diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 3b170cbd24d5ef06c2c96a3fd93941e70f28fa26..0c8d3fd4120d82abf5a6cf386479467780e62199 100755
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -514,7 +514,7 @@ kic-base-image: ## builds the base image used for kic.
 
 .PHONY: upload-preloaded-images-tar
 upload-preloaded-images-tar: generate-preloaded-images-tar # Upload the preloaded images tar to the GCS bucket. Specify a specific kubernetes version to build via `KUBERNETES_VERSION=vx.y.z make upload-preloaded-images-tar`.
-	gsutil cp out/preloaded-images-k8s-${KUBERNETES_VERSION}.tar gs://minikube-docker-volume-tarballs
+	gsutil cp out/preloaded-images-k8s-${KUBERNETES_VERSION}.tar.lz4 gs://minikube-docker-volume-tarballs
 
 .PHONY: generate-preloaded-images-tar
 generate-preloaded-images-tar: out/minikube
diff --git a/hack/images/kicbase.Dockerfile b/hack/images/kicbase.Dockerfile
index 940b6602d4929918735e8f995d3f98a1efbf0ce5..6a1fce7ecd895cd2a1e5cba43b522695555be9aa 100644
--- a/hack/images/kicbase.Dockerfile
+++ b/hack/images/kicbase.Dockerfile
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
   dnsutils \
   openssh-server \
   docker.io \
+  lz4 \
   && apt-get clean -y 
 # disable containerd by default
 RUN systemctl disable containerd
diff --git a/hack/preload-images/preload_images.go b/hack/preload-images/preload_images.go
index 0acbf76a3a1b78de9de652822a349543d1469e75..46a033c11d22b9f2061ee9cb3c2eaba55d8ce107 100644
--- a/hack/preload-images/preload_images.go
+++ b/hack/preload-images/preload_images.go
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ var (
 func init() {
 	flag.StringVar(&kubernetesVersion, "kubernetes-version", "", "desired kubernetes version, for example `v1.17.2`")
 	flag.Parse()
-	tarballFilename = fmt.Sprintf("preloaded-images-k8s-%s.tar", kubernetesVersion)
+	tarballFilename = fmt.Sprintf("preloaded-images-k8s-%s.tar.lz4", kubernetesVersion)
 }
 
 func main() {
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ func startMinikube() error {
 }
 
 func createImageTarball() error {
-	cmd := exec.Command(minikubePath, "ssh", "-p", profile, "--", "cd", "/var", "&&", "sudo", "tar", "cvf", tarballFilename, "./lib/docker", "./lib/minikube/binaries")
+	cmd := exec.Command(minikubePath, "ssh", "-p", profile, "--", "cd", "/var", "&&", "sudo", "tar", "-I", "lz4", "-cvf", tarballFilename, "./lib/docker", "./lib/minikube/binaries")
 	cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
 	if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "creating image tarball")
diff --git a/pkg/drivers/kic/types.go b/pkg/drivers/kic/types.go
index 1c2811a1a7f9a3ddae5f56c10f76a66bed3a6781..060cf4f42a15885b4ee82bbb3fbba99e6e101d34 100644
--- a/pkg/drivers/kic/types.go
+++ b/pkg/drivers/kic/types.go
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ const (
 	Version = "v0.0.5"
 
 	// BaseImage is the base image is used to spin up kic containers. it uses same base-image as kind.
-	BaseImage = "gcr.io/k8s-minikube/kicbase:v0.0.5@sha256:3ddd8461dfb5c3e452ccc44d87750b87a574ec23fc425da67dccc1f0c57d428a"
+	BaseImage = "gcr.io/k8s-minikube/kicbase:v0.0.5-snapshot"
 	// OverlayImage is the cni plugin used for overlay image, created by kind.
 	// CNI plugin image used for kic drivers created by kind.
 	OverlayImage = "kindest/kindnetd:0.5.3"