co.uk not only are there thousands of cars for sale, but we also have hundreds of car reviews and when my colleague, the Fantastic Vicky Parrott reviewed the Kia Soul EV when it first came out in this latest guys, she said, while the Sole EV is currently only offered with a single, highly spec trim level theres a strong chance that KIA will introduce some cheaper versions with less kit, just as it did with the enero, if youd rather play less for a modestly equipped version, wait a while and youll. Probably be able to get one well, Vicky was right, and here it is Music. We rate the soul Evie. We think this is a good family electric car, really like the fact that it just looks a bit different, its also good to drive lots of equipment. Excuse me sort of walking around the car Im trying to get out the wind, because weve chosen particularly windy day to film the problem with the soul. Ev is that, as time has gone on, prices have crept up, and so now its basically a forty thousand pound electric car. To put that into context. If youd walked into a Kia dealership just a few years ago, with 40 000 pounds, you could have left again with a stinger GTS. Now you get a soul, so Kia feeling a bit exposed about this, particularly given the number of new entrants into the electric car market, since the sole EV went on sale has come up with a lower price point to do this, its done two things, one its Fitted less equipment to this model and two is fitted a smaller battery with a less powerful electric motor.

So this the new cheaper model starts at just under 33 000 pounds, its called the sole Urban, whereas the longer Range model is now called The Soul. Explore well jump inside, I think, to talk about the batteries and the range because itll be warmer: oh thats, better right, so batteries, so the soul explore which is the bigger battery version still on sale. That has a 72 kilowatt battery to give a range of around 280 miles. This car, the urban, has a ‘.2 kilowatt hour battery and that gives an official wltp range of 171 miles, so its actually a bit more than Urban 171 miles, but key is calling it. The urban um it also has a less powerful Electro mode well get to that, whilst were driving, because at the moment I want to talk about what this feels like inside um. So, as we said, its a 33 000 pound car generally, its good in here – I like this nice silver trim here – is a nice touch, um yeah generally its fine, but there are clearly some cost cutting measures, so you get cloth seats rather than leather dont. Mind that so much you get an eight inch screen, rather than a 10.25 inch screen um. You can still have nav and um everything via carplay and Android, auto. What Im less keen on no leather steering wheel? No heated seats, I dont know in a 33 000 pound car. That does seem a little bit stingy on the plus side.

Practicality is unchanged so decent rear seat, space, loads of Headroom in all the seats, the boots still a bit small, though for family car 315 liters, so that is still one drawback of the sole EV all right before we set off, I forgot to just cover interior Qualities Im just going to mention it quickly because its fine – and there are some like nice, squidgy Plastics or materials up here, but theyre – also quite a lot of hard things and mainly, I think, its just a very dark interior um. So it feels a bit plain. Other than these little splashes of color here and here its really quite dark, but anyway lets get going. I think the dials in the sole are really nice and clear, very easy to follow and its got a little trip computer in the middle thats very easy to adjust and follow as well. It kind of fits in with the whole um ease of use that you get with Kias theyre very easy cars to control in general. So with the bigger battery, you also get the more powerful motor 210 horsepower. We know that that one does not to 62 miles per hour in 7.9 seconds, actually a bit slower than youd. Imagine for a 210 horsepower car, but there you go. Um key has not yet published a naughty 62 time for the sole Urban. So in a world exclusive to see what it does so Andy, my cameraman, you have our accelerometer.

I do count me down three two one go and were off steps off the line really nicely not to 30. It feels properly brisk but lets see not to 60 Whats it gon na do one 9.1: okay! Well, that that sounds about right, doesnt, it so about 1.2 seconds slower than the more powerful model um. But still you know, I think nine second cars tend to feel about appropriate for family motoring and Ill. Tell you that this Soul certainly feels appropriate for family Motoring, so its always felt like with 210 horsepower, the sole EV its almost been a bit too much. At times it will Scrabble its tires as you try and put power down, particularly in the wet this car. You dont really get that it still feels sharp the pickups good, um and yeah. I think this is fast enough for a family car. So I think if the range is good enough, most people are not going to be disappointed by the performance in the cheaper version of the solo, EV and indeed the rest of the way it drives. Its uh weve said it about the soul before its just a very competent easy going likable family car. So the ride is fine. You know its its perfectly well cushioned its obviously very quiet being an EV. The box is shape. You do get a bit of wind noise, but its not terrible. The steering is smooth and consistent to react. The power delivery is lovely um.

You know if you havent, driven an EV before jump into one of these, and I think youre going to really really enjoy how smooth the power delivery is and how easy it is to drive as well. It does roll a bit around corners, its not a sports car, but I dont think it was ever trying to be a sports car and its really nice to see that while Kia has obviously trimmed back some of the equipment on this, it has kept the adjustable Brake regen so using the paddles here you can alter between heavy brake Regen and very little break for each end. And actually, if you hold this right hand paddle, it will even go all the way down to a complete stop without you having to touch the brake. Um, just one of those nice little EV features. So when I was researching for this video, I went back and watched our original review of the Soul, EV and all the comments from that still stand for this car, its really only the shorter range. That is the consideration here and obviously whether youre prepared to put up with a bit less equipment. But I was reading the comments underneath the article one of the comments that one of our lovely Watchers had left. It said that they had purchased a soul, EV um. Having come out of a BMW, i3 and the reason was they liked the design and just like theyd like the design of their I3.

Now, as an ex bmw, I3 owner myself, I can kind of see the logic there, because okay, the construction and the materials are nowhere near as exotic in this as they are on the I3, but its the same sort of philosophy and its a slightly unusual shape. Uh its a bit of a different design, it just stands out from the crowd um, but of course, in the soul, you get a much bigger interior, um, so yeah. I think I can see the logic there as far as charging goes. Um smaller battery takes less time to charge so on a seven kilowatt home wall box, youre looking around six hours or so for a full battery. It does rapid charge as well so on a 50 kilowatt rapid charger um its about an hour to get from naught to 80 and being a cure. It comes with all the cables that you need as well as well as a really annoying Lane departure warning system. Now the other thing you get with a smaller battery, of course, is its lighter, so its quite a bit larger as well. The the bigger battery in the explore is 457 kilograms. The battery in this Urban model is 317 kilograms. Now, a couple of things that that gives you one is: it helps the lower uh power motor feel a bit stronger than it otherwise would um, but also it should help in efficiency if the cars a bit lighter.

So on that front, we see with the explore model. Um you get around four miles per kilowatt hour and with this Urban model, weve seen around four miles per kilowatt hour. So maybe that doesnt play out. Admittedly, we havent covered hundreds and hundreds of miles in this car yet, but it doesnt look like its going to be hugely more efficient of the two right, so there you have it. The sole EV Urban, I think, is a really good addition to Kias range, its its cheapest electric car, that KIA offers um say priced around 33 000 pounds, so not the cheapest EV on the market by any stretch, but it gives a much more affordable entry price Point to an electric Kia and Kiev is building some of the. What we rate is some of the best electric cars around at the moment. Um.

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