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Kia dealers are eagerly welcoming the Stonic B-segment SUV into showrooms, the car expected to account for 10% of the brand’s mix..
Priced from £16,295 to £20,495 and based on the latest Rio supermini, the Stonic is Kia’s first small SUV, competing against a constantly growing number of rivals including the Nissan Juke, Peugeot 2008, Renault Captur and Mazda CX-3.
Kia believes the B-SUV market will double in size by 2020, to a European total of 2 million vehicles per year with the Stonic providing 100,000 of these.
In the UK it is predicted to sell between 8,000 and 10,000 per year, though Kia’s Stonic product specialist Monica Forno admits that this figure could be conservative, based on the success of the larger Kia Sportage.
Forno also predicts that Stonic sales will be split 60%-40% between petrol and diesel, a reversal in a market that until recently was dominated by diesel vehicles.
She puts this down to the dramatic downturn in the diesel market as a result of negative publicity over vehicle emissions.
Diesel sales slid 22% in September, the market share of 40% comparing to 46.4% in September 2016.
“The market has completely swung,” Forno tells Motor Trader. “To be honest the Stonic sales split could prove to be higher than 60-40 – within a year it could be as much as 80-20. We are monitoring the market very closely.”
In the UK the Stonic is on sale with two petrol engines – a 1.4-litre with 99hp and a 1.0-litre direct-injection turbo unit of 120hp. A 1.6-litre 110hp diesel completes the line-up.
Just two trim levels are on offer, ‘2’ and ‘First Edition’ – the latter not available with the entry-level 1.4 petrol engine.
All versions include an extensive connectivity package with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone compatibility while on First Edition models autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning and automatic switching between high and low headlight beams are all be part of the standard safety package – these are available as an optional Advanced Driving Assistance Pack (ADAP) on 2 models.
Pricing:
| Model | Price |
| Stonic 2 1.4 ISG | £16,295 |
| Stonic 2 1.0 T-GDi ISG | £16,995 |
| Stonic 2 1.6 CRDi ISG | £17,795 |
| Stonic First Edition 1.0 T-GDi ISG | £19,695 |
| Stonic First Edition 1.6 CRDi ISG | £20,495 |
Andrew Charman
