It appears that Kia has commenced development of a brand new range of light pick-up trucks to rival the likes of the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton, CarAdvice reports. The Korean pick-up is said to be based on a shared platform with Hyundai, and will hit markets by 2022 or 2023.
If this were to be true, the pick-up truck range will fill a reasonably large gap in both the brand’s product portfolio. Based on the same report, the pick-up truck market share in Australia is around 20%, which means Hyundai-Kia are losing out on potentially thousands of sales with high profit margins a year.
In Australia, Kia’s sales continues to grow in a slowing market, placing sixth in total volume, behind Ford. The addition of a pick-up model could very well springboard the Korean brand further up the ranks. Currently, the only Korean offering on sale in the market is the SsangYong Musso.
Kia Australia boss Damien Meredith said: “The good news is there is a conversation [with KMC]. It’s still a way off, but we’re confident in the near future the group will have a light commercial range in Australia.”
Meredith has requested “the full gamut” of offerings, meaning single- and dual-cabs, diesel and petrol, and rear-wheel or four-wheel-drive. The models are said to get a market-specific suspension tuning, and testing could include extensive hot weather runs.
Kia Australia is targeting between eight to 10% market share, which based on last year’s 4×2 and 4×4 ute sales would be equivalent to around 20,000 units. That would be a significant boost to Kia’s total sales – the company sold close to 59,000 units of passenger cars and SUV last year. About time, isn’t it?
GALLERY: Hyundai Santa Cruz Crossover Truck concept
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(Like) Hilux.
(Dislike) Kia pikap
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Nowadays, there are so many Hyundai haters here.
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No matter how good the design is, people will still prefer Proton X70 over this Hyundai pickup truck. Even old Proton Arena quality is still much better than this Hyundai pickup quality.
If you like pikap trucks and want to show it to your friends and family then go for Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux and Mitsubishi Triton. Go for Hyundai pikap if you want to drive it to carry rubbish to the dump
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Proton workers should learn to work hard like Hyundai and Kia. I don’t see why Hyundai and Kia can do so well and Proton has done so badly with RM20 billion in bailouts given so far.
More fake new from this NST dupe reporter. Cukup lah nak menipu tu.
You hit the nail on the head. Mr Mario aka John has been bad mouthing Korean cars for sometime now. We are disappointed with his negative ways
@ Bernard Chandran
Wah!!!! Hyundai Salesman ke?
So many people are jealous that Hyundai has done well. Well, their secret is very easy. Just focus on your work and put your heart on your work when you work
Car companies fail because most of the time, their workers goyang kaki in office and don’t bother to work.
No point being jealous of others when you don’t put in the effort to succeed.
Same Mario aka Wilson who will thumbs down any pro Korean comment. Even in FB, same thing he does.
very sad Proton fanboy
Because they no longer have reasons to hate Proton anymore (except for our resident troll).
We must thank China for saving Proton. Locals could not manage Proton that we needed foreigners to manage Proton well. Today, Proton is doing well because of hard work ethics from China.
I love it when comments are truthful and the people who makan cili rasa the pedas
hyundai sudah tipu untuk JD Power kerana banyan issues untuk hyundai. Ini ialah BAHAYA HYUNDAI
great comment from bro Bernard. It is so much truth that haters have down voted you. Well, one hater we know
If you buy Hyundai now, all carmakers fan are laughing at Hyundai Fans. Also All Carmakers think that Hyundai Fans are very stupid
betoii. buy kimchi, no rv. beli pakaai buang
Looks like one person put downvotes
Ford Ranger is better than this Hyundai Pick Up Truck
making sure South Korean pickup will passed the moose test much better than high-lard.
Nice! Bmw lights with Benz body.
Take my money
If they make this concept a reality, nothing unchanged, I’ll buy it in a heartbeat.
Unproven and too concept-ish to be workable. Usually those who have such visions for a pickup truck will over expect the resultant sales and quick to give up when reality don’t match. Go see Mercedes Benz X-Class.
But who will buy a Hyundai pickup ??
They don’t have a tried and true ladder frame chassis like real trucks from ford, Toyota, GM and the rest
Maybe they are thinking of a unibody light pickup like Honda’s Ridgeline…or a unibody UTE. Possibly based on their supersized Telluride and Palisade SUVs
Taking a Santa Fe and lob of the rear compartment. They thought it was so easy to make a pickup truck? Come talk to Ford, the king of pickups.
thats a tough job to rival hilux…hilux is not just a pickup….on the highway its a race machine, can tapau any sports car on the road, yet when going offroad, most of the time will be the savior for the Defenders….
Handsome-looking beast of burden. Maybe Merc should have teamed up with Kia instead of Nissan which now looks to be in the boondocks. Other issues, aside, these Koreans know how to get their products designed and teched out. No wonder they are killing it in the US and Europe.
Anything is better than the Toyota Hilux. Overpriced and under spec.
Hyundai and Kia cars are actually good and reliable cars but Malaysian mentality still at 80s because they are anti Korean cars. I do have 2 Korean cars (H&K) which for me as reliable as Japanese cars.. Just my 2 cents opinions here
That’s your opinion bro. But most people already dislike your comment so why everyone should listen to you?
I hope it’s not gonna be like Hiace vs Pregio
lol
So many contractors and foremen here.