Kia Soul EV review

You sit high in the Soul EV, like in the SUV it so desperately wants you to think it is, on seats that are comfortable, electrically adjustable, heated and leather-trimmed. Space for actual people is generous enough, but luggage-capacity is limited. The split-level boot floor is neat, and gives you somewhere to hide your charge cables, but at just 315-litres with all the seats up, the shallow load bay just isn’t big enough. A Kona has a bit more space with 332-litres, but the Niro has loads more – 451-litres with all the seats in place.

Kia says the Soul’s interior is themed around music. We’re not sure about that one, but its dashboard is certainly more interesting than the Niro’s. Easy to use, too, with a touchscreen 10.25-inch infotainment system that looks good, does much and responds quickly to your inputs. Happily Kia has resisted the temptation to integrate everything into said touchscreen, so there are still physical climate controls and lots of buttons giving direct access to most functions.

That infotainment system is standard, and grants access to Kia’s UVO Connect telematics system. The car’s built-in eSim means it’s always online, so it can do normal stuff like live traffic and weather updates, but also tell you where public chargers are, whether they’re compatible with your car and whether they’re being used.

For now the Soul is only available in ‘First Edition’ spec, which wants for literally nothing. You get wireless phone charging, a head-up display, fancy Harman/Kardon stereo and much, much more all included.