The Kia Soul EV Makes An Appearance At The 2015 NAIAS In Detroit In January

Final numbers are now in from South Korea on electric vehicle sales for 2014, and it was all Kia. All the time.

In total 1,183 EVs were sold, and 35% of them were the all-new, all-electric Kia Soul EV with 414 units notched. Interestingly, the Kia Ray also sold 202 units - meaning that combined, 1 out of every 2 EVs sold in the country were from Kia.

Here is the top 6:

Kia Soul EV* - 414 Renault Samsung SM3* - 309 (basically the Fluence ZE rebadged) Kia Ray EV* - 202 BMW i3 - 170 Chevrolet Spark EV* - 70 Nissan LEAF - 16

* - South Korean-made product

Specializing in "all things Kia", our friends at Kia-World.net (which is a great site to keep on top of Sould EV news) weighed in on the top 3 reasons why the Soul EV took the top spot.

1. People within the industry believe that the Soul EV did so well thanks to theclass-leading distance that the vehicle can travel on a single charge. That makes the Soul EV more suited to longer trips than other electric vehicles. 2. It also helps that the current model of the Soul EV comes with a 10-year warranty, which is something the competitors can not match! 3. Battery efficiency, especially in colder weather, is an issue for most electric cars, but not the Soul EV, which comes with a heat pump that helps keep the battery efficiency where it should be.

We'd like to add "country of origin" as another/4th reason to the list.

Kia-World