Kia has been playing catchup trying to bring an EV to market. Announced a while ago, the Kia Soul EV finally surfaced in Europe. At the same time, a Lee Colleton spotted some fully camouflaged Kia Soul EVs were using their CHAdeMO quick chargers at the Residence Inn in San Juan Capistrano, California.
Lee Colleton, a Mitsubishi i-MiEV driver, was participating in the BC2BC electric vehicle rally and happened to be passing through San Juan Capistrano just as the Kia EVs were completing their charge.
The 2 Kia Soul electric vehicles had Michigan license plates, but there was no indication the cars were actually driven there from Michigan. As you can see in the photo, both the CHAdeMO quick charge port and the J1772 charge inlet are inside a charge port door located on the drivers side of the Soul EV’s front grill.
Kia has not released any details on the Soul EV, except that it is due to arrive in the US next year some time as a 2015 model year. Some rumors put the electric range at 100 miles or more, with a top speed of 87 mph – we have no idea where the rumors started or where those numbers came from!
Kia Soul EV Spyshots By Lee Colleton, Reproduced under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA
