Ford Puma Gen-E vs Kia Soul EV

The Kia Soul EV costs £7,300 more than the Ford Puma Gen-E. On the headline specs that premium buys little measurable advantage - the two are closely matched on range, charging and space. The Ford Puma Gen-E is not just cheaper - it also offers 251 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Ford Puma Gen-E comes out ahead overall.

The Ford Puma Gen-E is £7,300 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £144 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Ford Puma Gen-E comes out roughly £7,380 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 186 miles for the Ford Puma Gen-E and 234 miles for the Kia Soul EV - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Kia Soul EV goes roughly 48 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 26 minutes in the Ford Puma Gen-E and 47 in the Kia Soul EV, so the Ford Puma Gen-E loses less time at each stop. So the Kia Soul EV stops less often while the Ford Puma Gen-E stops for less time - pick on which you would rather do.

The two are within 5 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 600 mm of total clearance for the Kia Soul EV and about 595 mm of total clearance for the Ford Puma Gen-E.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Ford Puma Gen-E and 84% for the Kia Soul EV. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. The Ford Puma Gen-E has the longer battery warranty at 8 years, versus 7 for the Kia Soul EV.