Total Complaints
2 filings
KIA SOUL EV · model year
2 NHTSA complaints, 1 crash report, and 1 recall campaign listed for this cohort. A VIN lookup is required to determine whether a specific vehicle has an unrepaired recall.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 2014KIASOUL EV carries 2 consumer safety complaints in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 1 crash, 0 fires, 2 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
The most frequently selected component label in reports for the 2014 SOUL EV is engine with 1 filings, followed by air bags (1). Complaint categories reflect owner reports and intake categorization; they do not establish a defect pattern or cause. This cohort has 1 NHTSA recall campaign listed below. Enter a VIN in NHTSA's official recall lookup to determine whether a specific vehicle has an unrepaired recall.
NHTSA currently has 1 investigation file overlapping the 2014 SOUL EV. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should read the complaint-by-year trend as report volume, not a causal diagnosis. Use the related-complaint feed and the official recall lookup when researching a specific vehicle.
Total Complaints
2 filings
Crashes Reported
1 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| ENGINE | 1 |
| AIR BAGS | 1 |
STEERING
Kia Motors America (Kia) is recalling certain 2014-2016 Soul and Soul EV vehicles. The pinion plug may allow the pinion gear to separate from the steering gear assembly.
"TAKATA RECALL " I HAD A REAR END ACCIDENT AND THE AIRBAGS DID NOT DEPLOY WHEN THE REAR END ACCIDENT OCCURRED ON THE HIGHWAY I WAS HIT FROM THE REAR AND THE AIRBAGS DID NOT DEPLOY I WAS MOVING VERY SLOWLY AT 45 MI PER HOUR I BELIEVE THE AIRBAGS SHOULD HAVE DEPLOYED THE POLICE HAVE PHOTOS
Mileage: 50,000
MY FOUR YEAR OLD SON AND I WHERE DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD AND OUT OF NOWHERE IT STARTS SHAKING, SMOKING, AND OIL STARTS SPEWING. I PULLED OVER AND CALLED A TOW TRUCK. WAS TOLD MY ENGINE EXPLODED. CALLED KIA AND THEY WILL DO NOTHING. I AM 1800 MILES OVER MY 100,000 MILE WARRANTY AND HAVE DONE EVERY MAINTENANCE REQUIRED. I STILL OWE ON THIS CAR AND EVEN THOUGH KIA HAS RECALLS ON SORENTOS AND OPTIMAS FOR THIS, THEY ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING.
Mileage: 1,001,790
Data vintage: August 2026. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. This year-specific record is rendered from NHTSA ODI, recall, and NCAP rows for the 2014 KIA SOUL EV; no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.