Thinking of getting a higher mileage 2016

[bijan]

You might also be able to delete history. I'm not sure.

If you can run it down low and do a full charge this made the most difference in the GOM estimate for me. 200 Wh/km seems like Model S/X territory. I'm averaging about 130 Wh/km for city driving in this Soul EV.

Yes you can delete history. In mine it's menu->delete history

That was mostly fast highway driving. But I mash the gas pedal. My wife is getting 140-150 city.

 

[EVDee]

So I finally got mine on the weekend.

Quite a story to tell, but for now I'll spare everyone the long read and give you the TLDR:
- I waited 2 weeks for my car to arrive. Lots of delays, but ironically it arrived sooner than the last delayed ETA - Yay! Right?
- Insurance company wasn't open until Monday - boo..
- Dealer/Shipper forgot to ship the plates! - BOO!

So my car is parked in my driveway, charged up, and insured as of this morning - but unable to go anywhere until I get my plates in the mail..

Back to the weekend, considering I had nothing but time - I started doing a tear down to try and get all taxi equipment out. I'll share photos in a separate post in the future, but I've torn apart as much as I can and while intuition got me as far as it did - a proper manual would be a god send at this point. I see one can be bought online for $15, but just as with the head unit update, I'm curious if that resource is lurking around here somewhere?

Despite being unable to drive my car so far, and the interior being ripped apart - I really like it so far :lol:
The A/C kept me cool while I worked inside and Android Auto now blasts away my tunes.

Going to be an interesting summer

 

[JejuSoul]

-
EVDee - on the Just picked up Soul EV 2020 Limited in Vancouver you post.

...I drive, A lot.
From Monday to Friday I travel ~300km per day at a speed of ~95-100km/hr on the highway, which most of it is. I'm curious if it's possible to ditch my gas burner and do this instead with either a Soul EV or the N iro EV, and year round? I live in an area where -20C is usually the normal for the colder part of winter, polar vortexes aside.
...

So what car is it that you have just bought.
I doubt a higher mileage 2016 Soul EV ex Teo Taxi is going to work well for the usage you describe above.
And please do post again with the lengthy description and photos of any modifications you make on the car.

 

[EVDee]

JejuSoul - Yeah, so my job involves a lot of driving, but also has a company vehicle to use. If I was able to use my own I'd make more money, but it just didn't seem worth the hassle. So this is strictly for my personal use, which is well within the range of the vehicle.

 

[Tcalp]

Hi Guys,

I picked up my 2016 Kia Soul today, working on driving back from Toronto to Ottawa at the moment. Getting about 90-105KM per charge, is this low enough to get a replacement as this is pretty brutal, I can only really make it 60-70KM before having to stop to charge, rarely hitting any rapid charge...

 

[JejuSoul]

... I can only really make it 60-70KM before having to stop to charge...

Try driving slower, you will be able to get much further on the same charge.
And yes; it does sound like you will be getting a replacement battery soon.

 

[notfred]

I would consider having it shipped rather than trying to drive it.

 

[thesalmonmousse]

I started doing a tear down to try and get all taxi equipment out. I'll share photos in a separate post in the future, but I've torn apart as much as I can and while intuition got me as far as it did - a proper manual would be a god send at this point. I see one can be bought online for $15, but just as with the head unit update, I'm curious if that resource is lurking around here somewhere?

Would be really interested to see the pics as my mechanic at the Kia dealership didn't want to touch any of the modifications. I was wondering how feasible it would be to attack this myself given I have zero experience with car repairs or if I'm better off just finding a guy that will do it. Tried removing the 2 aluminum blocks on the roof but all that accomplished was to break an allan key.

Main thing would be removing all the taxi mods from the windshield. Restoring the AUX/USB and back door remote opening isn't a huge deal for me.

I can only really make it 60-70KM before having to stop to charge, rarely hitting any rapid charge...

Shipping is really not that complicated. Cost me only 375$ (tx incl.) Toronto to Montreal. There was a guy having his shipped to BC from the same dealer.

 

[Tcalp]

... I can only really make it 60-70KM before having to stop to charge...

