Kia Confirms a New Body-on-Frame Hybrid Truck Is Coming to America within the Next Four Years

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Shmokesshweed@reddit

They're gonna have a tough time competing with the current midsize options, just like they struggled against Ford in the compact space.

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DetroitLionsEh@reddit

Yeah they missed the mark a bit and the Maverick is such a good product

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SonovaVondruke@reddit

Was a good product for the price. Now its. . . fine.

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AmateurEarthling@reddit

Yeah I was only interested in it at the original price. Now I also have a third kid though so full size for me.

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buffa_noles@reddit

all they needed to do was move Santa Cruz downmarket, especially as Maverick crept upmarket, they would have had a massive success on their hands

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ethereal3xp@reddit

Kia never had a compact truck. It was Hyundai that did.

However I wouldn't count out Hyundai/Kia. They are very aggressive.

IONQ5 is already a top full EV seller. Better value, bugger than Tesla 3 and quicker charging.

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xqk13@reddit

If only the IONIQs don’t have the notorious ICCU issues

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ethereal3xp@reddit

This is true.

Sadly, the newer Toyota BZ might be having a similar problem. With owners having to wait on the sidelines to receive the part.

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Shmokesshweed@reddit

Either way, they're under the same parent company. I don't think it's the badge that failed them. I think it was a lack of a hybrid option and pricing.

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The Santa Cruz was a result of poor market research. The styling wasn't appealing to the target consumer, the price was significantly higher than the competition, and it gets the MPG of a midsize truck. I had been waiting for it since the concept was shown off a decade ago, but they compromised to make something with broader appeal and created something with not enough appeal to justify. I still think a unibody hybrid should be in the future of Hyundai or Kia, it just needs to be a compact utility pickup first and foremost and embrace a more function-over-form aesthetic like their newer "art of steel" design language is leaning into.

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Shmokesshweed@reddit

Yeah, just about everything is off imo. The front needs to look better. Needs a hybrid. About the only thing it does better than the Maverick is the interior, and with how poor quality the Maverick interior is, it's not a hard thing to do.

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SonovaVondruke@reddit

I wouldn't say it looks bad, It has more or less the same front end styling as my wife's refreshed Tucson (a perfectly serviceable SUV design) It just doesn't fit the vehicle or the preferences of the adventurous young people and weekend warriors they were supposedly targeting with it.

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Shmokesshweed@reddit

I'm not a huge fan of that design language. Just a personal thing. It's not like my Maverick is winning awards, but it better fits with my idea of what "truck" owners want.

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Stock_Market_1930@reddit

Exactly, Ford introduced some radical concepts in the Maverick - FWD, hybrid, and unibody. To appeal to more typical truck buyers, they wrapped it with conservative styling that screamed truck. They went overboard in some places (stamping “Ford Tough” in the plastic for example, but some of the cues (a physical key, options to add your own lighting etc to the bed, option packages in line with the real trucks) were pretty clever.

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AndroidMyAndroid@reddit

The Ford badge also gives it a lot of credibility as a truck. It's a small, simple truck - essentially the return of the old Ranger.

Hyundai has no credibility with trucks in the NA market, and they introduced an expensive, gas-guzzling unibody truck with no existing customer base. At least with Ford, you can walk someone down from an F-150 to a Ranger to a Maverick, or vice versa. There's no path to or from the Santa Cruz.

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Shmokesshweed@reddit

I wish they put that Ford Tough mentality into the interior plastics. They're so, so bad.

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SonovaVondruke@reddit

Right. Ford understood who their target consumer was. Hyundai was trying to create a segment where one didn't exist.

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General_Disaray_1974@reddit

I like to the look of the SC, and the MPG didn't bother me. It was the price that bothered me.

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Ok_Two_2604@reddit

I love my SC but it only gets 1 mpg more than my Ranger with a lift and embiggened tires.

