The British division of Kia has turned a Soul EV into a surfer-friendly, beach-ready rig called the Boardmasters Edition. Presented as a one-off concept, the hatchback started out as a pre-production car that should have been crushed.
One of the most obvious modifications is a set of 16-inch wheels wrapped in Maxxis Bighorn sand tires, the same unit found on cars that take part in rallies. While that sounds relatively simple, cramming 30-inch wheels under a city-size hatchback was astonishingly complicated; Above all, Kia had to redesign the front footwells. A three-inch suspension lift has also been added, along with many other changes. All in all, the Soul has about 12.4 inches of ground clearance.
It’s not just the jacked-up suspension that makes the Boardmasters Edition taller than a standard Soul. Kia topped it off with a custom-made tubular roof rack for surfboards and added a solar panel to charge some of the on-board accessories like a refrigerator. Get behind the wheel and the Boardmasters Edition will look like a normal soul.
Look back and you will find that the back seat has been replaced with a wooden deck. Expanding the trunk of the soul also allowed Kia to mount a fold-out bench and a swing-out arm for hanging towels and wetsuits to dry.
No drivetrain changes have been made to the Soul EV, which means it is powered by a 201-horsepower electric motor connected to a 64-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery. How the jumbo tires affect the range is not yet known.
Kia will be showing the Soul EV Boardmasters Edition at the 2021 edition of Boardmasters, a surf and music festival taking place in Cornwall this week from August 11th to 15th. At this point in time, there is nothing to suggest that the EV will produce a production model.
Similar video: