Kia to offer Soul in Europe as electric car only

Kia wants to keep its Soul lineup exclusively electric in Europe. The decision was made against the backdrop of falling sales of the fossil-fuelled versions of their little car. A turbo Soul called the Final Edition marks the change.

Kia have made up their mind and so there will be no other Soul but the Soul EV be available at dealerships across Europe. For the Koreans the switch reflects the reality of a market, where most people opted for the all-electric version, particularly at a time when there were not many EVs on sale.

But also today, sales are strong. In Germany for example, of those 2,245 Kia Soul sold this year so far, 1,899 had an electric drive.

Moreover, Kia is about to release the next generation, this time sitting on the same platform also used for the Kona and Niro plug-ins.

The new Soul EV will have two battery options. The standard pack with 39.2 kWh as well as the larger 64 kWh power pack that is to last for close to 500 kilometres. The current Soul EV runs on a 30 kWh battery, so even the new standard is an upgrade to a range of up to 300 km. Kia has also been working on wireless charging reportedly but has not made any serial plans yet.

Through the Alliance with Hyundai, the Koreans want to offer 14 electric models by 2025, adding to the portfolio of Hyundai’s Ioniq EV and Kia’s Soul EV (we reported).

Source: press release via email