The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has awarded its best rating possible, Top Safety Pick Plus, to 2018 Kia Souls when equipped with high-intensity discharge headlights – offered on the Primo Lit package – and 2018 Kia Sportages built after June 2017 when equipped with newly acceptable-rated HID headlights that are standard on the SX Turbo trim.

"Kia's world-class lineup continues to earn quality, reliability and safety awards at an increasing rate and these IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus ratings for Soul and Sportage reflect Kia's continuous improvement and effort to improve all aspects of safety," said Orth Hedrick, vice president, product planning, KMA.

To qualify for TSP+, the IIHS testing parameters require a vehicle earn "good" ratings in five crashworthiness tests – small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side impact, roof strength and head restraints – as well as an "advanced" or "superior" rating for front crash prevention and an "acceptable" or "good" rating in headlight testing.

The Soul and Sportage join four other Kia vehicles that have received the TSP+ rating from IIHS: Forte, Optima, Cadenza and Sorento.