Kia partners with Lotus for suspension tuning
Kia Motors is working with Lotus to tune the suspension setup of its future models, starting with the Kia Soul.
- North American Car, Truck and SUV of the Year (NACTOY) Awards Juror
If there's one thing that Lotus Cars does well, it is building fantastically balanced cars. What many don't realize is that Lotus also works behind the scenes for many larger automakers (Chrysler, GM, Toyota, and Ford, to name a few) designing and tuning some of the most excellent power plants and chassis in the business. Kia Motors seems to have taken notice, because the Korean automaker is working with Lotus to tune the suspension setup of its future models, starting with the Kia Soul.
Lotus will be working to tune the Kias' suspensions specifically for British roads. According to an interview in the U.K. magazine CAR, "The changes are designed to stop harshness getting into the cabin, while giving improved steering feel on high-frequency undulations. They also give the car more poise, and prevent the car using the whole suspension range over bumps."
It looks like Kia wants to step up the quality of its model lineup, much in the same way its parent company, Hyundai, recently has. Hopefully, some of that Lotus finesse will trickle down to U.S.-bound Kias as new models are made available.