DS 3 E-Tense vs Kia Soul EV

The DS 3 E-Tense is £300 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £152 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the DS 3 E-Tense comes out roughly £340 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 207 miles for the DS 3 E-Tense and 234 miles for the Kia Soul EV - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Kia Soul EV goes roughly 27 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 30 minutes in the DS 3 E-Tense and 47 in the Kia Soul EV, so the DS 3 E-Tense loses less time at each stop. So the Kia Soul EV stops less often while the DS 3 E-Tense stops for less time - pick on which you would rather do.

The two are within 2 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 600 mm of total clearance for the Kia Soul EV and about 598 mm of total clearance for the DS 3 E-Tense.