warranties is basically the same- they will restore to a minimal threshold. Nissan has shown, in practice, they restore to 100% with a new battery. Kia hasn't had a warranty claim yet, so it remains to be seen how they respond.
 
AVTA baseline tests of Four 2015 Soul EV battery packs' capacity posted:

http://avt.inl.gov/fsev.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Three show ~30.4 kWh, and one ~30.5 kWh, all with ~400 miles on them.

If anyone knows the ~ build dates for these test cars:

VIN 1908, VIN 1918, VIN 1919, VIN 1920
Please post.

No degradation results posted, yet.
 
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