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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.

Kia's quickest cruiser | 2018 Kia Stinger GT First Drive

The 2018 Kia Stinger is a provocatively named, turbocharged fastback sedan that arrives in America in a few months, and we've just been given a great snapshot of what to expect at Germany's notorious Nurburgring circuit. While the very final tuning is under way, the late-stage prototypes we drove are "99 percent there," says Albert Biermann, former BMW M chief engineer, now head of engineering for the Hyundai Group. Despite our first experience with the Stinger being at a famously technical track, Biermann and others stressed that the Stinger is very much a grand tourer. To be clear, just about no one will track the Stinger. So why then do we find ourselves in the Eifel region of Western Germany? Because Korea's new sports sedan signals a dramatic brand shift for Kia, and the Stinger GT is the first to reflect a new, more performance-oriented direction. Kia at the Nurburgring? If you want to make a point, this is one way to do it. Arriving this fall, the Stinger will have three powertrain options on offer globally, but only two gas-fueled turbocharged engines for North America. The entry-level Stinger 2.0T is rated at 255 hp and 260 lb-ft, but our impressions are based on the GT, motivated by Kia's brawnier 3.3-liter twin-turbo, good for 365 hp and 376 lb-ft. Peak power arrives at 6,000 rpm, and peak torque between 1,300 and 4,500 rpm. All engines — including the not-for-America 2.2-liter diesel — are mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission with shift paddles. Both rear-wheel drive and AWD configurations will be available. While the automaker has made some sporty-looking, attractive sedans such as the Optima Turbo, and Cadenza, it wants to "make them drive like they look," says Biermann. Throw the 'Ring's 73 corners, 17 percent incline, and 11 percent decline — all at speed — and you'll learn quite a bit about Kia's newest, very quickly. So how does the Stinger drive? If this was an exercise to understand the touring aspects of the car, it was lost on us. Lap one of our lead-follow drive on the 'Ring wasted no time in demonstrating this new, more dynamic direction. The pace car in front smashed the throttle and entered the 'Ring at speed, banking hard-left on the first turn. I followed suit, mashing the gas, flying into the first turn, tires screeching, the rear sliding out just a bit despite the GT's AWD. Immediately I'm surprised by the acceleration.

Hyundai, Kia to put solar panels on vehicle roofs

Hyundai Motor Group said Wednesday that future Hyundai and Kia models will be equipped with solar panels capable of generating electricity as a way to increase fuel-efficiency and range and lower CO2 emissions. Hyundai says the solar panels will feature in the rooftops or hoods of select vehicles "after 2019" and will supplement traditional internal combustion, hybrid and battery-electric vehicles. The parent group said it's developing three different types of solar roof charging systems comprised of a solar panel, controller and battery. The first generation will be a silicon solar panel system mounted to the rooftops of hybrid models and capable of charging 30 to 60 percent of the battery per day, depending on weather conditions and other factors, starting as early as 2020. The second generation involves a semi-transparent solar roof system applied to a panoramic sunroof and capable of charging an electric-vehicle battery or a battery mounted on a gasoline engine. Hyundai says the latter configuration will help it increase vehicle exports, since solar-equipped ICE vehicles will be able to adhere to regulations limiting CO2 emissions. A third-generation system is being tested right now. It will add solar production capability in the hood and roof of EVs – but the companies don't provide more detail than that at this moment. "In the future, various types of electricity-generating technologies, including the solar charging system, will be connected to vehicles," said Jeong-Gil Park, executive vice president of engineering design at Hyundai Motor Group. "This will enable them to develop from a passive device that consumes energy to a solution that actively generates energy. The paradigm of the vehicle owner will shift from that of a consumer to an energy prosumer." To date, solar vehicle charging technology has mostly been for light-duty tasks, like cooling off the interior or trickle-charging a conventional battery, such as the system offered in the previous Nissan Leaf. Systems that do more than this have typically come with a very steep pricetag for modest capabilities. Panasonic has developed a 180-watt solar roof available for the Japanese version of the Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid that is capable of adding up to 3.7 miles of range per day – at an unspecified (as of this writing) but undoubtedly high cost. Elon Musk, unsurprisingly, has also discussed making a solar roof optional for the Tesla Model 3.