Kia undecided on Supercars

Kia Australia has yet to make any decision regarding participation in the Supercars series, Chief Operating Officer Damien Meredith told MOTOR today.

While confirming discussions with a number of teams and Supercars itself have taken place and are ongoing, Meredith said “they’ve all come to us [and] we say the same thing to all of them: ‘We haven’t made a decision yet’.”

Kia’s new Stinger GT, rendered here in Supercar form by SS Media, is powered by a 3.3-litre twin-turbo V6, making it eligible for Supercar’s new Gen2 regulations, due to be introduced in 2018.

Meredith explained that while Kia is open to the idea, there are hurdles to overcome and it is out of the question in the short term: “If we could have a presence in racing, it may be of benefit to us if Stinger was competitive, [but] we’ve never raced before [and] it’s really, really expensive. If we got involved in racing, it would not be until 2020.”

This is not to say a Kia couldn’t appear on the grid earlier than this, however, as Meredith says Kia “wouldn’t care” if a team wished to run a Stinger of its own accord, in a similar manner to the way Erebus campaigned privately-funded Mercedes-AMG E63s between 2013-2015.

The Supercars grid will be a very different place in 2018, with Ford teams Prodrive Racing Australia and DJR Penske rumoured to be switching to Mustangs and Holden debuting the all-new imported Commodore, powered by a 3.6-litre turbocharged V6.

Nissan has also committed to the 2018 season, however whether it will continue with the Altima remains to be seen as the model was recently withdrawn from the Australian market.