Kia will launch a brand new midsize body-on-frame pickup aimed on the U.S. market earlier than the top of the last decade, the Korean carmaker’s CEO revealed throughout a Kia Traders Day presentation on Wednesday.
Sharing platforms with the upcoming Hyundai Boulder SUV, will probably be supplied with quite a lot of fuel, hybrid, and extended-range electrical car powertrains.
Kia will cost into the rising U.S. marketplace for midsize pickups with the launch of a brand new, body-on-frame bundle earlier than the top of the last decade, CEO Ho Sung Track introduced on Wednesday.
The truck might be one in an assortment of recent fashions now underneath improvement by Kia’s guardian, the Hyundai Motor Group. The bigger of the 2 manufacturers revealed a few of its personal plans final week on the New York Worldwide Auto Present, unveiling the Hyundai Boulder SUV idea and asserting it is usually working up a midsize pickup.
Kia positioned its truck as a rugged go-anywhere bundle. An idea model proven in the course of the automaker’s annual Traders Day occasion featured heavy cladding, the kind of floor clearance reserved for severe off-road fashions, and what gave the impression to be ruggedized bumpers and skid plates. The automaker additionally indicated the truck might be supplied with quite a lot of completely different powertrains.
What We Know Concerning the New Truck
The pickup might be primarily based on a wholly new body-on-frame structure, the primary developed by the Hyundai Motor Group. It would function the platform for a variety of various gentle vehicles, together with SUVs for the Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia manufacturers, officers have confirmed.
Track urged it’ll goal an “untapped” market, partially, by providing a mixture of completely different powertrains. These will embody inside combustion engines, standard hybrids, and extended-range electrical autos.
Preliminary stories from Seoul urged there is likely to be an all-electric powertrain within the combine, however an insider subsequently cautioned that this has not been confirmed, suggesting it was the results of a translation mistake. The Kia world media website particularly refers to “HEV and EREV variants.”
Kia made it clear, nonetheless, that the brand new truck will characteristic severe off-road and towing capabilities, a teaser picture flashed throughout Track’s presentation displaying it pulling a camper trailer.
Focusing on North America
Kia has turn into one of many fastest-growing manufacturers within the U.S. market with a mixture of merchandise starting from the little Seltos to the newly redesigned three-row 2027 Telluride.
It presently affords a small pickup, the Tasman, in Europe and Asian markets. However it’s ready till it could actually ship a extra rugged bundle for the U.S., officers defined.
To get there, it’s working with the Hyundai Motor Group to give you a body-on-frame platform that can be utilized for quite a lot of completely different purposes by all three HMG manufacturers: Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia.
In New York final week, Hyundai America President and CEO Jose Muñoz helped reveal the Boulder idea whereas asserting the Hyundai model would get its personal body-on-frame pickup. Insiders instructed GearJunkie that Hyundai and Kia are battling it out internally to see which model will come to market first. Both means, a number of fashions primarily based on the brand new platform will attain U.S. showrooms by 2030, they burdened.
Large (Midsized) Pickup Plans
Kia has massive aspirations for the brand new pickup, Track indicating plans to promote about 90,000 of them yearly in North America. By comparability, Chevrolet bought 107,867 of its comparably sized Colorado within the U.S. final 12 months, 116,740 when Canada is added in. The large gun within the section is the Toyota Tacoma; nonetheless, that automaker reported North American gross sales of 274,638 in 2025.
The precise timing of the launch is unsure. Kia CEO Track indicated the brand new pickup might be out no later than 2030. Nevertheless it might attain the market a bit earlier primarily based on what Muñoz instructed GearJunkie throughout an interview final week. The important thing issue is the necessity to develop U.S. manufacturing, Muñoz mentioned, including that the group is probably going not solely to extend capability at its present vegetation but additionally so as to add one other manufacturing facility someplace within the States.
Midsized Vehicles: Loads of Competitors
A decade in the past, the midsize truck market appeared little greater than a distinct segment, definitely when in comparison with full-size pickups. At one level, patrons had solely the Tacoma and Nissan Frontier to select from. Then, a flood of recent entries landed in showrooms, together with the revived Colorado and near-twin GMC Canyon in addition to the reborn Ford Ranger. Honda charted its personal course with the unibody Ridgeline.
A number of EV startups took goal, as nicely, although most, together with Lordstown Motors and Canoo, didn’t get off the bottom. The Rivian R1T is the one severe providing at this level. However Volkswagen’s Scout model is about to enter the market with each all-electric and range-extended variations of the brand new Terra. And Kia’s truck may even face off towards the pickup sibling Hyundai brings to market.
