Soul EV - This Generation's Electric Vehicle

This is not our first EV, we've had a Nissan Leaf since 2011 and we have been very happy with the Leaf. At the time we purchased the Leaf there weren't many options if you wanted to get a production EV.

2011 Nissan Leaf, our first EV

The Chevy Volt and the Tesla Roadster, if I remember correctly, were the only other choices. The Model S was not out yet, and the Tesla Roadster was not practical. The Volt suffered a similar problem, seating for four; we're five. Toyota had a very limited run RAV4 EV for lease until 2003, so this was not an option for us.

Three years after driving the Nissan Leaf for a little over 26K miles we decided to look into getting a new EV. I looked at the 2015 Leaf, but it just didn't excite me enough. It looks the same. A quirky, even goofy looking car; the Nissan isn't ugly it's just not very appealing.

1969 Datsun Fairlady Z (S30) Known in the US as a 240Z

I remember in the 60 & 70s when Nissan was still Datsun, I always thought they made the ugliest Japanese cars. Except for the S30. That was a nice sports car.

Last week I decided to look into the new 2015 EVs and stumbled across the KIA Soul EV. Timing IS everything. They had just started getting them to their dealers here in NoCal. I searched for any dealer that would have them available and found that Capitol KIA in San Jose had two of them available for test drive. I think they may be getting more of the Soul EVs than other dealers in the area.

2015 KIA Soul EV

Mind you, there was nothing wrong with our Nissan Leaf. We just figured if we could get the new KIA for at/or below what we were still paying for our Leaf - it would be a "No Brainer." New EV with zero miles, new larger battery... no brainer.

I hooked up with Eric Lam - the Internet Sales Manager (they are all Managers nowadays) Click his name to email him. Eric is cool. I can't say enough good things about him. I realize that many people would never describe a car salesman as cool, but this guy knows the KIA Soul EV like the back of his hand. The buying experience was very pleasant, considering it was a car purchase.

Full disclosure: I was a car salesman back in the 80s, and the saying goes that salespeople are the easiest people to close on a sale. I don't consider myself easy to close, but I'm not flustered by salespeople trying to close a sale. I understand where they are coming from. It's like Ying and Yang, two opposing forces. You want the car for as little as possible, he wants to sell it for as much as possible. Maybe it's more like Sun Tzu's the Art of War...

We ended up getting the KIA Soul EV Saturday Oct. 18th. We have not had any buyers remorse as of today. I'll let you know how it goes as we drive without any GASOLINE for another 3 years. I love the feeling. Keep your crude oil, I'm not buying any more gasoline!