The Soul has been a strong seller, a brand name ambassador, and a visual touchstone for Kia, however as the current model has continued, the numbers have dipped. In 2016, the company moved 145,000 of the softly geometric runabouts, a number that reduced by 30,000 for the ’17 model year in a more dramatic decrease than the industry-wide disintegration of sales in the very same duration. We ‘d like to blame the absence of an au courant Hamstar Edition, but the reality is that the present Soul is aging– a process sped up by the arrival of many new competitors in its section. As much as Kia would have you think that the new Stinger sport tourer is its image leader, for now, that title still belongs to the fun-signifying Soul. Making the next model much more enticing to consumers is critical.
2019 Kia Soul Platform
The 2019 Kia Soul will share a platform with the soon-to-arrive Hyundai Kona and the Kia Stonic. The latter, like other B-segment utelets, offers a more traditional take on the sector than the upright Soul, but we, like Hyundai-Kia, figure that won’t matter much. With Scion and its xB having gone the method of the dodo, and Nissan’s Cube banished to some Picassofied asymmetrical limbo, there are however two alternatives for those who jones for a Soul-like object: the Soul and the airier (inside), more gelatinous (outside) Fiat 500L, and we’re sorry we raised the latter.
2019 Kia Soul Powertrain
Kia currently provides a naturally aspirated 130-hp 1.6-liter inline-four, a 2.0-liter 4 pumping out 161 horsepower, and a turbocharged 1.6-liter 4 helpful for 201 horse power, in addition to the electric Soul EV. Considered that Hyundai is prepping an electric variation of the Kona, the Soul EV’s ongoing existence is essentially assured. The internal-combustion powertrains are where things get fascinating. Sources suggest that, while the Kona/Stonic will provide a mechanical AWD system, the Soul might feature rear wheels driven via electrical motor. It could be much like what Kia used in the Trail’ ster principle car it displayed in 2015, and would imply including a hybrid or plug-in hybrid version to the range.
Hyundai’s Kona will get here with your choice of a 2.0-liter inline-four or a turbocharged 1.6-liter four, and as such, we expect the Soul to hang onto its 2.0 and 1.6 turbo. Kia will want the base Soul to remain competitively priced, which likely demands the retention of the naturally aspirated 1.6 at the bottom of the line. We would not be surprised to see the six-speed automated continue its pairing with the naturally aspirated engines, while the 1.6 turbo is a lock for the dual-clutch system that is presently found in the Soul Turbo. The accessibility of a manual transmission on the next Soul is something of an open concern, but we ‘d a minimum of expect it to be readily available on the 1.6.
2019 Kia Soul Estimated Arrival and Price
We expect that the 2019 Kia Soul will make its debut at the Los Angeles auto show late this year and go on sale not long after. We do not expect the Soul’s base rate to move much at all. The present car starts at $17,095.