Basically, since the moment Kia announced its beautiful and brisk Stinger fastback would be discontinued a few years ago, we've wondered and hoped it might get a successor. We've seen cars with a clear Stinger influence, such as the EV6 GT, but nothing has truly filled the space the Stinger left. With the Meta Turismo concept, though, Kia has shown signs that it's interested in a real successor. Kia's Executive Vice President for Global Design has revealed that there's one major obstacle to bringing it to reality.Kia Money Is An Object That design executive's name is Karim Habib, and he said the following about the Meta Turismo to Autocar:"It's a pure EV and the price of doing a high-performance EV is what is slowing us down. Hopefully the upward movement of EVs keeps going."KiaHe didn't elaborate on the exact factors that would make the Meta Turismo expensive to bring to reality, but we can certainly guess. We already know that any EV is expensive to develop and produce, and if you're demanding huge amounts of power from battery packs, those are going to be costlier still as you upgrade the capacity, cooling, and more. Then, there's the fact that the more expensive and niche the product becomes, the harder it becomes to sell, especially with a name like Kia, which is best known for affordable, mass-market machines.KiaHabib also mentioned a hope that there will be more "openness" to something like the Meta Turismo. With the rest of his comment, we suspect he's alluding to EV demand in many markets not growing as quickly as anticipated. If the market for EVs that are meant for general buyers is struggling, what chance does something as specialized as the Meta Turismo have?In the U.S., there's another big issue related to cost: tariffs. The Trump administration has imposed large tariffs on imported cars, and that has already had impacts on automaker lineups, particularly Kia's. The automaker postponed the introduction of the EV4 electric sedan, which was going to be built in South Korea. The EV6 GT that we previously mentioned has also been on hiatus. While mainstream EV6 models are built in the U.S., the GT and its platform-mate, the Ioniq 5 N, are still built in South Korea and subject to tariffs. We also doubt Kia or any part of Hyundai Motor Group, would go out of its way to create a production line in America for a low-volume model like Meta Turismo. Kia Does Seem To Want It To Happen Habib's comments certainly indicate that Kia wants to make the Meta Turismo a reality, at least as soon as it can make it work financially (or well enough, anyway). At the concept's reveal in Milan, Italy, he also said plainly that the company is trying to bring it to production. His comments aren't the only indicator, though. The concept was shown alongside all the Kia concepts that led directly to production models, all with similar styling to said concepts, which struck us as a pretty clear indication that Kia wants the Meta Turismo to have the same sort of progression.While we have discussed many of the obstacles facing the Meta Turismo, there are some things that could help it, too. Kia wouldn't have to go it alone with this product. The Stinger shared its platform with basically every single Genesis model that launched after it, spreading out the costs. Both Genesis and Hyundai could surely create their own takes on this electric sports sedan and make it more feasible. Similarly, the Stinger didn't sell in enormous numbers, but Kia was still willing to bring it to market as a halo car to improve the brand's image. The Meta Turismo could do the same. The point is, Kia has options, and it has the desire, so we still have hope it will build the thing.
+3 others
![Kia, SUV, Kia's midsize EV SUV spotted in the US, but it's different [Image]](https://cdn.topcarnews.net/thumb/id/aHR0cHM6Ly9pMC53cC5jb20vZWxlY3Ry-ZWsuY28vd3AtY29udGVudC91cGxvYWRz-L3NpdGVzLzMvMjAyNi8wNC9LaWEtRVY1-LWVsZWN0cmljLVNVVi1VUy5qcGVnP3c9-MTUwMCZhbXA7cXVhbGl0eT04MiZhbXA7-c3RyaXA9YWxsJmFtcDtzc2w9MQ/17bc767018c5fc397deb2ba7f2e5204a.jpeg)
![Kia, SUV, Kia's midsize EV SUV spotted in the US, but it's different [Image]](https://cdn.topcarnews.net/thumb/id/aHR0cHM6Ly9pMC53cC5jb20vZWxlY3Ry-ZWsuY28vd3AtY29udGVudC91cGxvYWRz-L3NpdGVzLzMvMjAyNi8wMS9LaWEtRVY1-LXN0YW5kYXJkLXJhbmdlLWludGVyaW9y-LmpwZWc_c3RyaXA9aW5mbyZhbXA7dz0x-NDAwJmFtcDtzc2w9MQ/c8e775b4384c6091216b9283ccf722be.jpeg)
![Kia, SUV, Kia's midsize EV SUV spotted in the US, but it's different [Image]](https://cdn.topcarnews.net/thumb/id/aHR0cHM6Ly9pMC53cC5jb20vZWxlY3Ry-ZWsuY28vd3AtY29udGVudC91cGxvYWRz-L3NpdGVzLzMvMjAyNS8xMi9LaWEtRVY1-LWludGVyaW9yLUNhbmFkYS5qcGc_c3Ry-aXA9aW5mbyZhbXA7dz0xNjAwJmFtcDtz-c2w9MQ/8c6bfeb194a06c9ce3581d121dd6d349.jpg)
