New Pickup On Hyundai-Kia Global Radar, But Not Right Away: Meredith

Pictured above: designer Theo Chin's view of a potential Kia pickup, merging the new Sorento SUV's face with the body of Volkswagen's Amarok.

Kia’s K2900 light truck left the brand’s line-up in 2013, but the company’s new Chief Operating Officer for Australia, Damien Meredith, is hopeful that a pickup will come - but it won’t be anytime soon.

“There is about a… ‘nil percent’ chance of anything in regard to that right now,” Mr Meredith said at a press event in Melbourne this week. “There isn’t a global LCV [a pickup specifically] planned anywhere.”

“The reality is, and this is just my opinion, I don’t think Hyundai or Kia will have a light commercial (pickup) in the global range until there’s a factory built in south-east Asia. That’s probably around three years away.”

The plant, likely to be placed in Thailand, would see Hyundai-Kia join the likes of Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Nissan in producing a pickup in the kingdom. 

Reports of a new Hyundai-led pickup project have been circulating for sometime, with former Hyundai Australia boss and now global vice president Edward Lee even telling press the company is “studying that one [a pickup] very hard”.

“[We are investigating] what kind of pickup truck we should produce, if we have to. Is it a big-size pickup truck like in the United States or a small kind of pickup truck?” he told industry paper Automotive News at the 2013 Seoul Motor Show.