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A closer look at the 2015 Kia Soul EV

Kia is set to join the fully electric vehicle space this year, with the fresh-faced 2015 Soul EV. The all-electric Soul made its debut at the Chicago Auto Show earlier this month, and Autoblog west coast editor Michael Harley had a chance to speak with Orth Hedrick, Kia's vice president of product planning, about the new electrified hatchback. In its standard form, the Kia Soul offers tons a wealth of functionality with its upright packaging, and with a new 81-kilowatt electric motor underhood, the electric vehicle should be good for between 80 and 100 miles of driving range. Charging times vary from as long as 24 to five hours, depending on your setup, and Kia is partnering with Bosch, Leviton and AeroVironment to provide different charging solutions, depending on a customer's specific needs. Take another, closer look at the 2015 Kia Soul EV in the video, below.

Car dealership gives man a new car after his is tagged with racist graffiti

Update: The Facebook post from the passerby mentioned is no longer available, and has been removed from the text. A man in Arkansas who found his pride and joy broken into and covered in racist graffiti has a new set of wheels, thanks to one generous car dealership. Reshod Johnson left his car parked outside of his place of work for just 15 minutes last week while he retrieved chairs for his son's third birthday party. When he returned, he found his belongings scattered across the street and racist terms spray painted on his car. "I just don't understand it. I don't do anything to hurt anybody," Johnson told THV11. "I don't go out looking for trouble." A friend spotted two white men fleeing the scene in a red truck. He made a police report, but as a full time student and former veteran with Christmas around the corner and a three-year-old at home, money is tight. Johnson made the painful decision to continue to drive his 2006 Nissan with the hateful messages intact, though he was keeping his young son away from it. "We're supposed to have advanced past this and to serve the country and to serve for everyone and to fight for rights and freedom for everyone and for this to happen, it's like a slap in the face and makes you wonder for what," Johnson told THV. When a passerby saw the damage, she became emotional and posted about the incident on Facebook. According to 9news.com, the post drew a ton of help and attention to Johnson's story. Steve Landers Kia saw Johnson's story and decided to help. They donated a new ride to Johnson just in time for Christmas. They said it was the least they could do for a veteran who experienced horrific random hate. "Times are hard out here and he's a veteran," an employee for Steve Landers Kia told 9News.com. "We're just trying to help the community out."Related Video: Weird Car News Kia Maintenance Ownership Safety vandalism veterans graffiti racism

Next-gen Kia Sedona drops more camo, shows KV7 cues

It was just two weeks ago that we saw our first glimpse of the 2015 Kia Sedona testing in full camouflage, but now Kia has stripped away some of the heavy cladding to give us an even better idea what its new minivan will look like. As we pointed out before, the next Sedona doesn't use as many design cues from the 2012 Kia KV7 as we initially hoped, but it should be interesting enough to stand out from the current crop of minivans.
Even though most of the body is still covered with the black and white pattern and the side doors still have cladding, these spy shots show off plenty of details about the new Sedona. Starting up front, Kia gave its minivan a more upright shape that we've seen a lot of on current Kia designs, while the reduced camo also makes the van's new side window shape more obvious. This pinched daylight opening (DLO) along the side is the same as what we saw on the KV7, and the window line dips back down again for the liftgate glass. While we're focused on the rear of the Sedona, that liftgate spoiler looks a lot like what we're used to seeing on the back of a Porsche Cayenne.
Kia has still yet to announce when its new minivan will be unveiled, but as things seem to be pretty far along in development, we'd expect to see something on the 2015 Sedona fairly soon.