Kia has confirmed its all-new segment-busting car will retain the name and spirit of the concept from which it evolved – Soul. First seen as the Soul concept car at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, a trio of concept developments then appeared at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show which gave a strong indication to the many characters the new Kia could take on. Mr Hyoung-Keun Lee, Senior Executive Vice President and COO, International Business Division, KiaMotors Corporation, said: “Reaction from the media and public to the three Soul concept cars seenat the Geneva Show in March and shown subsequently at other international events, has been overwhelmingly positive.

“This reaction, plus the fact that both physically and emotionally, the Soul concept cars are so closely related to the new Kia Soul production car, made it a natural choice to retain this evocative name.

”The three Geneva concept cars – Soul Burner, Soul Diva and Soul Searcher – were created by Kia’s European design team led by Gregory Guillaume, with input from Kia’s Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer. The original Soul concept was designed jointly by Kia’s Californian and Korean designstudios.

Looking to the 2008 Paris Motor Show, Gregory Guillaume said: “Because the new Kia Soul is not areplacement for an existing vehicle and is destined to play a unique role within the Kia globalline-up, it can be a bit of a rebel. The trio of Geneva concepts were ‘appetisers’ for the new model introduction at Paris, and you can be certain that the new Kia Soul model will retain thecore DNA of the three exciting concepts.”