Official Kia Soul EV thread

[Devin]

Committed cars have factory quick charging and wide roll out. By this logic, the RAV4, B-Class ED, FFE, and 500e land in Compliance. The Soul EV and BMW i3 can land in Maybe Committed. The Model S and LEAF land in Committed. Or, to think of this another way: Compliance = Hell, Maybe Committed = Purgatory, Committed = Heaven.

I don't see how you could rank BMW anything but completely committed. The i3 has fast charging, it's a completely dedicated platform (not a conversion of a gas car), and it is available in all 50 states. And the sales are definitely reflective of something more than a compliance car.

Fair enough, and I'd certainly say the i3 is on the cusp of moving up to Committed territory. Maybe Committed is still a good place to be though.

The big question is, how many i3s are really PHEVs? BMW won't say, but I did find an article indicating that at least 60% of i3 sales in the UK are PHEVs. Not sure how committed you can be when a majority of the vehicles sold have tailpipes.

 

[DanCar]

...The reason Ford sells the FFE in all states is likely political. The FFE is one of the few American-made EVs, and consequently can be found in many government fleets in the U.S. and Canada....

A requirement for the DOE loans that Ford received was that they cell nation wide.

 

[dhanson865]

I would have a tough time living with those aero wheels.

Yeah, those wheels are pretty gross. You have a car with the aerodynamics of a shoebox and you then decide to earn some aero points with the wheels? They can't make that much of a difference.

the aero wheels on the Tesla Model S were supposed to give up to 5% range increase in highway driving. I'd expect these wheels to help in a similar fashion.

 

[TonyWilliams]

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1095467_hyundai-and-kia-target-2-slot-in-green-vehicles-by-2020" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Last month, the two carmakers announced that they would build electric versions of the Hyundai Avante (Elantra) and Kia K3 (Forte) compacts."

 

[cwerdna]

Wow I love how everyone has jumped to the conclusion that the KIA Soul EV is the problem. There is also a chance that the brand of charger that is going down (as I understand it it is only 1 brand) is doing something that is not in line with the spec of Chamedo.

I don't think everyone has jumped to that conclusion but there was http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=397938#p397938" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Stevens Creek Kia's ABB DC FC (http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/54971" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false was still down for ages after I dropped by for a visit during the installation process. I recall the display was on and I had no idea what was going on w/the hold up. For all I know, they DC FCed a Soul EV and damaged it....

I currently have no idea if it's even working and whether they'd welcome a Leaf charging given that their DC FC has a Combo1 plug and Kia doesn't even sell anything w/that.

 

[Berlino]

Wow I love how everyone has jumped to the conclusion that the KIA Soul EV is the problem. There is also a chance that the brand of charger that is going down (as I understand it it is only 1 brand) is doing something that is not in line with the spec of Chamedo.

...

That being said, Kia definitely has a moral responsibility to communicate with the people who have purchased the vehicles and inform them of what will happen if they use that type of charger.

The Norwegian article mentioned three brands. Furthermore, in my province there's a additional brand that is having problems with Kia.
Indeed, the network has sent an e-mail to the handful of Soul EV owners asking them to not use CHAdeMO for the time-being.

Kia Canada has been silent on this issue. Is it the same in the USA? However, in Norway Kia has contacted owners about this.

 

[pkulak]

If a QC can be damaged at all just by being plugged in, that's a really bad design. That would be like a new browser that shuts down Facebook if someone uses it to check their feed. Sure, it's probably not the greatest browser, but what the hell is wrong with Facebook that it can just get shut down by a non-maliciius user?

Poor analogy!

A worst case engineering design for failures of a product does not design for EVERY possible cause
of a failure, but only the most probable/likely and known when initially designed, given cost constraints.

What? This wasn't an earthquake or flood. This is a user interacting with a device over its interface. It's a perfect analogy. If I connect to a Facebook server and do something it doesn't recognize, it will just shut down the connection and move on. Apparently, if I connect to one of these CHAdeMO chargers and do something it doesn't expect, it breaks. You can't have that with public-facing hardware.

 

[nosuchthing]

Isn't this what's called an anecdotal evidence?

