Kia Soul awarded 5-Star Euro NCAP safety rating
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. 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.