Try driving slower, you will be able to get much further on the same charge.
And yes; it does sound like you will be getting a replacement battery soon.

I wasn't going particularly fast, generally sticking in the 100-110 area.

I did a road test today on a full charge, looks like I can make ~95-100KM if I'm staying under 100

 

[notfred]

Yup, the Soul is an un-aerodynamic brick. On the highway put the cruise on at 105kph, but if you really want to cover some distance take the back roads where your speed is 60-80kph.

 

[Tcalp]

I've installed 'Torque Pro' with the datasets from JejuSoul. My SoH states 27.6KwH , but then my dash readout says that I'm averaging 15-16KwH per 100/km, and not able to get more than 100/km on a charge ? I'm confused .....

 

[JejuSoul]

-
From a recent post in the SoulSpy Thread.

...
Actual range is affected by many other factors besides battery capacity. Have you ruled out:
- hanging brakes
- New wheels or tires
- AC lost (most of) it's cooling fluid
- season of year (temperature, wind)
- changed driving patterns: Style, route, speed, distance per stop, time per stop, hills
- changed charging patterns
- roof rack

And the range value displayed by the car is varying even more, based on the latest trips (and, I believe, depending on when you last reset it).

For us to judge why your GOM is low, you will have to tell us a lot more detail about how you are driving the car.
It would also help if you stated the car's age and how far it has driven.

 

[robbiedrowbot]

Thanks to all the useful information posted on this thread!!!
I just bought one of those former limo/taxi 2016 Kia Soul with 134,000 km. I got mine from https://www.langmotorcar.com
In my first run from full charge (guess-o-meter showed 125km) to empty I got 148 km in a variety driving conditions (AC on, highway, etc.) until the turtle indicator showed up now I'm doing trickle charge with 110 portable adapter. Brakes seem to be low but is the first time I drive a Kia EV so I don't have a comparison point.
So far everything works. Well only the projector headlights aim seems to be off, but besides that no rattle noises no glitches, only minor dents and scratches, and glue residues from the vinyl wrapping. Tire repair kit was in the trunk but no portable charge adapter.
I was very exciting to find the second FOB as it was described in previous posts. Since restoring it to its former glory is my pet project, I'd like to contribute with some findings.

Work done so far:
1.- Removed occupied/free indicator lights from the front/rear windows, disconnected, and tucked the cables away, sticker residue is stubborn.
2.- Removed the dome camera by disconnecting the cable from inside boards (the poor thing didn't survived surgery) and tucked cables away too.
3.- Removed the bracket from the front vents, filled up the holes with epoxy sanded and wrapped in white vinyl to mach the interior white trim inserts, the cable was routed to the AUX/USB panel hidden under console.
4.- Found the second FOB!!!
5.- Restored the AUX/USB panel. The AUX cable connected to this panel comes from the headrest bracket so I removed them while removing the hardware.
6.- Submitted paperwork for the plug'n drive $1000 used vehicle purchase incentive (Ontario only). I got the confirmation that all was received and complete. I'm still waiting for the cheque. More info here https://www.plugndrive.ca/used-electric-vehicles/

I'm still trying to figure out what other cables/relays/connectors should be removed without breaking the electric system. Suggestions/instructions/guides/how to (with pictures) are welcomed.

Someone requested Kia manuals. I was able to remove the interior trim following instructions in this website.
http://www.kisouman.com/second_generation_ps_2014_year_-385.html

One final question. How do I update the firmware to get Apple CarPlay?

I'm pondering remove the roof trim by myself since there are curtain airbags, in order to get rid of the aluminum hardware on the roof and other wiring. Did someone manage to do that by himself?

 

[Tcalp]

For us to judge why your GOM is low, you will have to tell us a lot more detail about how you are driving the car.
It would also help if you stated the car's age and how far it has driven.[/quote]

Hi Jeju,

Firstly, thanks for all the hard work you put in for the community. As to my car, it's a 2016 Teo Taxi with just under 130,000KM. So far, I've driven the car back from Toronto, and a bit of mixed highway/city driving since then. I'm not burning off the line, trying to keep it in the first few bars of 'power' or in eco area; In my latest testing I've kept under 100KM/h on the highway, and keeping AC off. As to charging, I've done L1/L2/L3 at this point. If there is some sort of manual reset I can do, aside from taking the battery low, I'm not sure how to do that, but I have driven the car until it was in power limited mode.

