When Kia first announced the Stinger GT, most couldn't believe that the affordable Korean brand was venturing into the sports sedan segment with a whopping all-wheel drive, twin-turbo V6.
It seems that everyone still holds that view, and is unsure about purchasing the hefty sedan, judging by Kia's apprehensive outlook on giving it a second generation.
When speaking to Car Sales, Kia's chief designer Germany, Gregory Guillaume was unsure about the future of the Stinger, "At the moment I’m not sure it’s doing as good as we hoped."
"We never really expected to do massive volumes. It was a halo car. We did want to be successful at least in America, the market where we thought there is a chance that it works," he said.
He believes that the brand still has to be patient with the Stinger, considering that the majority of the public don't know what to expect from the four-door performance heavyweight.
If there is a future for it, like other Kia models, electrification might be the key to keeping it afloat. We have seen this hybrid performance theme in recent announcements from both BMW and Mercedes-Benz AMG in reference to their sports sedans.
"As you know there’s a lot going on with electrification, so it could be that Stinger becomes something else. I don’t know. We’re not there yet. We’ve got a bit of time," Guillaume added.
According to Car Sales stats, Australian Stinger sales are sitting at around half of what was forecasted, and the numbers out of America don't look much better. Just over 9,400 Stingers were sold between January and August in 2019, compared to 11,624 in the same time period in 2018.
The future doesn't look great for Kia's V8-rivalling performance sedan, but let's hope it gets a second generation, and a chance to prove itself with electrification.
Click here to view all Kia Stinger GTs on Driven.