Lx Suv 3.5l Cd Rear Wheel Drive Tow Hitch Tow Hooks Tires - Front All-season A/c on 2040-cars

Auto blog

A verified hit, Kia Soul EV will come to new markets

Today at the Chicago Auto Show, Kia introduced a new off-road Trailster plug-in concept, but the real-world news was all about how the Soul EV will be traveling to places it hasn't gone before. When Kia introduced the Soul EV in Chicago last year, it said that the car would some day be available in five states: California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey and Maryland. Today, company executives said the car will be coming to more markets – they just declined to mention where, exactly. The Soul EV is currently sold in just 17 dealerships in California, Orth Hedrick, vice president of product planning at Kia Motors America, told AutoblogGreen. "For the next stage, we were originally planning on hitting the east coast, but we are changing that around a little bit. You'll see more availability," he said. Hedrick said that the change was prompted by the simple fact that the Soul is attracting new customers. "We went back to the factory and told them it's doing very well and it's now expanded beyond an EV, it's something bigger," he said. "It's helping us get a dialogue with completely new, different customer that we normally wouldn't see in a Kia store. So we would like the opportunity to take it further." We asked if customer interest in the compliance car caught the company off guard. Hedrick said that wasn't quite the right way to look at the history of the Soul EV. "When we looked at it originally, we were trying to go beyond the compliance part," he said. "We understood, of course, that we had to do it, but we wanted to showcase something that was really strong for us, which is the Soul, and we thought it would help build out the Soul family and bring more people to see us and that's exactly what's happening. It was a little more than compliance but I think we were kind of shocked how well it was received. It's been a huge hit." "Huge" in this case means bigger than Kia's original production capacity estimates, he said, without getting into specifics. It was "significantly more than what we originally planned for," he said. The Soul EV is built in Korea and the car is sold there, the US and will be coming to Europe as well. "I don't think they're in a position to ramp up quickly," Hedrick said, "They're in the process of ramping up more and we'll have an announcement, we hope, by New York, about where we're going to go to." The New York Auto Show media days start April 1, 2015.

2015 Kia Soul EV whirrs in to the Windy City

Earlier this week, we got our first glimpse of the 2015 Kia Soul EV out on the road, completely uncovered. And even before then, executive editor Chris Paukert had the opportunity to drive a camouflaged electric Soul prototype on Kia's home turf in Korea. But now, finally, officially, the electron-happy Soul makes its debut at the Chicago Auto Show.
Powering the Soul EV is an 81-kilowatt electric motor that sends 109 horsepower and 210 pound-feet of torque to the front wheels. That's not immensely powerful, with Kia quoting a 0-60 time of "fewer than 12 seconds," but we're big fans of the instant torque thrust that EVs like the Soul provide. Top speed is electronically limited to approximately 90 miles per hour.
Kia says the Soul EV is good for roughly 80 to 100 miles of driving range.

Hurricane Sandy cost automakers 15,000 vehicles, may have ruined up to 200k

Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic storm in US history, and its total economic impact is just now coming into view. According to Automotive News, Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan and Honda are set to scrap around 15,000 new vehicles ruined by the storm. Nissan alone accounts for about 40 percent of those, with 6,000 Nissan and Infiniti models deeded "un-saleable" due to damage. The company saw 56 dealerships shuttered due to the storm, but 51 of those have since reopened.
Toyota, meanwhile, had some 4,000 vehicles at its Newark port facility, and of those, 3,000 may be scrapped. An additional 825 were dealer inventory when they were ruined. Honda and Acura dealers are reportedly sending 3,440 vehicles to the salvage yard. By comparison, Chrysler weathered the storm fairly well with 825 units destroyed, while Hyundai suffered only 400 lost units and Kia scrapped around 200.
As you may recall, Fisker also suffered some losses, and Automotive News reports the manufacturer saw 320 Karma models damaged beyond repair. Ford and General Motors have yet to come up with estimates, and no automaker has commented on the full cost of replacing the vehicles.