New Kia Soul EV on sale in UK by end of 2014

The new Kia Soul will launch in the UK in 2014, and Kia has confirmed an electric Soul will be on sale by the end of 2014.

We knew there would be a Kia Soul EV by 2014, but we didn’t know whether Kia UK would offer it in the UK. But they will.

Yaser Shabsogh, Kia’s UK Commercial Director, has confirmed that the electric Soul will be offered in the UK, but not until the end of 2014, some months after the arrival of the new Soul in early 2014.

It seems Kia UK are still undecided on how to market their new EV, with prices still to be set and a decision still to be made on whether the Soul EV should come as a complete package or with the battery packs being leased.

But whichever route Kia UK take, they won’t be looking to make enormous sales from the Soul EV, but will use it to demonstrate Kia has cutting-edge EV technology available.

Shabsogh told Headline Auto:

It is not going to be priced to try to stimulate demand.

We won’t be selling hundreds of them – maybe a couple of hundred, mostly in the key metropolitan areas. But the biggest question at the moment is not where we will be selling them but the support for these cars – the servicing and charging networks.

So, some work to do before the exact offering for the Soul EV goes on sale in the UYK, but Shabsogh did indicate that if the Soul EV is sold as a complete package – with batteries included – they’d expect it to cost in the region of £20,000 before the taxpayer bribe,