Kia breaks silence on ute program

The Australian arms of Hyundai and Kia have made no secret of their desire for a direct rival to the nation’s top-selling vehicle, the Toyota HiLux, but both brands have been muzzled from talking about the development program for what would be their first ute, which is yet to be signed off by the Korean auto giant.

However, that hasn’t stopped Kia’s head of design, Karim Habib, speaking out about the importance of a global pick-up for the brand.

Speaking to Autocar, Habib said a Kia ute would be an ideal fit for the brand, which is already on the verge of being a top-six player in the Australian market.

“I’d welcome it with open arms,” Habib told Autocar.

“It would fit with our portfolio and the brand. In the pick-up market in the US, there is a huge amount of loyalty to existing brands.

“But there are also new things opening up. So maybe there is room for another brand.”

Habib’s comments suggest Hyundai and Kia are closer to signing off a global pick-up program, which could see both brands overtake Mazda to become top-three marques behind Toyota in Australia – if current supply issues are resolved.

Kia Australia COO Damien Meredith has been a vocal proponent of the Korean brand’s first ute since 2018, when he said it could arrive as soon as 2021, before indicating it wouldn’t happen until 2023.

In 2019, Meredith said development – or at least research – on a Kia ute had already begun and would lead to 100,000 total annual sales for Kia in Australia.

“Work has begun. We're talking about a pick-up, dual-cab, single-cab. What we've requested is the full gambit of a ute, diesel and petrol.

“It’s no good bringing it to Australia if it can’t compete with HiLux and Ranger,” said Meredith. “It’s incredibly important to us.”

Both Hyundai and Kia have made it clear their upcoming HiLux fighter will be a much more capable machine than the all-new, Tucson-based Hyundai Santa Cruz dual-cab, which is currently only sold in North America and is yet to be green-lit for Australia.

Like the top-selling HiLux and Ford Ranger, the proposed Korean pick-up would be built on a ladder-frame chassis, offered with a range of body styles and powertrains, and equipped with the same key metrics as its rivals, including one-tonne payload and 3500kg towing capacities.

Of course, the significant development cost of such an important global model would be shared between the Hyundai and Kia sister brands, in the same way that the Isuzu D-MAX and Mazda BT-50 were co-developed.

But the considerable powertrain and other technical advances coming for the new 2022 Ford Ranger, which will spawn the 2023 Volkswagen Amarok, will make the Korean giant’s task a lot harder.