Along with its reasonable price and strong level of standard equipment, the Soul EV’s 280-mile WLTP range is a key part of its appeal. This is enabled by its 64kWh battery pack (the same as you'll find in the e-Niro and Hyundai Kona Electric), which drives a 201bhp permanent magnet synchronous motor mounted at the front axle.

Plugged into a 100kW charger, that battery is able to reach 80% capacity in just under an hour, while a regular 7.2kW home wallbox is capable of completely replenishing its power reserve in 9.5 hours.

Performance is strong without being wild; 291lb ft of toruqe endows the boxy Kia with spritely acceleration between 30 and 50mph. Past that point, the urgency with which it accumulates pace begins to tail off, but there’s more than enough shove to get you up to motorway speeds on slip roads plenty quick enough.

Compared with petrol-engined crossovers, the Soul's throttle response is usefully sharpened too. But as we observed when we road tested the e-Niro last year, Kia seems to have engineered in a very slight delay when you accelerate away from a standstill - likely to help prevent fresh EV converts from inadvertently spinning the front wheels at step-off.

There are four different settings for the regenerative braking (one of which pares the effect back completely so you can freewheel), with paddles on the steering wheel enabling you to jump from one to another.

In their most aggressive setting, a lift of the throttle will drop the Soul’s pace quite suddenly, but not quite to the extent that you’d feel confident to drive using only the throttle pedal, as you might in the Nissan Leaf. The physical brakes seem to be calibrated reasonably smartly, too, with no obvious lack of feel or intuition getting in the way of smooth deceleration.

To say the Soul handles with abundant vim and vigour would be a bit of a stretch, but it isn’t completely devoid of character. Its steering is accurate and seemingly unafflicted by the contrived, cloying sense of false weight so often found in Kias - at least not to the same extent, anyway. Regardless, it changes direction keenly and tidily enough, its inherent dynamism feeling in step with its easygoing nature.

It rides pretty smartly, too. There’s slightly less weight here than in the e-Niro, which has perhaps allowed Kia’s engineers to soften the spring rates a bit to give the Soul a touch more compliance over lumpy roads. It smooths out compressions smartly and does a good job of distancing you from the impacts caused by terribly maintained B-roads.