Misc Questions about the Soul EV

[mtndrew1]

Does anyone know if the Soul EV offers Over the Air software updates?

I have had my Soul EV for 2 months.
A new speed camera was erected at the end of my street last week.
Today my navigation gave me a warning about this camera for the first time.
I was surprised, I don't know how, or when the update happened.
I live in South Korea. Here the Soul EV has an Internet connection. Naver search is part of the navigation. It uses 3G.

I don't know how the system operates in South Korea, but in the US the XM satellite radio service provides over-the-air updates to traffic, speed limits, weather, and so forth over either the 3G cellular modem in the car or WiFi when in range of a connected base station.

I'd imagine your car was updated in a similar manner.

 

[EV2016]

I think one of my questions was answered by reading this discussion but I'd like to make sure. I often run the fan in the defrost position just to keep some air flowing over the windshield since I live in Washington and defrosting the front windshield most of the year is general practice. When I park the car the settings is fan only, about speed 2, and the heat and air conditioning off. When I go out the next morning and start the car the fan will go up to about position 5 and the air conditioning light is on and sometimes even the heat light. Is this part of the automatic sensing of fog on the windshield. This was kind of driving me nuts but I guess if the system is trying to help out I don't mind. All I have to do is push the buttons to turn them off and slow the fan and I'm back to what I had. It may be a little over sensitive since when I turn the A/C and heater off I still don't get fog. I guess better too much than allowing a foggy windshield.

 

[hybridbear]

I don't think these questions have been answered yet...

I've been reading through the Owner's Manual and this has raised a few more questions:

• What does the pedestrian warning system sound like? Can you turn it off? Is it similar to the buzzing emitted by the Prius at low speeds? One of the features we love about the electric Fords compared to the Prius that preceded them is that they make no noise & thus we can glide along silently.
• How does the Flex Steer system work? What setting do people prefer?
• Will the audio display on the center dash screen show song name & artist name? What does it show when you’re connected to a USB device?
• Is it true that the Trip Meters don't keep track of rate of energy consumption or kWh used? This seems like a major oversight...
• What is the battery % shown on the trip info screen when you turn off the car? Is it the % used during that drive? Or the % remaining?
• How are trips grouped on the Driving History screen on the center screen? Does it record every single trip each day? Are trips shorter than a certain # of miles omitted? How many trips are shown on that screen? Is this data available online in the EV UVO Services web portal?

I'm also really curious about what the EV app looks like on the phone or web browser. I'd really like to see screen shots of that if someone car share.

Thank you!!!

 

[mtndrew1]

I don't think these questions have been answered yet...

I've been reading through the Owner's Manual and this has raised a few more questions:

• What does the pedestrian warning system sound like? Can you turn it off? Is it similar to the buzzing emitted by the Prius at low speeds? One of the features we love about the electric Fords compared to the Prius that preceded them is that they make no noise & thus we can glide along silently.
• How does the Flex Steer system work? What setting do people prefer?
• Will the audio display on the center dash screen show song name & artist name? What does it show when you’re connected to a USB device?
• Is it true that the Trip Meters don't keep track of rate of energy consumption or kWh used? This seems like a major oversight...
• What is the battery % shown on the trip info screen when you turn off the car? Is it the % used during that drive? Or the % remaining?
• How are trips grouped on the Driving History screen on the center screen? Does it record every single trip each day? Are trips shorter than a certain # of miles omitted? How many trips are shown on that screen? Is this data available online in the EV UVO Services web portal?

I'm also really curious about what the EV app looks like on the phone or web browser. I'd really like to see screen shots of that if someone car share.

Thank you!!!

1. Sounds like robots masturbating. You can not turn it off. I find it less pronounced than the Prius sound but it's similar.
2. FlexSteer gives you three choices of weight in the steering. All settings feel artificial in that no setting increases road feel. I prefer the middle setting.
3. No. Also no.
4. This is true. I also find it disappointing.
5. It's the percentage remaining in the pack.
6. Trips are just chronological but I've never paid attention to how far back they go. At least 24 hours for sure. No trips are omitted. The data are not available in the app as far as I'm aware.

App shots: http://www.kia.com/us/en/vehicle/soul-ev/2016/tech
Be sure to scroll to the app portion and there is a slider with shots of the Set Charge, Heat/Cool, and (un)Lock screens.

 

[DarthNick]

[*]Will the audio display on the center dash screen show song name & artist name? What does it show when you’re connected to a USB device?

3. No. Also no.

I think I can disagree here. I had my USB plugged in yesterday, and even though the file names were just the song titles (ex. 01 - In Th End.mp3), when on the main music screen, it was able to extract the title, artist, and album (maybe even the artwork?). I think it depends on where you sourced the music file from. The song I was listening to was ripped by iTunes from the CD, so likely extracted the track info when it did.

 

[mtndrew1]

[*]Will the audio display on the center dash screen show song name & artist name? What does it show when you’re connected to a USB device?

3. No. Also no.

I think I can disagree here. I had my USB plugged in yesterday, and even though the file names were just the song titles (ex. 01 - In Th End.mp3), when on the main music screen, it was able to extract the title, artist, and album (maybe even the artwork?). I think it depends on where you sourced the music file from. The song I was listening to was ripped by iTunes from the CD, so likely extracted the track info when it did.

It displays on the 8" Nav screen but I took his question to mean the 3.5" OLED screen between the speedometer and power meter. Maybe I misunderstood.

I would really like it if it displayed artist and track on the little screen by the speedometer.

 

[hybridbear]

4. This is true. I also find it disappointing.
6. Trips are just chronological but I've never paid attention to how far back they go. At least 24 hours for sure. No trips are omitted. The data are not available in the app as far as I'm aware.

