Kia to pull the plug on Stinger sports sedan in 2022: Report
South Korean auto manufacturer Kia Motors is likely to pull the plug on its Stinger sports sedan, owing to soft sales. The carmaker is witnessing dampened sales figures for the sports sedan for quite some time. A new generation Stinger on the other hand is still not confirmed. This could result in the automaker stopping production of the Stinger in 2022, as Korean Car Blog has reported.
Also Read : Five Kia cars India deserves in the times to come
according to the publication, Kia released a production plan on July 16. This revealed the OEM's manufac6turing strategy for the Korean plants. Kia Motors currently assembles the Stinger at its Sohati facility in Gwangmyeong.
The plant is reported to be retooled in order to mass-produce the automaker's future electrified vehicles. One of them will be the Kia Carnival premium MPV. The retooling is reportedly to commence early in 2022 and the OEM will stop production of Stinger at the beginning of the second quarter of 2022.
Also check these Cars
Interestingly, when the news of Kia Stinger being discontinued emerging from South Korea itself, the automaker has updated the car with a facelift in all markets across the world. This could indicate that Kia would go for low volume production of Stinger instead of completely ditching the model.
The pandemic induced economic crisis, global chip shortage have impacted the Kia Stinger sales. In 2021, Kia has sold only 147 Stinger in the US market, while European sales have been even worse.
Kia Stinger was one of the models that were thought to be coming to the Indian market. The success of Kia's first car in India Seltos fuelled the speculation. However, instead of bringing the Stinger sedan here, Kia remained focused on the utility vehicle segment for the Indian market. It brought Sonet and Carnival later.
