Kia Stinger "the best thing that could have happened"

It is far from Kia’s best-selling model, but the Kia Stinger sports sedan has been touted as “the best thing that could have happened” for the Korean manufacturer.

Barely 12 months on from the Stinger’s global rollout in markets including Australia, Kia Europe’s chief design officer, Gregory Guillaume, is convinced the four-door sedan has fulfilled its role within the Kia stable.

“From an aspirational point of view, definitely,” he said.

“For the first time in Paris I was in a Stinger in traffic this week and it was when all of the kids come out from school and they were all staring saying … ‘Look, a Kia!’. This is all brand building.

“I think it was the best thing Kia could do to build the Stinger. I pushed the whole thing along from day one, but it was definitely the right thing to do.”

The Stinger has garnered roughly 2000 sales in Australia in its first year on sale, and recently won contracts with the Queensland and West Australian police forces.

Guillaume’s sentiments will be well-received from driving enthusiasts in Australia, as proof the Korean manufacturer isn’t always strictly governed by bottom-line motivations.

In that line of thinking, sales targets are not the primary motivation behind Kia Australia’s decision not to import the hot new Proceed GT, but rather because it would have been prohibitively expensive.

Guillaume also moved to dispel theories that Kia won’t be dabbling in the performance space in the future. The head of Hyundai’s N Performance brand, Albert Biermann, confirmed in recent weeks that Kia would not get its own go-fast offshoot. Guillaume duly clarified that this week.

“We are in a company where, even if they do understand the potential value of this brand building object, we still have to be economically successful,” Guillaume argued.

The phrase “economically successful” usually extends to global sales, not specific market. The Stinger is a case in point.

“Thank God the marketing guys in Europe put a lot of money into the Stinger to communicate the car,” Guillaume said.

“Not hoping to have such an enormous return, but for the brand. It’s the best thing that could have happened,”

As for a next-generation Stinger? Guillaume was non-committal.

“Whether there is a replacement, it is too early to say,” Guillaume said.

“Time will tell. It’s still early as we only launched the car last year, but America needs to do volume; they need to sell the car.”