Kia Soul EV range, battery & charging

The Kia Soul EV has the same battery and charging technology as the Kia e-Niro and Hyundai Kona Electric, but its bluffer styling costs it a few miles of range. Still, 280 miles is great even by the standards of far more expensive electric cars, and our test drives have suggested you’ll get some 230 to 240 miles in varied real-world driving.

The Soul EV can charge at up to 77kW through its CCS port (located in the car’s nose), so it's can benefit from the 100kW rapid chargers that have started to pop up across the UK in bigger numbers from late 2019. It also comes with Kia's ‘UCO Connect’ telematics system – an app that allows you to check on the car’s charging status, adjust its charging parameters, set it to pre-heat and more.

Kia Soul EV range

The Soul EV’s official 280-mile driving range is one of the best at the price, and its real-world performance is similarly impressive. Our test drive over a mixture of motorway, rural and urban roads suggested it’ll do some 230-240 miles with ease in temperate conditions. It betters the range of both the Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen e-Golf, and easily surpasses the official claimed range of the Peugeot e-208.

Charge time

The Kia is able to charge at up to 77kW, which will boost range from 10 to 80% in just 45 minutes. Many public rapid chargers in the UK top out at 50kW (which will do the same charge in an hour and 15 minutes) but more 100kW locations are starting to appear around the country, and you'll need to seek out one of these to charge the Soul EV at its fastest possible rate.

The standard Type 2 charging cable provided with the car works with pretty much all the public chargers you'll find in town-centre car parks, big shopping centres or supermarkets. Kia has an official partnership with PodPoint, one of the biggest home charging-point providers. The company will fit a 7.4kW wallbox to your off-road parking area for under £300 (after the government subsidy). That'll charge the Soul EV up to 100% in around 10 hours – this is how the vast majority of users charge their electric cars.

Also provided is a three-pin cable that allows you to plug the car into the standard power sockets in your house. It’ll take some 30 hours or more to charge using this method, though, and even Kia describes it as an emergency backup solution only.

Battery warranty

The Kia Soul EV's batteries and electric motor are warrantied for seven years and 100,000 miles, just like the rest of the car. There's no guarantee of performance, though. Unlike Renault, which will refurbish or replace the batteries in its electric cars if they drop below 75% of the as-new performance while under the warranty, Kia only promises to replace the batteries if they fail altogether.