We’re almost into April now, but I have finally narrowed down my search to two final selections. Interestingly they are both from the same manufacturer: KIA.

It turned out that I had misunderstood the difference between how Hybrids (HEV) and Plug-In Hybrids (PHEV) work and their technology. My misunderstanding led me to discount PHEVs from consideration initially.

That confusion has been cleared up thanks to a YouTube video I recently watched. I am now looking to purchase a KIA Niro PHEV.

It’s a smaller SUV with a range of 510 mi total between the gas and battery. The MPG is 53 City / 54 Highway on the latest models. I would be looking for an older used model, so those numbers will likely be reduced.

The second vehicle I am looking for is the KIA Soul EV.

This is my backup plan if I cannot find a Niro in my price range (16k). The Soul is mostly seen in the wild as the standard Gas model since it is rather inexpensive, but I want the EV version. It would be great if KIA had made an HEV version, but we can’t have everything we want.

The Soul EV was actually discontinued in the US back in 2019 after they ran out of parts for manufacturing the cars. Called the e-Soul in Europe, the cars were in high demand and KIA made the decision to stop selling them in the US and focus on the European market instead.

Unfortunately, the US models only ever got up to 111 mi of range for the 2018-2019 models, while the older ones cap out at 93 mi of range. By comparison, the e-Soul gets around 221 mi of range for the 2020 model. I tried looking for imports but have so far had no luck.

The upshot for buying a Soul EV is the sticker price. Since the cars are relatively old now, the prices have dropped considerably. Not as cheap as the BMW i3 I previously wrote about, but it is still cheaper than a Niro Plug-In (22k+).

But, I still have time to find the right vehicle for me. I’ll keep you posted.