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2021 Kia Stinger: 2.5-litre turbo engine ruled out for Australia

The 224kW 2.5-litre four-pot not coming to Australia, due to slow four-cylinder Stinger sales and a lack of European availability.


The 2021 Kia Stinger's new 2.5-litre turbo four-cylinder won't make its way to Australia, thanks to local buyers' thirst for six-cylinder power.

Confirming what many already expected, the facelifted Stinger – introduced locally at the end of 2020 – will continue on with its choice of 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder or 3.3-litre twin-turbo V6 until the end of its lifecycle, with the high-output 2.5-litre turbo four-cylinder available overseas off the table for Australia.

Key to the decision is a lack of demand for four-cylinder Stinger models Down Under, with Kia Australia confirming over 90 per cent of local sales are of the range-topping GT variant, priced from $67,690 drive-away, and powered by a 274kW/510Nm twin-turbo V6.

Even if the Korean brand's local arm were to be interested in the engine for our market, it's understood that Kia Europe's decision – which includes the right-hand-drive UK market – not to offer the 2.5-litre mill means an Australian launch was taken off the table.

Standard-fit in South Korea and the US, the 2.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine develops 224kW and 422Nm – identical outputs to its other applications in luxury brand Genesis' G80 sedan and GV80 SUV.

Drive is sent to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Also offered in the US market (but not Australia) is a V6-powered Scorpion special edition (bottom), adding a rear spoiler, black front quarter-panel trim and mirror caps, dark exhaust tips, 19-inch black alloy wheels, and carbon-fibre interior inlays.

Kia Australia has confirmed there are "no plans" to bring the variant Down Under, however it didn't rule out an Australian launch later down the road – possibly as an Australia-specific special edition, in the same way parts from the US's Stinger GTS were used to create Australia's Carbon Edition in 2019.

Both 2.0-litre and 3.3-litre variants of the 2021 Kia Stinger are on sale now in Australia.

Click any of the images in this story to view the full gallery.


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Alex Misoyannis

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.

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