I am a happy previous model Soul owner (30kWh model). I do like the newer Souls and am absorbing everything Soul at the moment in anticipation of getting one in the near future. There are things on the newer car that I like, such as the rotary 'gear' selector (I hate the old style 'automatic' selector, it just doesn't make sense to me), I like the styling, I like the range (Though I think I'll go 64kWh, the 40 is just not quite a big enough step up for me. If the smaller battery was in the 45 to 50ish area, it would be perfect). Things I'm not so keen on, the black interior. The soul should have a funky interior, perhaps vivid red or some such. My current Soul has a nice light grey with glossy white bits and the funky speaker/air-vent 'barrels'. The newer Souls seem a step into more boring territory on the interior. I also wish the larger battery model could be had with cloth seats, I believe it is leather (or synthetic leather) only. All in all though, I am now a Soul man, and even two weeks before I bought mine in 2021, if you'd told me I'd one day own a Kia, I'd have laughed at you!
Just bought one ex demo with 45 miles at £22k. This video showed two sets of cable packs and mine came with only one (the type 2). Should the domestic 3 pin cable have been included?
You can fix the speed limit warning with the big button under your right foot. Honestly, I can imagine a beep would get pretty annoying at times though x
I think 80kW DC is fine. I think that that the 7.5kW AC capability falls short. I think at £33k I'd want 22kW AC, which opens up your options considerably for journeys that push the battery capacity a bit. We use the 22kW AC socket on our Zoe quite a lot. Would miss it. Yeah, the bing bong noises would annoy me too. It would infuriate me to think I'd actually paid them to give me a car that's going to infuriate me. 😑
I think that it's quite possible that the Urban could achieve somewhere around 175 miles on a full charge as it's very easy to get 4.5 miles per kWh. I'm 12500 miles in with my 2022 SoulEV Maxx and I'm easily averaging 4-5 Miles per kWh in urban driving, sometimes 6+. I absolutely agree with your verdict, this model will be the one that appeals more to the urban driver, perhaps older people entering the EV market for the first time. It's a shame that Kia hasn't upgraded the charging ability on this and the Explore (then again - they didn't really on the NiroEV either) and to not provide a few basics such as. heated seats and steering wheel is a little mean to say the least. At the moment, Kia are again offering £1500 off on their PCP, which was the same when I got my MAXX back in the spring of 2022. That makes it much more competitive and I really believe that the SoulEV Urban should have been priced at 30k rather than the 32-33k. That would really mix things up in the market around this price point. I chose the SoulEV Maxx because I have a six piece full sized drum kit to lug about every week, and this is the perfect car for that sort of load. If I were shopping this year for the same car and for the same reason, I would have bought a NiroEV 3 trim. No doubt. The SoulEV Explore at 38k (where the Maxx was 33.5k or so) simply isn't justifiable and will likely result in the end of that trim level. Now with the new Kona coming, which is already winning car of the year across media outlets still offering a smaller battery option, albeit in the lower trim (but still very well equipped), I wonder if people will be more inclined to go for that at a few thousand more as it's far more representative of a newer generation EV. That said, for anyone considering the SoulEV Urban - this is an excellent review and I can attest that this is a great driving car, fantastic at slow speed and in the town and very capable (if not best on country A/B roads). Its got a huge amount of space and is very practical, looks great and isn't just another EV crossover.
A good fair review. I bought the 201 HP version for my partner 2 years ago and she loves it. I'd say if you are keen on the design go for it..!!. It's a shape that Kia are actually promoting now. in a big way..see the latest EV9...(the Soul on steroids)... and the upcoming EV4 and 5. If the car truly will stay ''urban''....as in ...99% short trips then maybe the smaller battery version would suffice but my view is if anyone is prepared to pay close to £33k another few thousand will give you a car that even in the middle of a cold winter has reasonable range and the performance is going to put a real smile on a lot of peoples faces. The extra HP through the front wheels makes for very entertaining point and squirt driving on twisty roads. My car also has a heads up display which shows info (amongst other things) from the inbuilt Sat nav .....this Kia navigation we are finding as good if not better than Google Maps on Android. It's a great car with real character and that is something very sadly lacking in so many of the competition these days.
My mum and dad love the 18 month old model they have. Easy for my mum to drive and she loves the regen paddles. The main thing for them is that with 3 artificial knees between them they both find it easy to get in and out of compared to the old car and the others they tried when looking. They would not of bought this smaller battery version originally but now they have 18 months EV experiance and a few longer trips they would posibly consider it.