 

[JeremyW]

Guess my post about the protocol got buried...

Even if the car is doing something like shorting out the control lines, the station should be able to recover from it. It says so in the CHAdeMO standard.

But hey, standards were meant to be broken, right? :roll:

 

[pkulak]

Guess my post about the protocol got buried...

Even if the car is doing something like shorting out the control lines, the station should be able to recover from it. It says so in the CHAdeMO standard.

But hey, standards were meant to be broken, right? :roll:

Exactly. This makes it seem to me like it's more likely the Soul is the one properly implementing the spec, but it's doing so in a way that Leafs never have and that charger builders have never bothered to test.

 

[JeremyW]

Probably has power hungry or defective contactors. The spec says 7A continuous and up to ~10A peak.

 

[lorenfb]

"What? This wasn't an earthquake or flood. This is a user interacting with a device over its interface. It's a perfect analogy. If I connect to a Facebook server and do something it doesn't recognize, it will just shut down the connection and move on. Apparently, if I connect to one of these CHAdeMO chargers and do something it doesn't expect, it breaks. You can't have that with public-facing hardware."

One needs to view and understand the electrical diagram that JeremyW provided which shows unprotected
semiconductor devices, e.g. the opto-coupler & CAN lines, that can easily be damaged by a poorly
designed vehicle CHAdeMO interface (the Soul's). Any stray high voltage or even a low impedence
12 volt source fedback to the QC could damage the QC.

 

[JeremyW]

Actually, now that I think about it... maybe the contactors (that connect the pack of the Soul to the CHAdeMO port) have inadequate or defective flyback protection diodes.

(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

This could certainly cause damage to the charger if they don't have protection on their outputs for stray voltage.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Guess my post about the protocol got buried...

Even if the car is doing something like shorting out the control lines, the station should be able to recover from it. It says so in the CHAdeMO standard.

But hey, standards were meant to be broken, right? :roll:

True, the unit should have protections for various situations. The Blink QC anticipate an issue before you even plug in the car and they stop working or lock the offending car to the cable :lol:

 

[mkjayakumar]

Any public interface should first and foremost protect itself. This is true of software and hardware. As someone said, just because I entered a mis-typed URL, the web server should not crash.

ClipperCreek EVSE's failed to work with 2014 Leafs, and they sent me an updated version of the device.

 

[Devin]

Any public interface should first and foremost protect itself. This is true of software and hardware. As someone said, just because I entered a mis-typed URL, the web server should not crash.

ClipperCreek EVSE's failed to work with 2014 Leafs, and they sent me an updated version of the device.

Exactly. The way I see it is: both parties who are either A (not conforming to the CHAdeMO spec) or B (not building adequate protections into the hardware) are wrong. These CHAdeMO systems aren't cheap, and many exceed the cost of the vehicle plugged into it. It's only reasonable to assume the worst and build every protection into your unit as possible. CHAdeMO charger manufacturers should rectify this problem. Additionally, if Kia isn't implementing the protocol correctly, then they should fix the cars.

We want to encourage every manufacturer to build the most reliable product, not give some a pass because they were here first and nobody else was utilizing the entire spec.

 

[Berlino]

In Quebec, the "Electric Circuit" charging network sent an e-mail to Soul drivers telling them it was OK to use CHAdeMO now. They use a local manufacturer's (AddEnergy) stations, so this doesn't mean the issue is fixed for ABB or other incompatible units.

 

[evnow]

Walks like a duck ... quacks like a duck ...

http://insideevs.com/kia-soul-ev-exclusive-rollout-information-live-images-from-2014-la-auto-show/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

According to the Korean automaker, the Soul EV’s current rollout status does not include plans to go nationwide. Basically, Kia tells us that the Soul EV will only be available in California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey and Maryland.

We repeat…at this point in time, Kia has no plans to expand to Soul EV’s rollout to states other than 5 listed above. Bummer.

 

[TomT]

I like ducks... :lol:

Walks like a duck ... quacks like a duck ...

 

[pkulak]

I like ducks... :lol:

Walks like a duck ... quacks like a duck ...

Mariota for Heisman!!!