The Kia Soul EV has become the latest model from the Korean brand to earn important certification for its outstanding whole-life environmental credentials.
TÜV Nord, an independent technical inspection organisation, has certified the new Kia Soul EV according to the ISO 14040 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) standard. LCA examines the environmental impact of both the car and the overall manufacturing process throughout its whole life, taking into account factors such as choice of materials, tailpipe emissions and recycling.
Comparing the Soul EV to its diesel counterpart currently on sale in Europe, the zero-emissions electric vehicle scored particularly strongly for ‘Global Warming Potential’, emitting 39.7 per cent fewer greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, over the whole life of the vehicle. The Soul EV also scored an improvement in ‘Photochemical Oxidant Creation Potential’, limiting the amount of smog created by the vehicle’s manufacturing process and by the vehicle itself throughout its life.
Kia’s first TÜV Nord certification was earned in 2008 with the first-generation cee’d, and this year’s certifications bring the total number of Kia models with ISO 14040 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) certification to 11.
The product development process employed by Kia aims to minimise the environmental footprint of Kia’s manufacturing operations, and all cars developed by the brand since 2006 have been built with the LCA in mind.
This more environmentally-friendly development process covers five major steps:
– Detailed physical analysis of the product during the development process to verify recyclability
– Streamlining of the manufacturing process through improvements in use of materials and simplification of parts design
– Use of eco-friendly materials
– Utilisation of 3D drawings at the design stage to verify recyclability
– Application of a check-sheet to evaluate the vehicle’s environmental credentials throughout its lifecycle
The Soul EV produced for both Korean and European markets has been ISO 14040-certified, with models for the North American market due to follow in August.
Earlier this year, Kia announced its intention to achieve ISO 50001 certification across all its global production facilities which will result in tighter management of energy consumption. ISO 50001 is an international standard on corporate energy conservation planning and implementation. Kia’s Gwangju plant has been ISO 50001-certified since 2012, with other facilities due to follow.
