Kia Soul Gets 5 Star EuroNCAP Rating

The new Korean urban crossover sourced from Kia managed to receive a 5 star rating after being subjected to EuroNCAP testing procedures. Overall, the Soul scored 87 percent in Adult Occupant Protection, 86 percent for Child Protection and 86 percent for Safety Assist equipment and only 39 percent for Pedestrian protection.

“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,” Panu Vainamo, Kia Motors Europe marketing manager said upon announcing the results.

EuroNCAP found that the passenger compartment remained stable in the frontal impact, but the dashboard presented a risk of injury to the knees and femurs of the driver and passenger. As for pedestrian protection, EuroNCAP found the front edge of the bonnet offered poor protection to pedestrians' legs.

In Europe, Kia Soul comes equipped, as standard, with dual front airbags, front side and full-length curtain airbags, height-adjustable front seatbelts with pretensioners and belt load-limiters and three 3-point seat belts for rear seat occupants. Also, ESP comes as standard, but only for countries in Western Europe. For the others, it is up to the customers to order the ESP as a factory-fitted option.

“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,” Vainamo added.