The Stinger never sold in the numbers Kia had hoped for, but it built something more valuable than volume: a small, loyal audience that still wants the brand to try again. The company is keen to make another sports sedan in the vein of the Stinger, only this one will run on electrons and could trace its bones to the recent Vision Meta Turismo concept.

The EV6 GT was supposed to fill the void. It hasn’t. The crossover stance and electric powertrain never landed with the enthusiast crowd the Stinger had cultivated, and the price walked well past where the Stinger ever lived. Design boss Karim Habib is betting that performance EVs will eventually get cheap enough to make the Meta Turismo a production reality and a real Stinger replacement.

Read: Kia’s New Concept Sparks Questions About A Stinger GT Return

“We have a small history of doing cars like the Stinger, and that’s something we don’t want to give up on,” Habib told Autocar. “The Meta Turismo is our idea of a sports sedan for the gamer generation. A few years ago, we started thinking about what could we do beyond SUVs? We do produce and sell a lot of SUVs, which is good, but we also believe that there’s more than that.”

Kia revealed the striking concept late last year as the latest evolution of its Opposites United design language. Like every recent Kia show car, it’s dramatic and has a design that the company says is supposed to be emotionally engaging. But it’s not yet ready for prime time.

EV Tech Needs To Develop

“At this point, it is more strategic,” Karim said when asked by Autocar why Kia doesn’t start building it today. “It’s a pure EV, and the price of doing a high-performance EV is what is slowing us down. Hopefully, the upward movement of EVs keeps going. I think there will be more openness to this [type of] car. At least that’s what we’re betting on.”

Kia built the Stinger for just five and a half years before killing it off in 2023. It launched with a 2.0-liter turbo four and a 3.3-liter twin-turbo V6, picked up a 2.5-liter four at the facelift, and was briefly offered with a 2.2-liter turbo-diesel in some markets. While enthusiasts like ourselves would like Kia to capture some of the ICE magic in a successor, this doesn’t appear likely.

“We’re car people,” Kia head of interior design Jochen Paesen said. “We grew up on the side of a race track hearing V8s, but those are not the things that the younger generation care as much about. It actually doesn’t trigger them. It triggered us, but we’re living in a different age, so understanding what triggers the younger generation and gets them emotionally tied in and emotionally interested, that’s important.”

Hyundai didn’t have the only surprise at the New York Auto Show as Kia used the event to unveil the PV5 WAV New York Taxi and Rideshare concept. It was introduced alongside the redesigned Seltos as well as the new EV3.

Created in collaboration with BraunAbility, the concept is a wheelchair accessible vehicle that is fully compliant with the Americans with Disability Act. It’s designed to demonstrate the electric van’s potential as a wheelchair-accessible taxi and rideshare vehicle.

More: The PV5 Is Kia’s Idea Of An Electric Minivan

The companies said little about the “production-ready” concept and have only released one low-resolution image as of this writing. That doesn’t exactly scream commitment, but we can see the concept features a classic yellow and black livery with numerous wheelchair graphics.

More importantly, the PV5’s liftgate opens to reveal a wheelchair ramp that deploys from the back of the vehicle. Kia also mentioned the model has “integrated tiedowns and occupant restraints” as well as a low step height that is “well-suited to everyday taxi operations and entry for wheelchair users.”

The companies said the concept was “created with real-world production feasibility in mind” and will be evaluated in New York, which is one of the largest taxi and rideshare markets in the world. As part of this process, they’ll “engage government agencies, fleet operators, disability advocacy organizations, and other stakeholders to gather additional input and refine the vehicle based on their feedback.”

While little is known about the concept, the PV5 offers Passenger, Cargo, and Chassis Cab configurations as well as 43.3, 51.5, and 71.2 kWh battery packs. The model rides on the fleet-focused E-GMP.S platform and sports a front-mounted motor developing 161 hp (120 kW / 163 PS) and 184 lb-ft (250 Nm) of torque.

Despite the lack of details, Kia offers a PV5 WAV Taxi in Korea. It starts at $33,768 (₩ 51,100,000) and offers a range of up to 214 miles (345 km). However, that model has a side-mounted wheelchair ramp.