Say it ain’t so but evidently the Stinger’s gotta go. That’s the word we’re getting from a Korean report that claims an end of production for Kia’s sports sedan in April of 2023. Enthusiasts might not love the news but this has seemed inevitable for some time.
First reported by the Korean journal Auto Times, the last-produced Stinger will roll off the production line in April 2023 due to many factors. Kia has long been wary of committing to a second generation of the sports sedan. On top of that, the brand is very clearly making a strong transition toward electrification across its lineup. Meanwhile, the Stinger has experienced a sharp drop in sales.
The same report says that the Stinger sold just 1,499 units from January to September of this year in Korea. That’s down 39.1 percent year over year. According to Goodcarbadcar.net, Kia has managed to shift 6,643 of them in the U.S. so far in 2022. In fact, it’s only sold more than 1,000 in a month twice.
More: 2025 Kia Stinger EV: We Envision An All-Electric Replacement For The Korean Driver’s Car
That’s a huge drop-off for a car that’s routinely sold more than 13,000 units per year on average. It’s even sadder considering what a good value for money the Stinger is in the performance sedan segment. Of course, things don’t look so bleak all over the world. The Stinger sells exceptionally well in Australia for instance. At the same time, we’ve heard numerous reports of the Stinger’s demise for some time now.
Last July there were rumors that the Stinger would end production by the second quarter of this year. Clearly, that didn’t happen. Earlier this year, Kia’s design chief, Karim Habib, said that the EV6 GT electric crossover had the “spirit of Stinger” in it, possibly suggesting the ICE sedan’s demise.
Ultimately, we simply can’t know when the end of the Stinger will come but we’re sure it’ll be a sad day. It’s a very capable car and we like it very much. We’ve reached out to Kia to confirm this report and we’ll update this post with anything else we might learn.
