Kia Prepping New Sports Car by 2020; Hyundai Isn't

by Aaron Cole

Updated: December 31st, 2020 Published: August 6th, 2015

kia prepping new sports car by 2020 hyundai isn t

Kia’s chief in the U.K. says the automaker will have a new sports car by the end of the decade, Autocar is reporting. Hyundai probably won’t.

The two reports roughly detail a global business case the Korean is making for a small, lightweight sportscar that would be sold worldwide and further positioning for the brands.

According to Kia’s chief in the UK Paul Philpott, the car would be based on knowledge gleaned from the Stinger GT4 concept car.

According to the Autocar report, the architecture for Kia’s car would be all new and not based on any current Kia model.

In April, Kia America’s head of product planning Orth Hedrick told Drive that the automaker would be bringing a car similar to its GT concept into production soon. It could be based on the Genesis Coupe and sport a V-6 under the hood. If that’s true, the new sports car due by the end of the decade would likely be a smaller, two-door version similar to the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT-86.

At the other side of the building, Hyundai UK chief Tony Whitehorn admitted to Autocar that another sports car wouldn’t likely be in that brand’s future: “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.”

So it sounds like Hyundai will be firmly planted in its sub-brand N, which will launch around 2017, for the next few years.

#Gt #Gt4Stinger #GT86 #Hyundai #Kia #SportsCars #Subaru #Toyota

Aaron Cole

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4 of 16 comments

Noble713 on Aug 06, 2015

"Even the young, single guys that I knew over there with cars are driving Sonatas, in gray-scale colors, of course. " In early 2013 I was in the Osan/Suwon area south of Seoul and I saw plenty of young guys with Kia Forte Koups (no that's not a typo). Especially in red.

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- TMA1 on Aug 06, 2015
  
  I don't recall seeing any of those. A few Genesis Coupes in the Myeondong area, and a Mustang once near Yeouido island (probably an American soldier's).
  
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- Signal11 on Aug 06, 2015
  
  @TMA1 When were you in Korea? My place in Seoul overlooks the Han river across from Yeouido Island. Whenever I step outside for a smoke break, at any given moment, there's something interesting or distinctive driving by. Other day, I spotted a R34 Skyline GTR. Not to mention the wall to wall Minis Coopers. View from my balcony: http://i.imgur.com/EhjwxZr.jpg http://i.imgur.com/dCHSNF2.jpg overlooking what's basically the main arterial road of Seoul, so I'd say I have a pretty good idea of what's around since all I do is look at cars when I'm out there. Korea also probably has the highest per capita number of car customization shops I've ever seen, inclusive of Southern California. I probably saw more 100K+ cars, including Ferraris, Lambos, Audi R8s, etc on a daily basis when I lived in Hannam-dong, too. In fact, one of the worst things about that apartment was all the assholes revving their V8s and V10s coming down the tunnel after turning off the main strip of Itaewon every 30 minutes or so on the weekends.
  
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Spartan on Aug 08, 2015

Kia K4 or K6 I'm guessing? I'm not sure how big of a hit it would be in their home market. I hardly ever see any Genesis Coupes in South Korea and I've lived here for a few years now.

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