Gadgetory

the key is soul it's an undeniable rockstar in its category on a big seller now they've got an electric version I'll be able to take something that is of special essence to the soul and make it a great and different Evie or is it a look-alike car with a big battery let's drive that's 15 soul electric and check detector now a soul Evie looks just like any other soul the body is the same spot one of these guys by the unusual grill where the charging door lives these aerodynamic alloy wheels some badges on the side and obviously no tailpipes the battery basically lays flat along the floor but kicks up toward the rear and therefore the rear seats do lose three inches of legroom now a soul Evie is thirty four five with destination there are no tech options so that's the price CNET style but take off ten if you roll in federal and California tax credits at least for 24 five let's see what you get now inside the soul it's like just about every other soul with some differences in the instrumentation let's start on the left there you've obviously got your traditional gauge it shows whether you're using power or regenerating it there's your battery level and your projected range and on the right a digital speedo with some bizarre band around it that shows you what speeds apparently are more efficient on battery usage though I find it hard to believe that 50 and 90 are equally efficient as it suggests in the main head unit with the eight inch screen you get navigation is standard on this car also bluetooth streaming all the major sources rear camera under the UVO button there telematics system you've gotten beyond just sort of the OnStar competitor now you can add in some meaningful apps like Yelp SoundHound and iHeartRadio we've seen most of this before what I want to go to is this button here the evie screen here's where you really get some difference on the so levy obviously you got your range indicator here which can also give you a graphical map kind of sack bomber style or put up a list of nearby charging stations you can also see these on a map low not from this screen and the screen to show you what systems are using juice to drive obviously uses the most of it you can also see what climate and other electronics are sapping from your all-important rain eco-driving lets you play a silly game like turn that tree all blue green because you drive efficiently we'll do that for about a week and you get bored with it here's where you can program your charging times tell the car to charge automatically at certain times and also set up its pre conditioning of the Interior cabin and a setting here for evey route that means when you program a place on the navigation system it's gonna indicate whether you're gonna have a problem getting there on your current charge and then of course guide you to charging stations along the way if need be now to drive this guy you've got a traditional looking transmission selector but of course no transmission neutral Park reverse Drive and B is your high regen mode below that is an eco button so here's how it works standard Drive is kind of your most power and your least region putting it into Eco mode tapers back the power and increases the regen drag a little bit you're a little more efficient and then putting it in B and eco gets you the least acceleration forward and the highest region when you decelerate now powering the sole evie is of course an electric motor backed up by a 27 kilowatt battery pack that's near the top of the industry in the measurement of watt hours per pound it's very dense horsepower is a measly 109 but torques what you care about at 210 pound feet front wheel drive only zero to 60 is lazy on paper 11 point 2 we'll check it on the road you get 93 miles of EPA rated range that may be the best out there sort of a Tesla Model S this one costs a lot less your mpg rating is 120 charging is done up here behind this door two outlets the one on the left it's you household current at 120 volts to use that you want to remake the longest day because that's 24 hours if you put a 240 outlet in there you're gonna get done in four to five hours and the one on the right is a high current charger 480 volts if you can find one of those stations you're looking at 33 minutes to get an 80% charge now a so levy weighs about 500 pounds more than a standard sole give or take that's like throwing out three passengers that's a lot so it has that very planted very sort of heavy footed electric car ride but it's got that great torque it feels much quicker than that 11 some odd seconds we saw on paper quiet inside with one problem this is piercing like eight kilohertz wine almost all the time you especially notice that if you crack the windows that's a good deal breaker for me it's really audible I think an interesting carryover from the standard soul is this steering wheel mode button here on the wheel for comfort normal or sport feel which is going to give you a difference in weight and assist you particularly feel at a higher speed I'm just poking around the city right now and it's imperceptibly different but it's a nice coupling to go with your drive modes the Kia Soul is available only in a few states so for the most part it's somewhere between a compliance car and a side bet it doesn't break a lot of ground but does have the best range anywhere near its price class and one of those high level super fast chargers but perhaps more importantly it doesn't lose its soul illness as it sheds its engine