Kia has discovered that some Soul EVs might have a parking mechanism defect causing the SUVs to roll away when the driver has locked up and left
https://www.carscoops.com/author/chris-chilton-cc/
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by Chris Chilton
4 hours ago
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When you put your car’s transmission lever into Park, you generally assume it’s going to still be parked in that same spot when you get back. But that might not be the same story for some owners of Kia’s Soul EV. Kia has already recalled one batch of cars over rollaway fears and now an investigation has been opened to see if there’s still a problem and if later models are also at risk.
Back in July 2020, Kia recalled 2015-16MY Soul EV models following reports that some of them were moving of their own accord despite being in Park. The problem stemmed from damage caused to the parking lock mechanism by drivers engaging Park before the car had fully come to a stop. That could lead to Souls rolling away if the driver then engaged Park in a damaged car but didn’t also manually activate the parking brake, which few people do in an automatic or EV.
Kia’s solution was to update the software in the electronic parking brake of recalled 2015-16MY cars to engage the brake automatically when the Soul was placed in Park, a mod that was also applied to new-build Soul EVs from the 2017 model year.
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But now the NHTSA is investigating that recall after receiving complaints that Soul EVs were still running away. The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) has heard of three incidences of Park-averse Souls built for the 2017-18 model year, though two of those complaints are from the same owner about the same SUV. In one of the reports, a Soul was involved in a collision after the driver had exited the car.
So far, there’s no new recall, the NHTSA is simply gathering information about the alleged rollaway incidents and assessing the effectiveness of the original recall. But if it finds a problem, Kia will have to get in touch with affected owners about a fix. Until that happens you Soul EV drivers might want to hightail it down to your local airfield and get your hands on some chocks.
