[bluestreak56]

Hi all,

New member of the family here. We purchased our 61 Plate Kia Soul Hunter CRDi Auto in Jan 14.




Today we upgraded/px'd to a 67 Kia Soul EV - Titanium Silver with 600 miles on the clock



One of the first questions we have about the new Soul is how can I tell if it is My2018 model or not?
It has the smaller chrome "tweeter"/speaker surrounds and Michelin tyres.. but is there any other way to check?

Dont have the V5 yet as its been posted off for change of ownership from the dealer (was a demo car)

 

[WalkingBootWeather]

can I tell if it is My2018 model or not?

I believe that for Kia, the 10th VIN character is year code, and for MY2018 it should be a "J".

(Edit - amendment to make it say '10th' character. Apparently the first 3 letters are considered 'position 1' so the 4th character is 'position 2' etc.. Makes the year date the 10th character (sorry for my misunderstanding). I expect MY2017 to be 'H' and 2018 to be 'J'.

This follows the general practice of NA manufacturers, so is not unsurprising;-

Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN codes)/Model year - Wikibooks, open books for an open world

 

[donald]

I wonder if you have ended up with 'my' car, which was absorbed by the dealer as a demo when I declined mine.

You should find the VIN on the B pillar, and also in the bottom of the front window.

 

[bluestreak56]

Thanks guys! Looks like it is a 2018 model, VIN reads J!!

Purchased from Exeter Marsh Kia if that helps Donald.

Does anyone know if you can overcharge the battery and cause damage? Its on the standard home trickle charger says 5.5 hours left dont want to damage the battery. The manual seems to say it shuts off at 100% but isnt clear?

 

[srichards]

It always shuts off when it's done. You can't over charge it as far as I can tell.

 

[Dox]

Yep, I agree with @srichards, you'll be fine. I have the granny cable plugged into a TP-Link HS110 smart plug so I can control the charging to Economy 7 hours, toggle it on/off from the phone if I need to and, measure the energy used.

Ours takes the wife the six miles to work and back and often if that's all it does, ends the day still in the high 90s percentage wise. In the cold weather we plug in most nights and I can see the Soul pull ~2kW for a short while until the battery is full, then nothing for the rest of the night until 30mins before she leaves, when the pre-heating starts and ramps back to 2kW.

Dox

tl;dr

The TP-Link HS100 is almost identical but has no power monitoring. The HS110 only shows instant and total draw on the phone app, but I have it hooked up to Home Assistant which polls it regularly and produces pretty graphs.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

 

[AnotherJoe]

Thanks guys! Looks like it is a 2018 model, VIN reads J!!

Purchased from Exeter Marsh Kia

A friend and I had a test drive there.
The one i drove was that colour i wonder if it was that one? Was it their ex demo model?

Knowledgable staff. They couldn't match the PCH deal i got though.

 

[bluestreak56]

More than likely it was the same one Joe, It was their demo car. Manages to negotiate a good px on our car and a decent price on theirs as we were buying outright.

Thanks for the info Dox, very helpful, will look at buying a couple of those / HS100s as we have Alexa with our Echo & Dot so would be useful. Need to check if the wifi will reach the garage as im not sure it would.

Either way we've arranged for a Rolec EVWP1140 32Amp Type 1 tethered wallbox charger to be installed on the 24th:

http://assets.rolecserv.com/files/p...HomeCharge J1772 tethered (Type 1) Mode 3.pdf

So meanwhile will be trickle charging.

Does anyone use the timer charge function much in the Soul?

 

[Keith Alexander]

"Does anyone use the timer charge function much in the Soul?"

Not half!

I have mine set to charge overnight (early hours) to 80% and then restart at 06:30 to 100% with climate starting at 07:45 so typically mine is > 95%

Next thing you wil ask is do the batteries degrade answer is yes but it is a long long long time away!

Note the definition of a full charge cycle is 0%-100%
That never ever happens most people do 20% to 80%% (ish)
That = 60% of a cycle.
Lithium batteries do not have memories

Most specs I have read quote packs as good for 3000+ full cycles or 6000 half (50%) cycles etc. before battery capacity has dropped to below 80% of original capacity.
That in part is why in the US the batteries have a 10 year warranty (7 in the UK) Kia clearly don't expect the mean MBF to be high.

So in theory your battery pack is good for circa 300,000 miles assuming an average 100 miles per full cycle


Note
Yours may not have the 80% timer option
Yours should rapid charge to 90+% as well in one hit.
The pre 2017 cars only Rapid charge to 84% and Kia in there perhaps selfish wisdom have yet to offer that, probably firmware only upgrade to the rest of us.

 

[srichards]

I asked Kia technical and they said the cars that don't go straight up to 90% in one go would never have the option. Which is a shame as it's one of the most annoying limitations the earlier Soul has.

 

[bluestreak56]

Thanks guys, will have a play. Need to get mums phone set up (looks easy as pie) as well as Apple Carplay if its worth it.. Shame theres no remote app services like on my 2014 BMW...

 

[AnotherJoe]

The phone took me a minute to set up. Apple play is Ok, oniy works via cable, pity that waze doesn’t work on it though to be fair I’ve found the Soul navigation OK and certainly better so far (crosses fingers) than on my Toyota which had a routing algorithm from hell.

Voice reading and response to texts is impressive i can't recall if that’s with or without Apple play or just native over Bluetooth, i was just messing around when I tried it.

I’d like an app also but just because I’m a geek, I don’t actually need one, but it’s not going to happen. Maybe in the next Iteration of Kia models.

 

[bluestreak56]

Rolec EVWP1140 32A Successfully Installed

 

[Cabby7]

Looks like your all set now !