Kia to produce Soul crossover

Posted Mon Jan 8 2007 4:12 PM by Viknesh Vijayenthiran

South Korean car manufacturer Kia will be launching a new crossover vehicle based on a concept car that it displayed at the Detroit Auto Show last year. Reuters reports that the new vehicle will be called the Soul and it will enter production in 2008 as a 2009 model with the US being its primary market.

The Soul will be a small crossover style vehicle able to seat five occupants and will be powered by a 2.0L four-cylinder engine mated to a five-speed auto driving the front wheels. Design work was handled by Kia's design center in California but production will be strictly in Korea only.

Kia’s chief designer in the US Tom Kearns chose the name Soul for two main reasons: the concept was first showcased in Detroit, the home of Motown soul music, and secondly the company wanted to play on its Korean roots by copying the pronunciation of South Korea's capital, Seoul.

Reader Comments

Wed Jul 4 2007 8:03 PM
Jason Solomon says

this concept car/suv is just what this industry needs because of the cars/suv's that are out now they have no orignally and no concept of future ideas for the areodymanics for the small cars/suv's so this car/suv is just what i need and as a matter fact they call me the soul since 1989 inglwood high c/o 91

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