The Soul EV told me I could go 92 miles on its charge, and it was telling the truth.
California is the EV-friendliest state, so when I headed west to discuss plans for the 2016 24 Hours of LeMons season with my cruel and exploitative boss and review-car destroyer, Jay Lamm, I decided to follow up the Volkswagen e-Golf and Fiat 500e with Kia’s electron-powered commuter.
All the requirements for EV badging met here: green color and at least part of the word “ecology.”
Before I headed from my childhood home in Alameda to the Official Burrito Wolf-a-Thon and 2016 LeMons Season Planning Session in San Francisco, I decided to throw caution to the wind and take the Soul EV on a trip to the very limits of its advertised range: all the way to the South San Jose Pick-n-Pull wrecking yard, where I hoped to find a Nissan Voice Warning System for my collection.
Posing in front of the long-abandoned Del Monte plant in Alameda.
The round-trip distance would be 84 miles and the Soul EV with a full charge claimed it could go 92 miles. This would be highway driving, however, and I didn’t want to poke along at 53 mph in the right lane while enraged horn-honkers Dopplered by me; my plan was to keep up with traffic. Weather was pretty nice, temperatures in the high 50s, so I could leave the HVAC turned off and save some joules that way. I hit the road.
As it turned out, the Soul EV managed 84 miles of mostly highway driving with several to spare.
The Soul EV drives much like the regular gasoline Soul, but with big electric torque and the jouncy, noisy, screechy ride you get with low-rolling-resistance tires. I have to wonder how much the range would be shortened, were one to swap on a set of ordinary tires. The transition from regenerative braking to friction braking tended to be abrupt and harsh; once the pressure on the brake pedal goes past a certain threshold, there’s a brief unsettling moment of slamming against the seat belt as the real brakes take over. Other than these things, though, the car drove well enough.
End of the line for these once-sporty Europeans.
Driving between 60 and 65 mph most of the way, with some urban stop-and-go surface-street driving thrown in, I made it to the Pick-n-Pull with nearly 50 miles still showing on the Soul EV’s range-O-meter. While inside, I saw this touching Jaguar-Fiat-Jaguar scene.
ZOMG PANIC! Actually, no panic.
On the way back, the Low Battery Warning popped up with 17 miles to go. With about 10 miles remaining in my trip, however, I felt no range anxiety. This sort of accuracy is very reassuring in an EV, though I’d want to test it on a very hot or very cold day and see what happens. Overall, the Soul EV worked well for a non-enthusiast transportation car; one of these plus a ridiculously fast and senseless car and you’d be set. I wasn’t too pleased by the late-1990s-style several-second delay in response to touch-screen commands, and the reconnection to my Bluetooth phone on starting the car took quite a while, but all this can be lived with.
The fix-a-flat compressor-and-can-of-goo worked pretty well when I got a flat tire.
After getting a puncture in the left front tire, I had the opportunity to try out the fix-a-flat compressor kit that comes with the Soul EV, and it worked quite well; just attach the can of sealant, plug in the compressor to the lighter jack, and you’re set. With all the rebates and discounts for EVs (which vary state-by-state), the Soul EV can be yours for quite a bit less than the list price, so it makes good sense as an all-around short-to-medium-length commuter car. Throw some solar panels on your roof and you’ll be able to point an accusing finger at those fossil-fuel-swilling Prius drivers.
