Kia Motors to drop Optima from its lineup in Australia

KUALA LUMPUR: Kia Motors may drop its popular D-segment sedan, the Optima in Australia. The market share for the sedan segment as a whole is decreasing as the customers are getting more inclined towards SUVs and Crossovers. Plus, the trend of Electric Vehicles is catching up as well.

Another reason behind dropping the Optima could be the popularity of premium Stinger and new Ceratop. Optima is losing its grip and managed to sell only 54 units during the past two months.

Moreover, the Kia Soul’s petrol version will be dropped to bring in an electric version. The Stinger V6 GT version may continue its run, but the four-cylinder variant will become unavailable soon.

Kia Motors Australia will bring a small SUV based on the Hyundai Kona. This segment is growing rapidly, which might result in getting more models axed from other segments in the coming years.

However, Kia Malaysia doesn’t seem to have any plan of dropping the Optima from its lineup. It launched the 2019 Kia Optima GT facelift in Malaysia with a price tag of RM 169,888 in the last year itself. The Optima GT is available many color options including - Aurora Black, Platinum Graphite, Silky Silver, Gravity Blue, and Snow White Pearl. It is equipped with a 2.0-litre T-GDI turbocharged petrol mill which can make a maximum of 245 PS of power and 353 Nm of peak torque. It is the six-speed automatic transmission that sends the power to the wheels.