2020 Kia Soul EV US-Market Launch Delayed, Availability Information

We love everything that Kia have done with the Soul over the years, including the EV.

We are not alone in that, as is evidenced by the fact that a lot of US consumers are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the redesigned Soul EV. A boost in range and a massive 64 kWh battery are just a couple of reasons for that excitement.

The arrival of the 2020 Kia Soul EV in the United States was supposed to be this spring, but the word now is that there is going to be a bit of a delay in that regard.

We are not just talking a few weeks with this delay, but rather a total postponement of sales of the Kia Soul EV in the United States.

There are a couple of reasons why this decision was made, which we will get into shortly, but the EV will still be available at some point in a limited number of states.

2020 Kia Soul EV dealership arrival & on-sale date

Kia made it official when they recently announced that the Soul EV would not be available in the US this year. The expectation was that they would be in US showrooms sometime this summer, but the official release date has now officially been pushed back to 2020.

The main reason for the delay is far from negative, though, as Kia first need to fulfill European orders, where sales of the Soul EV have been brisk.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s going on there.

Europe is seeing a major upswing in sales of EV vehicles, with most selling out shortly after they hit the lot. The Kia Niro EV, for example, is already on sale there, with some parts of Europe now having a 12-month waiting list for that model. Such is the demand.

Another contributing factor here is that the EV is now the only Soul model that Europeans can get their hands on. When the 3^rd generation Soul was released, the gas and diesel variants were taken off the European range.

That’s a lot of sales for Kia to fill, which they will be hoping to offset with the EV. It stands to reason then that the huge sales volumes of the EV in Europe means that less are available for other parts of the world, including the US.

On a bit of a strange note, you can still find the new Soul EV in Canada, where it just hit the market.

2020 Soul EV availability in U.S.

We may have more bad news for US consumers waiting on the 2020 Soul electric vehicle, although this news is dependent upon your location.

When this model does arrive in the States, it will only be available in 16 of the 50, with the states in question being those that have the same zero-emissions regulations in place as California.

Outside of California, the other states that fit the bill are: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, and the District of Columbia.