At the Chicago Auto Show last week, GreenCarReports.com had a chance to sit down with 3 Kia executives and discuss, and have their questions answered about, the 2015 Kia Soul EV.

Orth Hedrick, Kia’s vice president of product planning, Stephen Kosowski, manager of long-range strategy and planning as well as product lead for the Soul EV, and James Hope, who is Kia’s national manager for product communications were all part of the interview.

We will support it, it will be part of the Kia Soul family, and we think it’ll be a success if our dealers can reach the buyers–if we can get them engaged–in key markets.

Kia has been watching the electric vehicle marketplace for a while, and when lease prices suddenly came down in California last year, Kia decided it was time to provide it’s own electric vehicle offering. Since the Kia Executives mentioned the California market specifically, we can’t help but think they were keeping their eye on that state specifically. Due to CARB requirements, and taking into account the volume of vehicles Kia sells worldwide, the automaker won’t become subject to California’s zero-emissions mandate until 2018.

When GreenCarReports specifically asked if the Soul Electric Vehicle was a compliance car, Orth Hendrick simply responded “We’re very interested in the car succeeding,” and declined to comment on sales volume targets for Kia’s first EV.

For the full interview, visit Green Car Reports