App shots: http://www.kia.com/us/en/vehicle/soul-ev/2016/tech
Be sure to scroll to the app portion and there is a slider with shots of the Set Charge, Heat/Cool, and (un)Lock screens.

Thanks for the link to the shots of the app. Is this new on Kia's website? I'm sure I searched the Soul EV page before searching for screen shots of the app!
4. How do you track efficiency then? How is the Energy Consumption on the ECO Level screen calculated? Can you reset it on your own or does it do its own thing?
I'm interested in knowing how to calculate how many kWh the car shows we've used on a monthly basis.
6. So even trips that are short like 0.6 miles get recorded?

In the app screen shot of (Un)lock it shows Vehicle Status. Near the top of the screen it says, "Climate Control Off". Does this show the status of climate control when you last turned off the car? Does it allow you to click on it & open any options?
Thanks!!

It displays on the 8" Nav screen but I took his question to mean the 3.5" OLED screen between the speedometer and power meter. Maybe I misunderstood.

I would really like it if it displayed artist and track on the little screen by the speedometer.

I was referring to the center dash screen. Thanks for answering my question. I also wish it could be displayed on the center dash screen. Then you could have navigation up on the big screen & still see the song info on the small dash screen.

 

[mtndrew1]

4. How do you track efficiency then? How is the Energy Consumption on the ECO Level screen calculated? Can you reset it on your own or does it do its own thing?
I'm interested in knowing how to calculate how many kWh the car shows we've used on a monthly basis.
6. So even trips that are short like 0.6 miles get recorded?

In the app screen shot of (Un)lock it shows Vehicle Status. Near the top of the screen it says, "Climate Control Off". Does this show the status of climate control when you last turned off the car? Does it allow you to click on it & open any options?
Thanks!!

The car just isn't set up to report kWh used over a given period of time. I don't know that there's a reasonable way to do this other than manually recording the delta between the beginning and end SOCs every day and calculating it against 27 kWh total usable pack capacity with some multiplier for charging efficiency loss.

I have no idea how the Eco Level calculates and the car doesn't give an indication as to what it means. It doesn't seem to correlate with mi/kWh as far as I can tell, but maybe it does. I don't pay it much attention and mine is just usually maxed out at 8. I find it entirely useless. You can reset the Eco Level with the steering wheel controls.

If you start the car, pull it out of the driveway, and shut it off, the next time you start the car that "trip" will have been recorded. In my experience it records everything. The way it calculates the efficiency is very screwy in that it's based on the mi/kWh in the instrument cluster since the last reset event. For example, if you never reset the meter in the instrument cluster and it averages out over 5,000 miles to 4.2 mi/kWh, every "trip" in the center stack will be 4.2 mi/kWh even if the actual efficiency over that segment was something else.

As far as the app, the climate control status refers to whether or not it's either preconditioning or a remote climate control event has been initiated. You can open the app, tap the climate section, and it will allow you to pick a temperature and start a remote event, but it will only be successful if the car is connected to an EVSE. It then runs for some period of time (ten minutes?) and shuts down. While active, when refreshing the car's status, it will show Climate Control "ON."

 

[JejuSoul]

If you start the car, pull it out of the driveway, and shut it off, the next time you start the car that "trip" will have been recorded. In my experience it records everything. The way it calculates the efficiency is very screwy in that it's based on the mi/kWh in the instrument cluster since the last reset event. For example, if you never reset the meter in the instrument cluster and it averages out over 5,000 miles to 4.2 mi/kWh, every "trip" in the center stack will be 4.2 mi/kWh even if the actual efficiency over that segment was something else.

My car behaves differently. (If by recorded you mean the list of trips visible in the history list)
Very short distances are not recorded. (Perhaps you have a long driveway.)
Every "trip" has its own efficiency in the history list.

 

[mtndrew1]

My car behaves differently. (If by recorded you mean the list of trips visible in the history list)
Very short distances are not recorded. (Perhaps you have a long driveway.)
Every "trip" has its own efficiency in the history list.

I'll have to look more specifically at the distances recorded in my car now.

As far as the efficiency per trip, mine also has individual efficiencies per trip but after some time (say a week) they all become exactly the same. If I last reset the efficiency meter in the instrument cluster 500 miles ago and it has leveled off at 4.3 mi/kWh each individual trip will be 4.3 mi/kWh.

I'll experiment more.

 

[hybridbear]

I have no idea how the Eco Level calculates and the car doesn't give an indication as to what it means. It doesn't seem to correlate with mi/kWh as far as I can tell, but maybe it does. I don't pay it much attention and mine is just usually maxed out at 8. I find it entirely useless. You can reset the Eco Level with the steering wheel controls.

Thanks for all the great replies. What about the mi/kWh shown on the Eco Level screen? The manual doesn't explain anything about how that is calculated or how to reset it. Is it the same as the other display of mi/kWh? Thanks!

 

[JejuSoul]

What about the mi/kWh shown on the Eco Level screen? The manual doesn't explain anything about how that is calculated or how to reset it. Is it the same as the other display of mi/kWh? Thanks!

.

The mi/kWh shown on the Eco Level screen is the average value since you last reset. I was slightly wrong earlier in suggesting that each "trip" in the history list had its own value. Each one has the average value when that trip finished. If you have only driven a few hundred miles since resetting then yes, each one is different. But if you drive 5000 miles without resetting then each one will be the same. I would rather have seen the average once on the first screen and the actual values that make up the average on the history tab.

To reset the average either -
1. push the reset button on the steering wheel.
2. do a fast L3 charge,
3. disconnect the 12V battery.

As to how the car calculates kWh used I think we will have to wait for a Soul Spy app.