There’s no deny that as awesome as it is, the Kia Stinger never lived up to sales expectations. As a fighter against cars like the BMW 4 Series and Audi S5, and Mercedes C-Class, it had big shoes to fill, but one could argue that Kia has yet to shed that econobox aura. At least not enough for it to have a true sports sedan – and the Kia Stinger is undoubtedly that – actually be successful against well-established names with big enthusiast followings. As the automotive industry has shifted, Kia’s strategy has too, and that means that the Stinger can’t live on as it is, nor will there be a direct successor, but that doesn’t mean the Stinger won’t live on.

The Kia Stinger may not have been a big success, but it’s not for lack of trying. At one point, Kia even entered the exclusivity ring with the Stinger GTS. The facelift in 2022 model year did the Stinger a lot of justice, but unfortunately it just isn’t enough to put down the previous rumors that the Stinger is, in fact, in trouble. We’ve known for more than a year that the Kia Stinger would have to evolve drastically if there ever was going to be a second generation, but there simply won’t be, and it’s finally been confirmed by none other than Kia design chief, Karim Habib, in an interview with Autocar.

In the interview, Habib suggested that the current Kia Stinger probably won’t live much longer, and beyond that it’s become increasingly unlikely that there will be a second-generation. But the new EV6 could be a spiritual successor, at least when the EV6 GT arrives, and that just might be the drastic evolution we mentioned earlier.

Habib did admit that the Stinger helped to reshape the company’s values and perspective of not only what the company can do but what it can be. “Stinger has been a transformational car and opened a whole new perspective as to what Kia can be, sporty and a prevision driving tool EV6 is now doing something similar.” All in all, the Kia could cease production of the Stinger as early as next spring with current inventory maybe lasting through the end of 2022 and into the early months of 2023 at most. In its current form, the stinger can be had with either a 2.5-liter, turbocharged, four-cylinder or a 3.3-liter twin-turbo V6. The former is good for 300 horsepower and 311 pound-feet of torque while the latter will get you 368 horsepower and 376 pound-feet of torque.

With that said, there may be a short period where Kia doesn’t sell a Stinger, or anything really like it. The EV6 GT won’t arrive in the United States until the end of 2022 at the earliest. We won’t even receive details about it until sometime in late-2022. If you want to snag a stinger now, you’ll be asked to pay anything between $36,090 for the base model or as much as $51,290 for the range-topping GT2 trim level.

2022 Kia Stinger specifications

Type

2.5L Turbo 4-Cylinder G4KIII FR engine

3.3L Twin Turbo V6 Lambda II engine

Displacement (cc)

2,497 cc

3,342 cc

Bore x stroke (mm)

88.5 mm x 101.5 mm

92.0 mm x 83.8 mm

Compression ratio

10.5:1

10.0:1

Horsepower

300 hp @ 5,800 rpm

368 hp @ 6,000 rpm

Torque

311 lb.-ft. @ 1,650-4,000 rpm

376 lb.-ft. @ 1,300-4,500 rpm