Kia News: Rumorpile: Kia Soul EV Won't Be Coming To the U.S.

[William Maley]

When Kia revealed the new Soul to the U.S. in 2018, they announced that the EV would be arriving sometime a year later. 2019 came and the automaker announced that the Soul EV had been pushed back to 2020. A few months later, the launch date was pushed to 2021. Now, an internal source at Kia's U.S. office has revealed to Roadshow that the Soul EV isn't coming at all.

According to the source, a number of factors played into this decision. Some of the factors such as limited supply of batteries and motors, along with increased demand for the model Europe were used to explain the last delay. Also, the Soul EV has independent rear suspension. The standard Soul doesn't, which would make the EV more expensive to bring to the U.S. and add complexity. 

Adding fuel to the fire, Kia has removed any mention of the Soul EV on their U.S. consumer and media sites. There is also no mention of the Soul EV on the EPA site. Previously, the vehicle was mentioned with a range of 243 miles.

When reached by Roadshow, a Kia spokesperson said they haven't heard anything about the Soul EV being canned for the U.S., but did confirm they have "no pending plans to introduce before 2021 at the earliest."

We'll keep you posted on this story.

Source: Roadshow

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[David]

Makes sense, right now Kia is selling every one they make be it in the asian rim or Europe and production of battery packs has not ramped up enough to meet the additional sale in the US.

I also suspect they have realized that a mid size CUV EV would be a better product for the US than a compact.

[riviera74]

Better a KIA Telluride EV than a Soul EV.  While there are plenty of Soul vehicles sold here, Americans prefer BIG over little (budget permitting).  Will KIA please update the Sportage and Sorento?

[ocnblu]

Oh... whatev.  It's not like anyone bought it in the U.S.

[surreal1272]

14 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Oh... whatev.  It's not like anyone bought it in the U.S.

I know right? If only they had offered a diesel model like Chevy did with the Cruze.

 

Oh wait. No one wanted those either.

[William Maley]

15 hours ago, riviera74 said:

Better a KIA Telluride EV than a Soul EV.  While there are plenty of Soul vehicles sold here, Americans prefer BIG over little (budget permitting).  Will KIA please update the Sportage and Sorento?

There's a new Sorento coming very soon, possibly at the end of the year - but sometime next year more likely. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a31941463/2021-kia-sorento-details-revealed/

No idea as to when next Sportage is coming.

14 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Oh... whatev.  It's not like anyone bought it in the U.S.

Well, they only sold it in a small number of states to begin with (California and those states who have similar emission standards to Cali). Plus, they only had a range of 100 to 120 miles. Trying to find my review from 2013 or 2014.

[ocnblu]

Yes Bill, they were forced to sell it to an unimpressed public in looney compliance states.  It was a waste of resources.  Good thing the real Kia Soul is so well thought out.

[oldshurst442]

Could the KIA Soul EV be a compliance car?  And hence why folk stayed away from it...

The Hyundai KONA EV is selling great.  Shattering the Soul EV sales.   Could it be that the KONA is THAT much better of an EV than the Soul ever was and the market is just responding to that situation accordingly?  

This would be a case of sales reflecting how good or bad a product is in the marketplace...

 

Edited July 30, 2020 by oldshurst442

[Robert Hall]

It is odd...I'd assume the EV bits of the Soul were the same as the Kona? They are on the same platform, I think...

Or maybe they want to focus on the Niro EV.

Edited July 30, 2020 by Robert Hall

[David]

24 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

It is odd...I'd assume the EV bits of the Soul were the same as the Kona? They are on the same platform, I think...

Or maybe they want to focus on the Niro EV.

Kia Soul was a Compliance EV and nothing similar with the Kona EV, Kona EV / Niro EV use the same bits and the updated Kia Soul EV that is not coming here also uses the same Kona Bits. InsideEVs did a good job covering the compliance EV and how it will change.

https://insideevs.com/news/336974/new-kia-soul-ev-to-ride-on-kona-platform-go-186-miles-per-charge/

[ocnblu]

12 minutes ago, David said:

how it will change

[loki]

but i have seen 1 or 2 here....if they weren't test models... or were they hybrids?

maybe it was last gen...

Edited July 31, 2020 by loki
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