As the mass production of the Soul EV starts in Korea, Kia Motors officially enters the electric car game. Kia Soul EV will initially go on sale in select European market later in the year, rivaling cars like the Nissan LEAF and Ford Focus Electric.

The design of the Kia Soul EV is substantially different, and a lot less funky, than the normal model. It comes in extremely sober colors accented with light blue which these days has become the official color of electric motoring.

Underneath that body Soul EV boasts a high-capacity 192-cell 27 kWh lithium-ion polymer battery pack connected to an 81.4 kW (110 ps) electric motor with 285 Nm (29 kg/m) of torque. The performance is not that great, but by EV standards it is not that shabby either. Zero to 100 km/h takes 11.2 seconds and the top speed is 145 km/h.

Kia Soul EV delivers a range of 212 km and requires five hours to charge up its fully depleted batteries. Using a fast charger, you can get them up to 80 percent charge in about half an hour.