http://www.theboltonnews.co.[you kay]/news/11703906.The_Bolton_News_road_tests_Kia_s_new_Soul_EV_and_asks_if_electric_cars_are_good_value_for_money/ The Bolton News road tests Kia's new Soul EV and asks if electric cars are good value for money [20150106] by Steven Thompson
[images http://www.theboltonnews.co.[you kay]/resources/images/3464704.jpg The Bolton News road tests Kia's new Soul EV and asks if electric cars are good value for money http://www.theboltonnews.co.[you kay]/resources/images/3464705.jpg Steve Thompson tries out Kia's new electric car http://www.theboltonnews.co.[you kay]/resources/images/3464706.jpg http://www.theboltonnews.co.[you kay]/resources/images/3464707.jpg http://www.theboltonnews.co.[you kay]/resources/images/3464708.jpg ] Electric cars are set to change the way we drive – but buyers are being put off by the high cost of the vehicle and the worry that they will run out of battery half way through a journey. Steven Thompson went to meet an electric car specialist and test drive the new Kia Soul EV, which has just arrived in Bolton. AS a fully signed up Kia owner (I drive a little white Kia Picanto [ice] nicknamed Chungy, after its South Korean origins) I was excited to hear that the car manufacturer was finally releasing an electric model in the UK — and that one of the first off the production line had arrived in Bolton. The Bolton showroom at Middlebrook is Kia’s top performing dealership in Europe, and there, I met Kia’s EV specialist Chris Wallis, who showed me the ropes on the Kia Soul EV. There are plenty of other electric cars on the market I should add — the Nissan Leaf, the Volkswagen e-up, BMW have a couple, as do Ford, and most major manufacturers carry an electric option now. So while I test drove a Kia, most electric cars are similar in their make-up. You can plug in at home, Chris tells me, and this is how manufacturers envisage users “filling up” their electric vehicles the majority of the time. This has added benefits, as some models, including the Kia, can be set to switch on before you wake up, meaning that in winter, your car can be fully defrosted and nice and warm inside by the time you have showered and had your Cornflakes. Alternatively, a partial charge at a charging station (there are a few now scattered around Bolton) can give the car a range of 80 miles and this takes just half an hour, while a full charge takes three and a half hours. The cars, as you might expect, are practically silent, but they do make an artificially created noise at low revs and when reversing, for safety purposes. The Kia has a top speed of 90mph, which means that unless you are regularly involved in high speed police chases, then the car is fine for everything from tootling to the shops to motorway driving. It is surprisingly nippy too. The Soul EV is comparable to a car with a 1.6 turbo diesel engine. It is certainly speedier than my current one-litre Picanto (a model it seems favoured mainly by, shall we say, the more senior drivers on the road). So clever are some electric cars, that the battery charges itself every time the vehicle slows down. Chris tells me that if you are a particularly economical driver, it is possible to return from a journey with a higher battery charge than when you leave. The car’s range is 100 miles on a full battery, but with economical driving, it is possible to go as far as 130 miles, and a full charge costs just [GBP]2.80 — that certainly beats [GBP]40, which is what it currently costs me for a full tank. The savings on petrol over a year amount to about [GBP]800 based on driving 10,000 miles. The cost of the service is the same, if not cheaper than a regular petrol car, and most manufacturers guarantee the battery for between five and eight years. I’m sold on electric cars but the cost is still a barrier for many people. The Kia Soul EV comes in at just under [GBP]24,000 after you have factored in the government grant available on electric vehicles (25 per cent up to [GBP]5,000) ... 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