The Kia Soul has come a long way from its early days, when hamsters drove the funky crossover in TV commercials. While it’s still one of the more uniquely styled vehicles on sale, the latest Soul is remarkably practical and offers a good number of standard and available features. It’s also a solid value, with a reasonable starting price that remains decent as options and trim levels are added.
2025 Kia Soul Pricing, Specs, and Release Date
- What’s New for the 2025 Kia Soul
- Design
- Powertrain
- Interior
- Technology
- Safety
- Pricing and Release Date
- Further Research
What’s New for the 2025 Kia Soul
The only change for the 2025 Soul was the introduction of a new Soulmate Special Edition package. It combines popular tech and safety features and a naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine. The Soul’s last significant update came in 2023, when Kia gave it an exterior styling refresh, additional standard safety tech, and an engine lineup shuffle.
Design
The Soul looks more futuristic and refined than its early counterparts, but it retains the boxy, upright shape that made it unique to begin with. It features Kia’s signature “tiger nose” upper grille, and the lower front fascia has a larger grille with satin chrome trim in some configurations.
Powertrain
Kia ditched the available turbo engine in 2023, leaving only the 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. It makes 147 horsepower and 132 pound-feet of torque and sends it to the front wheels through a continuously variable transmission (CVT). That combo is potent enough for commuting and highway cruising, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of engagement or excitement. That said, the Soul has sharp handling and responsive steering that make it feel more lively than its engine specs suggest. Unfortunately, Kia doesn’t offer all-wheel drive (AWD), but the Soul’s front-wheel-drive (FWD) configuration should do just fine in the snow with a set of winter tires.
Interior
The 2025 Kia Soul seats five people on standard cloth upholstery. Synthetic leather is available, along with heated front seats and a power driver’s seat. While it’s small on the outside, the Kia’s upright shape and tall roof afford generous interior headroom, giving adults a comfortable seat anywhere in the cabin.
Technology
Kia equips an 8-inch touchscreen and a digital gauge cluster as standard. The system offers Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Bluetooth, six speakers, USB ports, and more. More expensive trims get a 10.25-inch display, a 10-speaker Harman Kardon sound system, SiriusXM radio, wireless phone charging, and more USB ports.
Safety
The 2025 Kia Soul has yet to receive crash-test results for the model year, but it comes with a generous list of standard safety tech, including pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane-keep assist, automatic high beams, a rearview camera, rear-seat alert, driver-attention monitoring, and forward collision warning. Blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, and lane-change assist are available.
Pricing and Release Date
As of the time of this writing, the 2025 Kia Soul starts at $21,885 for the base LX trim. The top EX trim costs $26,965, and adding the Soulmate Edition pushes pricing to $26,965.