TheSoul EV retains virtually all of the quirky charms of its gas counterpart,which was redesigned for its second generation in 2014 with EV compatibility in mind. The Soul has led the charge of urban mobility with seating for five, tall ride height like a crossover, the latest in in-car connectivity and with hatchback versatility. Rear seats fold flat to solve most urban challenges, from loading up a short move across town to packing the pet and gear to head away for the weekend.
Officially, the EV retains 91 percent of the cargo space but even that is misleading. The space under the floor in the cargo area, where you might have found a spare tire long, long ago, is not included in the calculation. That space is divided between open storage and a dedicated slot for the charger. Thus, the difference in cargo area is negligible.
Often times, plug-in vehicles lose cargo space because the battery pack is stored behind the rear seat and creates an irregular plane when the rear seats are folded down, as is the case with the Ford C-Max Energi. The 27 kWh battery pack in the Soul EV is stored under the floor between the axles. It provides 109 horsepower with 210 pound-feet of torque, which is not fast by any means, but it has linear quickness whenever you want it.
The battery placement affects rear passengers more than cargo space. The floor is three inches higher in the back, so knees would seem a bit closer to the chin, but Kia pushed the seat bottoms back to flatten it out for rear passengers. Retaining that space is imperative since the interior space of the Soul is the biggest competitive advantage over compact plug-ins.
The Soul EV has nearly 50 cubic feet of cargo space, which is 7 cubic feet more than the C-Max Energi and way more than the BMW i3's 36.9 cubic feet. Only Mitsubishi's i (formerly Mi-EV) compares, but only in cargo area.
The Soul EV excels at range as well, providing 93 miles on a single full charge. This was consistent with all our overnight charges from a standard outlet in our garage. While our model had dual ports for Level 2 (five-hour charge time) and DC fast charging (less than 30 minute charge time) in the area where a grille would be, we didn't have a need for it. More
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