KIA Soul EV scoops Car of the Year award 2015 in Norway for price and features

The biggest consumer informationan organization in Norway, Dinside, announced the Korean electric vehicle as the best car of 2015 for its price, roominess, handling, and ecofriendly tech…

Soul EV earned the most points in the 10-vehicles competitions and its impressive initial sales in Norway prove it was the right vehicle to get the top spot.

KIA Sould EV has one of the biggest batteries among current EVs in its class which naturally means longer range on a single charge. This summer KIA installed the first fast charging stations at its European headquartes and intends to build more.

Norway is an EV-friendly country – sort of EV capital of Europe – and Soul EV sales could be attributed just to the demand for a new model. Price is also a factor, though. As a rule of thumb among Korean automakers, KIA‘s cars come with lots of options included in the standard equipment.

Soul EV Classic’s base price in Norway starts at 199,900 krona exlc. VAT, which translates to around €22,700 at todays exchange rate. Real deals are different, however. Browsing for ads we found one at finn.no, priced at 289,000 krona or €32,900.

At this price Soul EV may not look that cheaper than BMW i3 or Volkswagen e-Golf, each starting at around €35,000. But this is where the options included in the standard equipment matters – even the base Soul EV Classic has tons of options. The upper level Exclusive has just several (7-8) more, while BMW i3 could easily cost you more than €40,000 just by adding couple of handy packages or options.

BMW announced recently, that DC fast charge and heated seats will come as standard starting 2015, but nevertheless we expect to see market price difference of like ten thousand Euro between Soul EV and i3. KIA may not be BMW, but having more range and options obviously earns Soul EV some very good positions, at least in Norway.

eCars.bg / Elektromobili.bg