Car review: Kia Soul EV First Edition

The steering has a pleasing, positive action, and the car is entertaining rather than inert to drive, says Martin Gurdon

Kia

Martin Gurdon

26 March 2020

The battery-powered Kia Soul EV is an ‘everyday’ car, which is to its credit, because it demonstrates that up to a point, electric cars are as user-friendly as fossil fuelled ones.

Two big factors still count against electric propulsion. One is range between charges. Kia claims the Soul averages 280 miles per charge (good, but that’s a best-case scenario on normal roads), and you’ll have to wait between 54 minutes - 31 hours to replenish the Soul EV, depending on the charging system used.

There are now more charging points than petrol stations, but provision has been a bit of a free-for-all with competing providers, while electric car converts have found that making the relevant apps and charging systems function can be irksome.

These things will get better and the market will mature and improve, but we’re not there yet, and in the short term at least cars like the Soul EV will sometimes struggle to reach their full potential as a result.

None of this stops the Soul EV from being a good car. The electrical system steals some boot space, but this squared-off car’s cabin is otherwise spacious, with a decent amount of room for five. It’s well made too and nicely finished and detailed.

Kia has avoided the ‘it’s electric so it’s weird’ aesthetics, previously adopted by some manufacturers, for the instruments and controls, which are all pretty conventional and easy to use and understand.

Unsurprisingly the car is very quiet, with the distant whine of its 64kw electric motor and the patter and roar of its tyres creating only mild disturbance.

Kia

The Soul EV has fully independent suspension that helps it negotiate corners with greater precision than its perpendicular looks might lead you to suspect. Likewise the steering has a pleasing, positive action, and the car is entertaining rather than inert to drive. Performance is strong rather than eye-watering (0-60 in 7.6secs and 104mph top speed).

This car comes laden with safety kit and the sort of toys modern drivers demand. As with its petrol and diesel brethren the Soul EV is sold with a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty. If you can afford nearly £34k and want a car for relatively short journeys, you’d quickly forget how this one was powered. Perhaps until you came to charge it up.

Details: Kia Soul EV First Edition

0-60mph 7.6sec,

104mph top speed

280 mile range combined (combined)

0 g/km CO2

Price: £33,795.

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