People Still Want Cars and Minivans, Kia Exec Says, but There's Some Things Kia Just Won't Do

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

As market share swings rapidly towards SUVs and crossovers, automakers have had to sit down with their accountants and crystal ball to map out a product strategy for the future. The questions swirling in an executive’s mind are easy to imagine: Are cars worth it? Is it still useful having a minivan in the lineup? Does the future call for crossovers, not cars, in every size class?

Fiat Chrysler’s American divisions have already pulled out of the compact and midsize car market, and forget about the possibility of a subcompact. Minivans? Nah. Ford Motor Company’s non-truck lineup looks to be headed down a similar road. At Kia, however, there’s not one or two, but six passenger cars on offer, spanning the subcompact to full-size premium segments. Like minivans? They’ve got ’em, too.

Is this a smart strategy for a brand that saw its sales fall 8.9 percent in the U.S. last year? Sure, says Kia’s vice president of product planning — it means certain buyers aren’t being forgotten. Not everyone wants a crossover. One thing Kia won’t do, however, is follow its corporate sibling Hyundai down certain product paths.

Speaking to Wards Auto, Kia Motors America’s Orth Hedrick believes cars are still worth the automaker’s time. A next-generation Forte compact sedan launches this year, and the old model actually saw its sales rise by 13.8 percent in 2017, even as the segment shrunk 2.2 percent as a whole.

“It’s still a 2 million(-unit) market,” Hedrick said, referring to the compact cars. Better fuel economy, when combined with decent interior room, can sway buyers away from a pricier crossover, he claims. The new Forte is expected to top the previous model’s fuel economy by 3 mpg, with greater interior room.

“One thing we always remind (people of is), when you want to move to a CUV there’s a premium involved,” Hedrick said of the market’s shift towards utility vehicles. “To get the same price point (of a compact car) you have to (buy a small CUV), and I think for a lot of folks going all the way down to an HR-V or a Trax or Soul doesn’t work for them.”

The upper ranks of the Kia car hierarchy holds two very dissimilar models: the rear-drive Stinger sport sedan, which bowed for 2018, and the front-drive Cadenza. According to Hedrick, the first model will not gain additional variants, nor will Kia turn it into a sub-brand. “If it takes off, we prefer to keep the focus on the Kia brand,” he said.

As for the relatively low-volume Cadenza, last year’s sales topped those of 2016, but were still down (though not drastically) from years prior. “There’s spots in the market that still want a big easy-driving, front-drive sedan, or easy-riding (sedan),” Hedrick explained. “That architecture of being upright and having a larger backseat appeals to a segment of the buyers we still want to serve.”

But what about the Sedona minivan, which lost 46.2 percent of its volume last year? There’s still some Baby Boomers who want it, Hedrick claims, so for now it stays.

Overseas, Kia sells a B-segment crossover called the Stonic. Not so in the U.S., where Hyundai is currently rolling out its Kona subcompact crossover. Hyundai won’t stop there, either, with an A-segment CUV reportedly on the way. That’s not something Kia wants.

“We have a lot of coverage in the marketplace now, and that is not a priority at this point,” said Hedrick. “I think we would see more opportunity in C-segment (CUVs) then we would in A- or B-(segment models).”

You aren’t likely to see a pickup truck in Kia’s future, either. Despite Hyundai pressing the “go” button on oneand possibly two — pickups, its sister brand will not follow. “It’s a fierce battle. You have to go into it eyes wide open,” Hedrick said of the wildly competitive, U.S.-dominated field.

There you have it — a defence of the car, but not by an automaker associated with Detroit, tail fins, or the heady postwar era. (Granted, the company’s verdict could easily change by the end of the year.) Now, if Kia could just save the manuals, please and thanks.

[Images: Bozi Tatarevic/TTAC, Kia Motors]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • YouFredo YouFredo on Feb 21, 2018

    Speaking as a former Rondo owner, there is something missing here. Bring it back!!!!

  • Akear Akear on Mar 01, 2018

    It did not take the Koreans long to surpass Detroit in producing quality cars. FCA and Ford's future look to be nothing more than selling dull square-looking SUVs and Trucks. I wish America could have an interesting car company like Kia. I am so tried of under engineered and awkward trucks and SUVs we are getting both from Ford and FCA. At least GM is trying to produce a few interesting cars. What a disgrace!!!!!!

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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