We're thinking of Shakespeare in this heartfelt tribute video for the Kia Stinger. After all, Kia could've chosen to keep its twin-turbocharged sports sedan around longer, perhaps infusing it with serious plug-in hybrid power for a new generation. But that's not happening, so yeah, parting is such sweet sorrow.
Heck, even the EV6 sheds a tear for the Stinger. Once considered an indirect replacement for the sporty five-door, this video makes it abundantly clear that the EV6 will supplant the Stinger very directly, inheriting its performance legacy at Kia. To honor that legacy, we're treated to GT versions of the Stinger and EV6 enjoying one last dance on a race track, partaking in donuts, tandem drifting, acceleration runs, you know the drill.
Of course, one is accomplishing these feats in a much quieter fashion. The all-electric EV6 offers a single 225-horsepower motor in base trim, which expands to dual motors for 320 hp in mid-level models. The range-topping EV6 GT pulls out all the stops, upping the ante to 576 combined hp from its dual motors. It's considerably more powerful than the hottest Stinger GT with 368 hp – a point addressed early in this video through a "conversation" between Kia's incoming and outgoing war horses.
Debuting for the 2018 model year, the Stinger captured significant attention as a surprisingly stout performance model from the South Korean brand. Its twin-turbocharged 3.3-liter V6 was paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive, giving the Stinger impressive acceleration times of under 5 seconds to 60 mph. Beyond that, the mid-sizer was also available in rear-wheel drive, and it was often praised for its handling prowess. Mentions of the Stinger in sentences with the likes of BMW and Audi were not uncommon.
2023 marks the end of the Stinger, and the aptly named Tribute Edition is the grand finale. Identified on the outside with an infusion of black trim, it also gains a special interior with brown leather and special Tribute Edition badging, identifying each car among a production run of just 1,000. Meanwhile, the EV6 GT is available now with a starting price of $62,925.
