Kia pours art into Soul

We have to have Soul: that's the message from Kia Australia's Jonathan Fletcher as the company prepares to add a new hatchback to its line-up. Fletcher says the funky Soul will arrive here early next year, possibly in time for the Melbourne Motor Show.

However, specifications and prices are yet to be confirmed, Kia expects prices to start about $20,000.

Fletcher is unable to confirm engine options, but the little car is tipped to come with a 1.6-litre petrol engine and possibly a 2.0-litre petrol alternative.

A turbodiesel is also likely, though this will depend a lot on levering some price advantage from the South Korean factory.

“We'd like to have a couple of models on sale, but we won't know too much until the Paris Motor Show in October,” Fletcher says.

Kia describes the Soul, which will debut in Paris a month earlier, as a “segment buster” pitched at younger car buyers.

“It's probably a bit of a cliche, but it will appeal to funky younger buyers,” Fletcher says. “The car has excellent packaging and space efficiency.”

In size it is close to the Cerato, but with a clever upright cabin and plenty of rear passenger room and luggage space.

It is not expected to replace another Kia model and will be positioned around the Cerato and Rio.

Visually, the styling closely follows the concept car shown at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Kia subsequently displayed three concepts at the Geneva Motor Show in March — the Soul Burner, Soul Diva and Soul Searcher. They were created by Kia's European design team led by Gregory Guillaume, with input from Kia chief design officer Peter Schreyer.

The original Soul concept was designed jointly by Kia's Californian and South Korean design studios.

Kia North America chief designer Tom Kearns says the Soul name was chosen to inject life into the car's design.

“And the word Soul is a homophone for the home city of Kia Motors headquarters, in South Korea, so it is a fun play on words,” Kearns says.

Guillaume, who is looking forward to the Paris Motor Show, says because the Soul isn't a replacement for an existing vehicle and is destined to play a unique role within the Kia global line-up, it “can be a bit of a rebel”.

“The three Geneva concepts were appetisers for the new model introduction at Paris, and you can be certain the Soul will retain the core DNA of the three exciting concepts,” Guillaume says.