During charging, I'm pretty sure I've watched the charge percentage jump from ~64% to ~70%, and then entirely stop at 94%, though I haven't re-confirmed this and could be a figment of my imagination. I've yet to see the car intake more than 21KW during charging (this is what the car took in at an L3 to full charge after hitting power limitation).

In the end, the GOM is topping out at ~101KM with mixed driving -- I hope this helps.

 

[Tcalp]

One final question. How do I update the firmware to get Apple CarPlay?

There is a thread on that here : https://www.mykiasoulev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=832 , which includes video and links (links are further in the thread)

 

[thesalmonmousse]

So here's some information that might be of interest. I live in Montreal, where Teo taxi was operating. Yesterday, I was looking for a place that could remove the taxi gear for me so I called up a taximeter installation company. Believe it or not, first place I call happens to be the place that was involved in installing these mods for Teo. The guy told me that these cars have been extensively modified. About 24h of labor per car to install all of the electronics. In addition to the stuff that's apparent behind the windshield, he said there's a wifi system in the roof (was used for the taxi customers), there are sensors in the back seats that are hooked up to the seat heaters and there are also a number of add ons that were used to monitor driving stats, vehicle location and speed. Apparently, drivers working for that company were extensively monitored. They would know if the driver broke speed limits or was braking too aggressively. I guess none of this is operational any more, but who knows... maybe Teo is still monitoring our driving

I ended up going to another taximeter shop to get the gear removed as this first place was charging 90$/h to have everything removed properly. Second place I went to just removed the major items if the windshield (taximeter in the glove box, camera, small black round "puck", occupied/available indicators) and charged me only 15$. They left the box on the left side of the windshield, said that was the card reader drivers would use to unlock or start the cars and they didn't want to touch that.

I was wondering if anyone had had any luck removing the boxes on the roof. I don't mind the metal cross bars, but I would want to get the boxes removed. The taxi place wasn't equipped to do it and I broke an Allan key trying to unscrew one of the 8 hex screws that attaches them.

 

[robbiedrowbot]

I was wondering if anyone had had any luck removing the boxes on the roof. I don't mind the metal cross bars, but I would want to get the boxes removed. The taxi place wasn't equipped to do it and I broke an Allan key trying to unscrew one of the 8 hex screws that attaches them.

I also tried to remove the metal block form the roof and broke an Allen key too, so I assume those screws have threadlocker applied to it. I'm going to adventure in unknown territory and remove the roof trim, hopefully over the weekend.

 

[Tcalp]

Does anyone have any of the signs that were originally on the roof with their Teo Taxi ? I was thinking of getting mine wrapped, and it could add to it

 

[ksoul2084]

My 2016 former-Teo taxi Soul had the sign removed but they left the giant holes in the roof and simply covered them with a black wrap. Yesterday it hailed here and the wrap tore open over most of the holes, exposing the inside of the roof to the elements.

So now I need to figure out a long-term solution to plugging the holes to keep them water-tight and as visually appealing as possible.

Since the black wrap on the roof was damaged in several places by the hail I'm thinking of removing it entirely to expose the original light blue paint, though I have no idea what other cosmetic / paint damage might be lurking under the wrap from the sign, etc.

Any suggestions on how to plug these large holes? I'm thinking a large, thin bolt of some sort and some water-rated silicone but maybe there is some kind of thin plastic plug or something that would look better?

 

[thesalmonmousse]

I also tried to remove the metal block form the roof and broke an Allen key too, so I assume those screws have threadlocker applied to it. I'm going to adventure in unknown territory and remove the roof trim, hopefully over the weekend.

Does that mean even a mechanic wouldn't be able to unscrew these with a more sturdy tool?