People place different levels of importance on various features when purchasing their next car, but safety should always be on the top of the list. The all-new Kia cee’d is no exception, especially with a Euro NCAP five-star rating as proof to that fact. Today on The Korean Car Blog, the last part of Kia’s Design Story thanks to Kia Buzz, we’re going to see what Kia engineers have to say when it comes to designing a car for performance as well as safety.

See also All-new Kia cee’d Design Story I – Exterior

See also All-new Kia cee’d Design Story II – Interior

See also Our review of the All-New Kia cee’d

New pedestrian protection technologies in all-new Kia cee’d

The engineers in charge of collision safety for the all-new cee’d participated in all aspects of the car’s development, including design, packaging, system design and analysis, because safety performance can be improved when all components are designed well. The cee’d achieved the target scores in the frontal and side impact tests thanks to the improved vehicle body structure, employment of high tensile strength steel plates, and standard six air bags.

The all-new cee’d passed the internal five star test thanks largely to the employment of an independent structure underneath the crash pad for shock absorption, the open cowl panel structure and the open space that was created in the lower part of the headlamp. Further improvements were made and then tested in order to ensure a satisfactory score in the Euro NCAP. Models produced in our overseas market were tested twice, first using a test vehicle manufactured from the Namyang R&D Division and when test passed, production model produced at the local plant was also tested.

Testing with Tight Deadlines

The all-new cee’d was tested several times using the early production models that were locally produced. Some of the parts had to be airmailed overnight by suppliers for the tests. Given the incredibly tight deadline, developers struggled to get things done in time, which led to some memorable moments.

Kia Engineers versus Mother Nature

“The safety test of the all-new cee’d was conducted by a certified assessment agency located in Spain. We travelled there directly after requesting that the Kia Slovakia plant ship the test cars to the assessment agency. However, the cars were not there when we arrived. We called the Slovakia plant to find out what had happened but they kept saying that the cars had been shipped out on time. After countless phone calls, we discovered that the vehicle delivery truck had been held up at the Italian border because of excessive snow in the Alps. There wasn’t anything that could be done to resolve the situation so we extended our stay in Spain. As soon as the vehicles arrived, we began the testing and we were able to complete all the tests just on time. In the end it all worked out, but I sure don’t want to go through that again anytime soon,” said a Kia engineer team spokesperson.

Even though the engineers involved were under a great deal of pressure to achieve the Euro NCAP five star rating, they all seemed to have enjoyed the journey. When the all-new cee’d officially received the coveted five-star rating, they were all greatly relieved because their hard work had finally paid off. The engineer spokesperson remarked, “We feel like all our hard work was rewarded. We will always be pressured to yield even better result as time goes on, but we will be able to tackle future challenges to get the five star rating with confidence.”