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Kia Soul performance model? Meet the Track'ster concept
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DETROIT -- The Kia Soul is among this country's 25 hottest brands.
So it's no surprise that the Korean automaker wants to share its Soul with a wider range of buyers.
As it looks at ways to slice and dice the Soul nameplate, Kia is thinking about a potential performance model.
Performance?
Although "Kia performance model" may sound like an oxymoron, don't underestimate Kia. After all, the automaker sold 485,492 vehicles last year in the United States, a 36 percent increase in a market that rose 10 percent. Kia is on a roll.
Next week Kia will unveil the Track'ster concept, a creation of the automaker's California design team. The Track'ster is the team's vision of how performance and the tall, boxy Soul can be intertwined. Two doors have been sliced off and the wheelbase has been stretched several inches to create a three-door coupe. No other details have been revealed. The Track'ster will be unveiled Wednesday, Feb. 8, at the Chicago Auto Show.
"This is not just some wild concept that they just dreamed up. The actual underpinnings are Soul," Kia spokesman James Hope says. "The idea behind it was, create a vehicle that would convey the ultimate performance Soul could be."
It is clear why Kia is thinking of expanding the Soul line. Simply, Soul sales are red hot -- last year 102,267 Souls were sold in the United States. The car carries a $14,650 base sticker price, including transportation, and is targeted at budget buyers and young families wanting a comfortable interior, upmarket sounding audio systems, robust engine power and good fuel economy.
Credit a creative campaign that features hamsters wearing sunglasses. They are either dancing or riding in a Soul, as their heads sway from side to side to the beat of the music. These are hamsters with attitude, apparently because of what they perceive as a cool-looking vehicle, the Soul.
Three vehicles -- the Soul, Chevrolet Cruze and Jeep Wrangler -- are among 25 of America's hottest nameplates that "sizzle from strong sales, big buzz, savvy marketing," according to Advertising Age, an affiliate of Automotive News.
The spots featuring the hamsters were created by the David & Goliath agency in Los Angeles and awarded Automotive Ad of the Year by Nielsen Automotive Advertising.
Will the Track'ster be produced? Today, there are no plans.
But Hope adds: "Kia is a pretty nimble company and if it looks like there was a pretty good business case around a car like this, then who knows?"
