Kia’s still uses the brand slogan – “The power to surprise”. And it would be fair to say that the announcement earlier this year that the QLD Police would be purchasing the Kia Stinger for their pursuit vehicles caught the industry by surprise.
And now the Western Australian Police Department has added a sting in the tail of its traffic management team with the decision to roll out 50 Kia Stingers over the next 12 months.
The decision makes WA the second police jurisdiction in Australia, after Queensland, to embrace the Stinger as a replacement for the outgoing Commodore and Falcon pursuit vehicles.
The announcement was made by WA Police and Road Safety Minister Michelle Roberts as part of a road safety campaign targeting safe driving over the holiday long weekend.
“We continue to give the Western Australian Police Force the money they need to replace their fleet and to provide the best service they can for the community of Western Australia,” Mrs Roberts said.
“These cars are fit for purpose and they are all 5-star ANCAP rated which is important for our officer safety.”
The Stinger was selected after an extensive six-month assessment program during which the car met, or exceeded, key criteria in performance, safety, availability and cost effectiveness.
The cars join the force unmodified except for a plug-and-play wiring loom to manage the additional demands of multiple operational equipment systems. The new harness was developed with help from the engineers at Mobis (the company that supplies parts to Kia and Hyundai) and is something Kia have been working on for Sorento and Stinger to help them crack the emergency services market.
NSW Police have been purchasing the Sorento for some time and the QLD Police have started to order thanks to the development of the wiring harness.
As with Queensland, the WA Stinger fleet will be the entry-level bi-turbo V6 models with 272kW of power and 510Nm of torque, providing out-of-the-box performance of 4.9 seconds for the 0-100km/h sprint.
There is no natural replacement for the V8 Holden Commodore and Ford Falcons so the Stinger is still be assessed by other states as an operational option to replace the superseded Highway Patrol fleets .
