FIGURE 1 // WHERE IT WEARSKia Soul
Top three failure systems, annotated from 293 failed first-time tests. Arrows point to where the defect is found on the car.
The Kia Soul starts better than petrol and falls behind it by year four
2,957 inspections in a single year make the SOUL a modestly documented electric car in the data. Tyres cause 46.6% of its failures; tyres take 2.0× the share they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.
First-time test findings
The three-year vs nine-year picture
AT THREE YEARS OLD7.5%
SOUL failure rate. Petrol cars of the same age fail 8.2%.
AT NINE YEARS OLD16.5%
SOUL failure rate, against 19.9% for petrol.
At three years old the Kia Soul fails 7.5% of the time, under the 8.2% of a petrol car the same age. By 9 years that reaches 16.5%. Tyres cause 46.6% of its failures.
FIGURE 2 // TYRE SECTION116 certificates in 2024
The tyre that wears from the inside
Tyres take 46.6% of the defects that fail this car, 2.0× the share seen on petrol and diesel cars of the same age. The most common item in that group is "A tyre seriously damaged", recorded 116 times in 2024.
SECTION // TYRES CONCENTRATIONYear 4 crossover
Where the curve bends
The crossover with petrol happens around year 4. From there the SOUL's failure rate climbs faster than the petrol fleet, and the defect list explains why.
Source: DVSA MOT defect items, 2024 test year.
What to check
Check tyre age and tread across the full width, inner edge included. Electric cars wear tyres faster; a cheap mismatched set on a used car tells you how it was run. Trivial to fix, but a car advertised with worn wipers and a fresh failure certificate tells you how it was maintained. Ask when the brakes were last stripped and cleaned. Regenerative braking barely wears the pads, so discs and calipers corrode and seize instead. Check headlamp aim and every lamp before the test. It is the cheapest failure on the list and the easiest to avoid. Ask for the full MOT history by registration on the free DVSA service: advisories are next year's failures.
3 inspection points:
✓ Tyre inner-edge wear and age
✓ Wipers and washers
✓ Rear caliper drag and disc lip
FIGURE 3 // FAILURE RATE BY AGEvs petrol, diesel and all electric cars
Points hidden where fewer than 50 cars of that age were tested. Dashed lines are the same-age petrol and diesel fleets.
Data sheet
- Inspections
- 2,957
- Passed
- 2,575
- Failed
- 293
- Passed after repair
- 89
- Failure rate
- 9.9% (all EV 12.0%)
- Average age
- 4.5 years
- Best year
- 3 yrs · 7.5%
- Worst year
- 9 yrs · 16.5%
- Top cause
- Tyres 46.6%
TABLE 1 // WHAT FAILS, BY SYSTEMshare of failing defects
| System | This car (mark = petrol/diesel) | Share | vs petrol/diesel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 46.6% | 2.0× more | |
| Suspension | 4.7% | 2.9× less | |
| Brakes | 17.4% | in line | |
| Visibility | 16.5% | 1.4× more | |
| Lighting | 9.2% | 1.8× less | |
| Steering | 3.9% | 1.3× more | |
| Body | 0.2% | 20.5× less |
TABLE 2 // TOP DEFECTS ON THE CERTIFICATE
- A tyre seriously damaged116
- A tyre cords visible or damaged59
- Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements58
- Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen53
- a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm27
- A headlamp or light source missing, inoperative or more than ½ not functioning in the case of LED18
Wording as printed by the tester, from the DVSA inspection manual.
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Where it holds up
- Suspension fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (4.7% of defects vs 13.6%)
- Lighting fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (9.2% of defects vs 16.5%)
- Body fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (0.2% of defects vs 4.1%)
- At three years old it fails 7.5% of the time, below the 8.2% of petrol cars the same age
Where it fails
- Tyres take a bigger share of failures than on petrol and diesel cars of the same age (46.6% vs 23.7%)
- Visibility take a bigger share of failures than on petrol and diesel cars of the same age (16.5% vs 11.9%)
VERSIONS SEEN IN THE TESTSas recorded
- SOUL FIRST EDITION EV1,952
- SOUL896
- SOUL MAXX EV109
OWNER REPORTS // MATCHED TO RECORDED DEFECTS0 read · 0 matched
No owner discussion has been matched to this car's recorded defects yet. Reports are re-collected every quarter; the figures on this page do not depend on them.
Summaries written by us, never quotes; every entry links to its source. Owner reports have no denominator and never feed the failure rate.
SIMILAR CARS IN THE DATAclosest rate and age, other brands
BMW i38.8% fail · 15,271 testsVolkswagen e-Golf11.9% fail · 6,536 testsMG ZS9.4% fail · 13,341 testsMini Cooper SE9.6% fail · 9,945 tests
OTHER KIA ELECTRIC CARS
Three things the data shows
- 2,957 inspections in 2024 make this one of the adequately-documented electric cars in the data.
- Tyres take 2.0× the share of failures they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.
- Failure rate rises from 7.5% at 3 years to 16.5% at 9: a gentle ageing curve.
LIMITS // WHAT THE INSPECTION DOES NOT TELL YOU
No battery health, no motor, no charging performance. The test covers brakes, suspension, steering, tyres, lights, visibility and structure. A car with a badly degraded battery passes as long as it stops and steers. Read this page as evidence about the chassis, not the powertrain. Cars are tested from their third year, so the newest model years are missing; every figure carries its sample size for that reason. Full methodology.
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