Kia to send popemobile Soul to Vatican

SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's No. 2 automaker, said Thursday that it has decided to donate its Soul boxy compact car to the Vatican in appreciation of Pope Francis choosing it as his popemobile.

The Soul was used by Pope Francis during his five-day visit to South Korea that began on Aug. 14.

"We heard from the organizing committee of the papal visit that the Vatican was highly pleased with the Soul," said an official at Kia Motors. "And there were talks over the donation (of the car) to the Vatican."

The pope, the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to visit South Korea in 25 years, had said that he wanted the "smallest" South Korean-made car possible and declined large luxury vehicles that can be properly bullet proofed.

After he was seen traveling city to city in the Soul, the car's sales unexpectedly increased, according to Kia.

The daily average number of orders received for the second-generation Soul for the nine days since Aug. 11 came to 32.5 units, up 62.5 percent from the previous average of 20 cars for all of July, according to Kia officials.

sam@yna.co.kr
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