New owner! Kia Access/UVO Not Working

[Sofingraw]

Hey all!

First post, just bought a Certified Pre-Owned 2016 Soul EV Base with 19,550 mi on it. My first EV!

Doing a bit of research, I discovered that the UVO and Kia Access stuff won’t likely work due allegedly to the phasing out of 3G.

Came here to confirm that is indeed the case, and/or find a way to make it work for me, if possible.

Also, want to validate my purchase and negotiation skills with unbiased folks in the know...

I paid $12500 for the car, including all fees, etc.

With my financing (3.29%) it’ll be $13461 when i have it paid off.

Did I get a Good/OK/Not Great/Awful deal? Be honest! Brutal, even!

Either way, I’m very happy and excited to be an EV owner, and I want to take this thing over 250k Miles!

Thanks for any and all replies, and I’m glad to be here!

[MassDeduction]

Hey all!

First post, just bought a Certified Pre-Owned 2016 Soul EV Base with 19,550 mi on it. My first EV!

Doing a bit of research, I discovered that the UVO and Kia Access stuff won’t likely work due allegedly to the phasing out of 3G.

Came here to confirm that is indeed the case, and/or find a way to make it work for me, if possible.

Also, want to validate my purchase and negotiation skills with unbiased folks in the know...

I paid $12500 for the car, including all fees, etc.

With my financing (3.29%) it’ll be $13461 when i have it paid off.

Did I get a Good/OK/Not Great/Awful deal? Be honest! Brutal, even!

Either way, I’m very happy and excited to be an EV owner, and I want to take this thing over 250k Miles!

Thanks for any and all replies, and I’m glad to be here!

Welcome to EV ownership! One thing that sometimes surprises a new e-car owner is that they're generally better cars, in the sense of superior weight distribution, and more torque, and instant torque, and all that leading to better handling than ICE cars. It's all too easy to talk about the environmental benefits or convenience differences, but forgetting that electric generally produces a more enjoyable and safer driving experience.

I think how good/bad a deal you got depends in part on where you live, and what currency it was paid in. Ditto the country you live in will affect UVO access, etc. If that's $12.5K CAD, that's the deal of the century. If it's USD, I'll leave that to others to comment on.

If you're hoping for 250K miles, you'll want to make judicious use of only charging the battery to 80%, and either leaving it there (or only topping up to 100% just before you need the extra juice). That, plus destination AC charging, will give you a longer service life for the battery. So too will controlling any lead-footed tendencies, as both charging *and* draining the battery fast is less than ideal for long-term lifespan.

[Sofingraw]

Thank you for the welcome!

As for the price, I live in Washington DC, and it was USD. Unfortunately not CAD

As for the 250k miles, that’s probably just a dream. But I’m gonna give it a go! Hoping my battery goes under 70% SOH at 8-9 years or 80-90k miles or so...

My daily commute is currently about 8 miles each way, so I shouldn’t have too many massive discharges, nor need to charge over 80% too often. Plan to level 1 charge at home as needed overnight.

Got 3 kids and a dog, and a Kia Sedona for all that trip taking nonsense!

[MassDeduction]

Thank you for the welcome!

As for the price, I live in Washington DC, and it was USD. Unfortunately not CAD

As for the 250k miles, that’s probably just a dream. But I’m gonna give it a go! Hoping my battery goes under 70% SOH at 8-9 years or 80-90k miles or so...

My daily commute is currently about 8 miles each way, so I shouldn’t have too many massive discharges, nor need to charge over 80% too often. Plan to level 1 charge at home as needed overnight.

Got 3 kids and a dog, and a Kia Sedona for all that trip taking nonsense!

$12.5K USD is $16.25K CAD. The 2016 model is highly desirable IMO, because all the 2016s sold in North America have a battery heater if I remember correctly, and they all have the option to set charging up to only 80% (an option the 2017-2019 models didn't have, from what I understand). I think that's a very fair price for a reasonably low mileage 2016, so long as the battery has been treated reasonably well.

Early on there was some debate about the benefits of slow charging vs. fast charging. As we get more data points, that debate seems to be ending. Slower charging truly does make a difference. The stock charger the 2016 Soul EV has is 12 amp, and that's good. The absolute best would be a 10 amp charger, but 12a is close enough.