Kia Won't Offer An Estate Version Of The Optima
At the Geneva Motor Show, Kia stole the show with their SPORTSPACE Concept, a beautiful station wagon which made us hope that a future production version of the Optima would become reality.
It seems that in the end it was nothing more than a foolish dream, and Kia’s most seductive concept will not be produced. Kia's Vice-President of Product Planning, Orth Hedrick, announced that the Estate Optima would not be commercially viable.
If you are looking for something to blame, the Sorento is a good bet. According to Kia, people who would go for an Optima wagon would also be in the market for a crossover, which would cannibalize sales.
Cost would also be an issue; re-tooling the West Point, GA factory would be pretty expensive, and Kia doesn’t think that they could sell enough cars to justify it. And while Mr. Hedrick thinks that offering an estate Optima would increase their brand’s image in Europe, it wouldn’t be worth it.
The Kia SPORTSPACE will instead slowly fade away into the realm of forgotten concepts.
