Kia News: Rumorpile: Kia Plans A New Sports Car

[William Maley]

The past few years have seen Kia show off some sports car concepts and many have been wondering if Kia would actually build one. Well according to Autocar, Kia will be doing just that.

 

Kia UK boss Paul Philpott revealed that the Korean automaker will launch a new sports car “by the end of the decade”. Not many details about this new car are known since it is still in the planning stages. What is known is that the new model will take ideas from the GT and Stinger GT4 concepts, and not be based on any other Kia model.

 

This comes at an interesting time since earlier in the week, Hyundai President & CEO Tony Whitehorn told Autocar that they don't have any plans to build a sports car.

 

“Not many people make money out of sports cars. The sports car market is shrinking dramatically, and even firms with heritage and a great product are struggling. Aside from the Audi TT and Mazda MX-5, it is a tough place to be,” said Whitehorn.

 

Source: Autocar

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[Drew Dowdell]

I wouldn't call the Audi TT a sales success anymore...

 

What he's saying is that the Genesis can't compete with the Mustang and Camaro... or even Challenger.

[aurora97]

In this day and age, they need to make a global case for manufacturing anything like this.  Especially if it will not (at this time) be built on any other current platform.

[Frisky Dingo]

While I welcome any newcomer to the sports car ring, I don't have high hopes for this thing. Neither dynamically, nor sales wise.

[El Kabong]

Here's how you make this car work:

-make it a global RWD platform

-make sure it can hold the 5.0 V8

-don't change the styling

-do some intense development work at the Nurburgring

It'll be a solid attention-getter, with an outside chance of greatness.