Albert Biermann, the performance development boss for Hyundai and Kia, has confirmed plans to roll out a variety of hotter GT derivatives of various existing Kia models.
Biermann moved to the Korean group from the BMW M Division in early 2015.
And now a report out of the United Kingdom confirms his plans to build performance derivatives of many of Kia’s mainstream vehicles. Of course, Kia has done this before, with the ProCeed GT (pictured above) offered in Europe, although Biermann revealed that “if we were to engineer it now it would have some more spice to it”.
He also pointed out during an interview with Autocar that a “GT [derivative] is not right for all Kia models”.
The Optima GT will likely be the first in the new performance range, with Autocar speculating that a Rio GT could follow to take the fight to the Ford Fiesta ST.
The British publication also asked Biermann whether the Sportage would receive the GT treatment.
“A GT version [of the Sportage] would be a very interesting thing to do and I think we cannot go too wrong on that, but we need to make the case for it,” he said.
While Biermann revealed that the new GT models wouldn’t be quite as focussed as the upcoming Hyundai N products, he added that the goal was to make them “drive as well as they look”.
“Kia is meant to be more emotional than Hyundai and we have to make cars that reflect that when you drive them,” Biermann told Autocar.
“Hyundai is the quieter brand, that’s why the N-Division was created, because the brand cannot stretch as far. Kia can stretch much further, and I think we will be able to do more aggressive cars,” he added.
