After the recent news that was shared during the LA Autoshow, the Kia Stinger’s future is making headlines once again and we want to clarify things a little.
As some of you, our readers, know very well we were the first site who commented about the fate of the Kia Stinger and who said it will be axed after the 2nd quarter of 2022.
One thing first, a big disclaimer, we love the Kia Stinger and to discover that it will be discontinued made us all very sad. After the big buzz of the K5, RIP Optima, the Stinger was the second big buzz Kia needed to upscale the brand.
Some of you have probably read the two different reports from Motor1.com and CarBuzz who interviewed or quoted some words from Design Chief, Karim Habib and VP Marketing at Kia America, Russell Wager.
While Mr. Habib implied that the EV6 indirectly replaces the Stinger, Mr. Wager said “that won’t be happening” to the question if the Stinger will be axed. You need to know that both of these executives are doing their job answering the question the best they can knowing the Kia Stinger still, as of today, is on production and on sale. If they admitted that it will be axed, sales could drop. Similarly, Kia America never directly said that K900 or Cadenza would be discontinued until they were forced to admit it by journalists.
You can be the judge of the most recent response but one thing we want to clarify is, what we reported about the production of the Kia Stinger, based on many credible reports and comments we have received from numerous inside sources (many of them we need to keep as secret), will end in Q2 2022 and from that point Sohari plant will be transformed to focus on electrified vehicles only. This, unfortunately, is the truth. We can all agree that the sales of the Stinger will still live on until stock run out, and that might last until the end of 2022 or possibly into 2023, likely as a 2023 model year car.
One thing we were told is that it is possible the name Stinger might live on through the EV line-up because Kia recognizes the model (and its name) did really well for their marketing and raised expectations for the brand, but we don’t know for certainty if the name will continue, or die along with the car.
What do you think about the fate of the Kia Stinger? Is it too soon sto discontinue the Kia Stinger? Did EV6 kill the Stinger? Do you think Kia needs to keep the Stinger name?
