The all-new Kia Soul urban crossover has been awarded a 5-Star safety rating (the maximum score) in the latest Euro NCAP crash test results published today (Wednesday). The Soul’s safety ratings* – with scores of 87% for Adult Occupant Protection, 86% for Child Protection and 86% for Safety Assist equipment – place the Kia among the safest B-Segment sized family cars.

“The latest Euro NCAP result is a major landmark achievement for Kia. This is a superb follow-up to the 5-Star Euro NCAP rating achieved by the Kia cee’d in 2007**. Soul was designed and engineered to meet or surpass the expectations of European, North American and global consumers in every respect – including safety,” commented Mr Panu Vainamo, General Manager Marketing, Kia Motors Europe.

“Kia’s safety engineers developed the new Soul to provide the highest levels of occupant protection in real-world accident scenarios. Our engineers predicted that Soul would achieve a 5-Star rating in both Euro NCAP and the very different NHTSA tests in the USA. This Euro NCAP result confirms the major advances made by Kia with its latest family car,” added Mr Vainamo.

“The combination of this new model’s many talents, plus the 5-Star safety rating and the unique Kia 5-Year warranty (in Europe), will make the Soul even more attractive to consumers, offering real peace-of-mind and low ownership costs,” concluded Vainamo.

During the development of Soul, Kia engineers initially concentrated on ensuring that the car had high levels of ‘active safety’ with good visibility, responsive and agile handling, and powerful braking, to enable Kia drivers to avoid accidents and other everyday motoring hazards.

Every Soul model supplied in Western Europe features an Electronic Stability Programme as standard. Fully automatic, ESP is increasingly a ‘proven technology’ in accident avoidance, countering excess oversteer and understeer so the car follows the course intended by the driver. Soul buyers in other European markets can specify ESP as a factory-fitted option. This system comes together with TCS (all-speed Traction Control System) and BAS (emergency Brake Assistance System).

If a collision is unavoidable, new Kia Soul is engineered to safeguard the occupants with a range of ‘passive safety’ measures as standard – starting with a robust all-steel bodyshell. State-of-the-art computer-aided design was employed by Kia engineers, together with ‘closed loop’ engineering techniques, to create the Soul five-door bodyshell structure. Featuring high-tensile strength steel in key areas, the bodyshell is designed to offer occupants good protection in front, side, rear and roll-over accidents.

Every Soul sold in Europe is equipped as standard with dual front airbags, front side and full-length curtain airbags (to protect the occupants in both seat rows), height-adjustable front seatbelts with pretensioners and belt load-limiters, plus three 3-point seat belts for rear seat occupants. In addition, all Soul models can be ordered with optional ‘active’ front seat head restraints.

Editors’ Notes

Kia cee’d in Europe
Designed, engineered and manufactured in Europe, for sale exclusively in Europe, the Kia cee’d is a genuine contender for top class honours in the C-segment. The cee’d was the first Kia vehicle to achieve a 5-Star EuroNCAP crash safety rating and since launch, Kia has sold more than 230,000 examples across Western Europe.

Kia Motors Europe
Kia Motors Europe is the European sales, marketing, and service arm of Kia Motors Corporation. With its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, it covers 32 markets in Europe.

About Kia Motors Corporation
Kia Motors Corporation (www.kia.com) – a maker of quality vehicles for the young-at-heart – was founded in 1944 and is Korea’s oldest manufacturer of motor vehicles. As part of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, Kia aims to become one of the world’s premier automotive brands. More than 1.4 million vehicles a year are produced at 13 manufacturing and assembly operations in nine coun-tries. These vehicles are sold and serviced through a network of distributors and dealers covering 172 countries.
Kia today has more than 40,000 employees and annual revenues of almost US$17 billion.
It is the major sponsor of the Australian Tennis Open.
Kia is also an official automotive partner of FIFA – the governing body of the FIFA World Cup – as well as a EUROTOP partner of UEFA.
Kia Motors Corporation’s brand slogan – ‘The Power to Surprise’ – represents the company’s global commitment to surpassing customer expectations through continuous automotive innovation.

Press Contact
Ilona Tzudnowski
PR Manager Europe
Tel +49 69 850 928 357
E-mail i.tzudnowski@kia-europe.com

Kia Motors Europe GmbH
Theodor-Heuss-Allee 11, 60486 Frankfurt, Germany.
Tel +49 69 850 928 352
Fax +49 69 850 928 399