Kia Soul EV vs Renault 4

The Kia Soul EV costs £10,100 more than the Renault 4. For that premium it adds 32 miles more WLTP range and 40 kW more power. The Renault 4 is not just cheaper - it also offers 105 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Renault 4 comes out ahead overall.

The Renault 4 is £10,100 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 Renault 4 comes out roughly £10,180 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 234 miles for the Kia Soul EV and 208 miles for the Renault 4 - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Kia Soul EV goes roughly 27 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 47 minutes in the Kia Soul EV and 30 in the Renault 4, so the Renault 4 loses less time at each stop. So the Kia Soul EV stops less often while the Renault 4 stops for less time - pick on which you would rather do.

The two are within 4 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 604 mm of total clearance for the Renault 4 and about 600 mm of total clearance for the Kia Soul EV.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Kia Soul EV and 84% for the Renault 4. 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 Renault 4 has the longer battery warranty at 8 years, versus 7 for the Kia Soul EV.