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Shmokesshweed@reddit

Yeah, it's not great. My Maverick with the EcoBoost and big tires doesn't do significantly better too...but the value is in the hybrid

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Lucreth2@reddit

There's a gaping hole in the midsize segment for something that can fit 2 car seats and doesn't get the same mileage as an f150. All, and I do mean all, of the current midsize segment struggles to fit car seats if the driver is over roughly 6'. I bought a Maverick because even that tiny truck had better car seat fitment. Many of the people that I know that have full size did it for kids.

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CaptainGo@reddit

I thought the Ranger was alright at that

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Lucreth2@reddit

Nope, literally, no joke, the mustang rear seats fit car seats better. We tried them back to back in the show room for giggles with the salesman.

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Thomas_633_Mk2@reddit

The average Australian just fell to their knees in a Coles upon hearing this

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Larcye@reddit

Honestly if they delivered what you said, most of the midsized trucks we have would be in life support. Now no one wants to do that becuese then it will cannibalize the full size truck market, but well KIA doesn't have that problem.

Have a cab with a usable back seat, make it a hybrid that gets close to 30 MPG and it will sell like hot cakes and put the Ranger and Colorado on life support along with most of the Taco's sales too.

Like I have no idea who is doing the market research over at KIA but they clearly know their shit. Telluride's are everywhere. the K4 and K5 are actually great and I see them everywhere. Sportage keeps on selling more and more along with the Sorento.

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Lucreth2@reddit

Do you mean full size in that first sentence?

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lumpialarry@reddit

I think the closest is the Gladiator for length but its very narrow and overall terrible truck for most people.

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Noobasdfjkl@reddit

They aren't going to have a tough time if they do some market research and don't put out a product that doesn't make any sense. The Santa Cruz was for nobody. It was a pickup that couldn't haul anything because the bed was too small, the base powertrain was laughably underpowered while also getting underwhelming fuel economy, and was also substantively more expensive than the Maverick that did all those things better, which also had a bigger interior in almost every measure to boot.

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aust_b@reddit

Exactly this. In my area of PA that is truck heavy, I see 1 santa cruz for every 5 mavericks, and even at that point everyone gets a taco or a full size truck.

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kinkycarbon@reddit

Compact is gone for what we think. We’re not getting 1700 mm width trucks.

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Meeganyourjacket@reddit

This thing is so fucking ugly. I hope that's a concept.

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kstetter@reddit

That's the current generation of Kia's pickup

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Big_Size_2519@reddit

probably there will be a kia version of the boulder and a truck just like Hyundai

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kstetter@reddit

They already have a pickup?

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droiddayz@reddit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia_Tasman

Manual, Diesel, Body-on-frame

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kstetter@reddit

I know, I was confused why they're talking about it like the Tasman doesn't exist.

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Thomas_633_Mk2@reddit

Unfortunately it looks uniquely ugly, because by all accounts the Tasman is quite good

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aDuckedUpGoose@reddit

Four years for it to launch and four years for it to stop catching on fire? Sounds about the perfect time for me to buy a new vehicle. Here's hoping it doesn't suck!

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snollygoster1@reddit

Hey, it could also have a feature that traps children because why would any safety switches be needed???

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aDuckedUpGoose@reddit

It's just their commitment to a better environment.

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snollygoster1@reddit

So what's the recalls look like on this? They always mess something up

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Mother____Clucker@reddit

Wow, that is one polarizing looking vehicle, but I digress.

I think Kia has an uphill battle against them in the US market for such a vehicle. The Tacoma is the midsize truck to own, Ford and GM also have their contenders which sell reasonably well. I see this being like the Tundra in the US. Sure they sell okay, but Ford, GM, and Ram absolutely crush them in the full size segment.

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SalesAficionado@reddit

Polarizing looking vehicle ? This thing is ugly as sin.

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Mother____Clucker@reddit

See? Hey, I agree with you. It's fugly, but I'm sure someone who has recently hit their head pretty hard loves it.

