Kia unveiled its Soul concept car at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show. Then at this year’s Detroit show they confirmed that the Soul was definitely headed to production with an expected arrival date of late 2008 as a 2009 model.

With boxy styling, somewhat similar to the Scion xB, the Soul is built to appeal to younger buyers with a muscular look on the outside and a high-end audio system on the inside. Engine will be a 2.0 liter four-cylinder gasoline engine mated to a 5-speed automatic transmission with manual shift capability.

These spy photos shows a Soul prototype of the production model as it is fueled up in preparation for hot weather testing in the U.S. southwest.