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Kia provides first details on Soul EV arrival, specs

When Bob Dylan and his guitar-driven poetry embraced the amp in the mid-Sixties, he famously endured cries of "Judas!" from at least one dejected folkie. The Voice Of A Generation had gone electric, and apparently not all of his concert-goers were ready for the transition. We suspect the Kia Soul and its dancing hamsters will have an easier time of it.
In early October, Kia confirmed what had already long been rumored - the Soul is going electric, too, and now it's revealing some initial details and specs. The automaker's mega-popular 'box' car will be the company's first EV sold in North America - or indeed, anywhere outside of its home market (Kia has offered its tiny Ray EV to government fleets in Korea in limited numbers). For the moment, officials aren't saying exactly when the Soul EV will hit its North American dealers, but it has pinned down the "second half of 2014," for global overseas deliveries to begin, so it's fair to assume the car will carry a 2015 model year designation.
Kia is touting "class-leading range" in excess of 120 miles

Hyundai-Kia dealer offers $180k in gift cards to local residents

In many smaller communities, auto dealers are often major players in the local business and political world, and they interact with large portions of the population. Now, Grand West Hyundai and Grand West Kia in Grand Junction, CO, are putting their marketing dollars to work in a way to help the local economy, while also potentially generating some sales at the same time. Over the next six months, the dealers are contacting about 8,000 previous customers and offering them a gift card worth at least $50 to over 100 of the city's shops and restaurants (pictured above), according to Automotive News. All people need to do to receive the certificate is stop by the showrooms. Hopefully, the visitors would check out a new Hyundai or Kia at the same time. "We'd love to sell them a new car, but it is really a customer-appreciation gesture," said Ken Reeher, the dealers' marketing manager, to Automotive News. The two stores already bought about 3,600 cards with $181,000 going into the local economy. Paying people to come to the showroom isn't really new but generally works well. The Colorado dealers expect around half of the people they contact to visit for the gift card, which is still significantly more foot traffic than from traditional mailings. The decision to keep the cards local also means more money goes to small businesses, and the move gains goodwill in the community, too. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Aaron Hoffman Marketing/Advertising Hyundai Kia Car Buying Car Dealers colorado

2018 Kia Niro PHEV Review | More MPG than an SUV, less weird than a hybrid

PORTLAND, Ore. — It seems like such a no-brainer. The 2018 Kia Niro PHEV has the body of a little SUV, which is just the thing that everyone, their mother, brother, and friend named Phil are clamoring for at the moment. The rest of the plug-in hybrid segment is dominated by slug-shaped eco mobiles that ape the Toyota Prius or that are literally a Toyota Prius. Personally, I don't want to drive a slug. I also don't want to deal with weird interior controls, weirder interior design or four-person back seats. The Niro is very normal by comparison. Get in, press start, slide completely normal PRNDL shifter into D, and go. Better still, the PHEV doesn't suffer from the laggardly throttle response of the regular hybrid Niro that hampers drivability and makes its EPA-estimated 49 mpg combined a bit of a mirage. You'll either get that mpg and live with an accelerator pedal seemingly unattached to the powertrain, or slot the shifter into Sport and live with fuel economy in the low 40's. That's far superior to the 20-something you'd get in comparably sized SUVs, but still short of the 50-something-mpg in the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight or the Niro's mechanically related Hyundai Ioniq cousin. Compared to a typical, disconnected-feeling PHEV throttle, the Niro PHEV's throttle is perfectly normal, leaving Sport to those moments when you want a little extra zest from your plug-in hybrid (such a moment never seemed to arise). One can assume this is due to the larger battery that allows for greater electric input even when the plug-in battery range is depleted. When filled to the brim, it offers an EPA-estimated all-electric range of 26 miles, a figure I bettered by 1 mile during my evaluation route. That's nearly half of what you can get out of a Chevy Volt or Honda Clarity PHEV, but is similar to the Toyota Prius Prime and Ioniq PHEV. And really, how much you drive in all-electric mode makes the biggest difference. If your daily commute is in the 20-mile range, it doesn't really matter which of the above-mentioned plug-ins you choose. If it's more, though, the others will make more sense. The Volt and Clarity can run on electricity longer, and the Prius Prime and Ioniq are more efficient once their plug-in range is depleted. In the end, though, isn't this really just splitting hairs?