The Kia SPORTSPACE will not become a Optima estate

The SPORTSPACE prototype that Kia unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show made a significant impression on the public and the specialist press. The South Korean brand had previously experimented with rather eye-catching design exercises, but on very few occasions had they been based on an estate body.

The SPORTSPACE, which previewed the design of the new generation of the Optima, presented weeks later at the New York Auto Show, invited speculation that Kia was considering a return to that category in the D-segment. Kia’s own design chief for Europe, Gregory Guillaume, described it as plausible. However, that possibility has been officially ruled out at the American show.

Orth Hendricks, product planning manager at Kia’s North American subsidiary, denied that the SPORTSPACE will become an estate version of the new Optima, as he told the Canadian specialist website AutoGuide. Hendricks cited the relationship between the cost of turning the prototype into a production vehicle and the potential sales it would generate.

Kia acknowledges that an estate Optima would have its audience, more so in Europe than in North America as Hendricks pointed out, and for some it would even be an alternative to the Sorento. However, its market size would be too small for production to be profitable.

§0’s calculations indicate that the number of potential customers does not justify creating such a body style. It is a conclusion that is fairly easy to reach today, considering that in Europe, mainstream manufacturers are abandoning the D-segment. Both the saloons and the estates that belonged to that class have given way to crossovers, which are far more in demand not only in Europe but on a global scale.

Via | AutoGuide