DANA POINT, CA – While the 2-year-old Toyota RAV4 EV and Honda Fit EVs already are exiting the U.S. market, Kia says its new Soul EV is in it for the long haul.
“We have to be. I think everybody has to really be in it for the long haul based on what’s happening from a regulatory standpoint,” Michael Sprague, executive vice president-sales and marketing for Kia Motors America, tells WardsAuto here during a media event.
Toyota and Honda used their respective EVs to fulfill the California Air Resources Board’s zero-emission-vehicle requirement for the ’12-’14 model years.
The upcoming Toyota FCV hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle is expected to fulfill the No.1 Japanese automaker’s ZEV quota for ’15-’17, while a next generation of the Honda FCX Clarity FCV should do the same for the No.2 Japanese automaker.
The Soul EV went on sale in California this month. The car initially will be sold only in the Golden State, but Kia hopes to roll it out to other states and areas of the U.S., including Oregon and the East Coast.
When sales expand beyond California is not determined, but Kia is hopeful it won’t be long, if chatter heard at EV-related events is an indicator.
“I think it’s going to be a home-run…based on what we’ve (heard) talking to people,” Sprague says. “They’re buying a car because it’s an EV. So they’re buying the (Toyota) Priuses and the Fiat 500es and some of these other cars, in some cases a little bit regrettably.
“But they want an EV,” he continues. “Now they can get the design and an EV together, and I think some people would say they haven’t had that choice before.”
While Kia in the U.S. is mum on sales potential, Kia in Korea has said it has the capacity to assemble 5,000 Soul EVs per year. The Soul EV is built at the automaker’s Gwangju plant in South Korea.
WardsAuto data shows EV sales in the U.S. rose 29.7% through September vs. year-ago to 45,622 units. The majority of sales made in the year’s first nine months were the Leaf, with 21,822 deliveries. The Tesla Model S is the second-best-selling EV in the U.S. this year, with 10,335 sold, followed by the Fiat 500e, with 3,993 delivered through September.
The U.S. is expected to be the vehicle’s top market, based on the fact the U.S. is the top market for the conventional Soul. Kia has sold 115,579 units of the internal-combustion-engine version from January through September, up 27.5% from the same period year-ago, WardsAuto data shows.
Sprague says the brand’s first priority with the Soul EV is selling it to retail customers, but he doesn’t rule out fleet partnerships down the road.
“It’s totally new territory for us, obviously, so we’re still trying to figure out how to approach the market, (but) we think…we’re going to be able to sell every one of them,” he says.
Steve Kosowski, national manager-long range planning for KMA, says Kia is not opposed to fleet sales to corporate, collegiate or government customers, but the automaker is not planning a special program to facilitate such a thing.
“If there are entities that wish to buy or lease the car…we prefer they go through the dealer to get it,” he says.
However, Kia is forming relationships with select companies, albeit minus the friends-and-family deals other automakers such as Nissan offer, that promote the benefits of EV ownership to their employees. Two of the companies Kia is talking to, Google and Coca-Cola, have infrastructure in place to ease the transition from ICE vehicles to EVs.
“Google, I believe, has 500 chargers on their campus,” Kosowski says, referring to the tech company’s GFleet program, which has installed EV chargers at Google’s main campus in Mountain View, CA, and at 11 satellite campuses. Google, however, doesn’t put a specific figure on its charging-station count, just saying the number is in the “hundreds.”
Kia: Fast-Charge Option Builds Confidence
At the 17 California dealers that have been selected to sell the Soul EV, Kia will install one 480V DC “fast charger” per store, with each using the CHAdeMO standard developed in Japan.
Kia is rare in offering a CHAdeMO-ready EV in the U.S. Up to now, only Japanese automakers Nissan and Mitsubishi have launched EVs compatible with the standard.
Kosowski says CHAdeMO chargers are popular in Korea and most of the nearly 200 fast chargers already in use in California have the standard.
“We had a lot of debate on that, and the feeling (inside the company) was, ‘We have to do DC charging,’” he says. “We want range confidence. We want our customers to know they can charge if they need to and, given that the CHAdeMO protocol is most prolific, that's the best direction.”
The 17 Kia dealers who will be selling the Soul EV in California were selected based on a variety of metrics, including how many Optima Hybrid sedans they’ve sold, the store’s overall volume and how near they are to cities/regions where the Nissan Leaf sells best.
The Leaf, by virtue of its best-selling status in the U.S., is the Soul EV’s primary competitor, Kosowski says. But he sees other EVs, including the Ford Focus and upcoming Volkswagen e-Golf, also being cross-shopped against the electrified Kia.
“I can tell you that in talking one-on-one with folks who've seen the Soul EV, it's still kind of all over the place,” he says of competition.
He recounts a story of being at a Sacramento EV event and having people size up the Soul EV and its neighbor, a Fiat 500e.
“It was interesting to see the (two cars discussed) between the customers,” he says. “They liked the 500e design and the statement (it makes), but (they said) the Soul is much bigger, it can carry more stuff.”
Those buying or leasing a Soul EV will receive a “ChargeUp” card, allowing them to use DC fast chargers that are part of Greenlots’ SKY network.
Kia has partnered with Bosch, Leviton and Aerovironment for 240V home charging stations for the Soul EV.
Every Soul EV comes with a standard 120V charger.
Kia says the car, with a 27-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, will take about 33 minutes to charge from empty to 80% capacity using a 480V charger, 4-4.5 hours to charge from empty on a 240V charger and roughly 24 hours to charge from empty using a 120V line.
As for future “green” vehicles from Kia, Sprague says it’s too early to say what may be next.
A production version of the Niro urban hybrid concept displayed at this year’s Chicago auto show is just one of a number of possibilities Kia leadership in Korea is debating.
“We’ve got dedicated teams back in Korea who are focusing on alternative fuels long-term,” he says.
The Niro B-car concept, originally shown at the 2013 Frankfurt auto show, combines Hyundai/Kia’s 1.6L turbocharged and direct-injected gasoline 4-cyl. with a 7-speed DCT and electric motor. The Niro also has a stainless-steel roof and butterfly doors.