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SkellyJelly33@reddit

They told the designer to make it look like a busted FJ Cruiser and I think he nailed it

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SonovaVondruke@reddit

The Tasman is on a whole other platform. Hyundai/Kia in the US has 2-3 entirely different pickups in development, including this new BoF platform and an Electric unibody spotted testing with an EV9 front end married to a Santa Cruz bed.

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kurtthewurt@reddit

Blobfish!

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Wiggles69@reddit

Some people will tell you that the Kia Tasman Ute looks like shit in pictures, but is much better in person.

They are lying, it looks even stupider in person.

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TMC_61@reddit

Woof

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mr_bots@reddit

Trying to beat Nissan with the new Xterra?

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Realtrain@reddit

I, for one, welcome this true SUV renaissance

Now give me a little 2 door 4runner!

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AndroidMyAndroid@reddit

EVs are going to bring back the body-on-frame architecture in a big way. It's much easier to package everything - battery, electronics, motors ect...- in a "skateboard" and cut it to different lengths and widths for different applications. Then you just plop whatever body on it you want. FWD, RWD, AWD - your choice.

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TurkeyPhat@reddit

Honda execs hiding somewhere thinking "what a dumb idea" /s

Could've been printing money with a new Ridgeline hybrid thing but I guess the Koreans cant wait another 4 years and still make all that money for themselves.

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TESTICLE_KEBABS@reddit

I still believe Subaru could have turned the Ascent into a Baja.

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F0rbiddenD0nut@reddit

I hope they change the design because that thing is ugly as a motherfucker.

What happens to Kia's design team? 5 years ago they were making legitimately great looking cars. The pre facelift Telluride and K5 are genuinely fantastic looking.

Pretty much all of their new designs are blocky, oddly proportioned garbage that looks awful.

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grunkfest@reddit

Hope it has a large enough box to haul a stack of 4x8 sheet goods and pull a boat on a trailer or there's really no point. I carry people in my car, I carry wood, gravel, trailers, and other large burdens in my truck. Proud owner of a 2010 Ranger with two seats which I'm not replacing until I can get something equivalent in a small truck. And please, no tiny displacement direct injection turbo engines, or giant touchscreens, thanks.

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Noobasdfjkl@reddit

The pitfalls of direct injection are so insanely overblown at this point, it's getting ridiculous. The amount of motors that have actually seen legitimate problems from DI is tiny.

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velociraptorfarmer@reddit

Closest you're ever going to get is a King Cab Frontier. Welcome to the 2026 midsize truck market.

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SonovaVondruke@reddit

The Tacoma "xtra cab" doesn't have a rear seat anymore. They dropped the access door though, which removes a lot of the convenience I enjoy in my 3rd-gen utility package access cab.

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Insomniax187@reddit

Sorry, but you're the outlier. Most people need it to be able to haul people as well as things.

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Salsalito_Turkey@reddit

Don’t hold your breath.

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Slideways@reddit

The regular cab truck market is dead, especially in the midsize segment.

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C_Werner@reddit

Well considering that even full size trucks are getting the small displacement turbos I think you'll be out of luck. Loving my Maverick and it can do all the things you listed until the engine and screen requirements.

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Fulmersbelly@reddit

I’ve seen a couple here (in Korea), and they’re quite bold in the styling department. Haven’t been in one, but on the whole, Kia’s interiors are pretty solid.

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oralabora@reddit

It will probably be better than the big3 🤣

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captainnowalk@reddit

I’m curious to see what HyunKia does in the space. I’m not sure they’re gonna be able to drive a huge market share, but I think they will be able to nab more than a few buyers if they make good on their interior space promises. Almost no midsize player is really focusing on that, so I think they did find a market segment they can aim at, but cost is going to be the make/break for them. If a full size is just a couple grand more, then there’s barely a point I think. Unless they add some cool extra functionality, like 4x4 standard or something? Could maybe give it more “rugged off-road” chops than a baseline F-150 XL or XLT?

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