Ute beauty: Kia targets Ford Ranger for new commercial vehicle range

"We think we could capture 10 per cent of the LCV market" – Kia Australia boss Damien Meredith on the coming Kia ute, hinting at a target of around 20,000 sales.

It’s been a long-held dream of Kia Australia stalwart – and now chief executive officer - Damien Meredith to bolster the brand’s passenger car and SUV range with a light commercial line-up, and it’s a dream that is finally coming true.

While the first draft of a business plan was proffered to Kia HQ in 2018, planning had already been underway for some time before that, and Meredith agrees with the notion that ‘good things come to those that wait’.

“That’s a good way to put it,” he told Wheels.

“We’ve announced to the dealer network that it’s happening, and we’re confident in the next 24 to 36 months it will be here in Australia.

“There’s still a bit of work to do in regard to a host of things, [but] probably in the next 24 to 36 months we’re confident it will land in Australia.”

With annual sales of light commercials – think single- and dual-cab utes, in the main – exceeding 200,000 a year, the lack of suitable product in that space has undoubtedly held Kia back. Meredith has long maintained, though, that the right product in the right places will boost the company’s sales markedly.

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Kia's upcoming ute | Speculative rendering, Wheels Media

“We said at the beginning that, with where we are taking the brand and where we’ve developed the dealer network, we think we could capture 10 per cent of that LCV market,” he says.

“It’s very, very important to us, no question.”

And while you’ll never hear him say it, adding some 20,000 cars to the bottom line will push Kia into contention as the second biggest car brand in Australia.

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So what’s changed with the Kia ute program?

It’s one thing to want a new vehicle range in the local roster, but a number of factors need to line up before that can occur.

In the case of the LCV product plan, it required more critical mass than Australia alone could provide.

The model cycle of a typical light commercial vehicle is generally twice that of a passenger car or SUV, too, which adds its own complexities.

It’s been revealed that Kia's new LCV products will also be sold in markets that include the Middle East and South Africa, which allows for better economies of scale on what is a relatively unique model line.

Australia has, however, a dominant seat at the table when it comes to the base specifications of the new ute range.

“A substantial amount,” says Kia Australia’s GM of product planning, Roland Rivero, when asked how much input Australia will have.

“A lot of work’s being done to, as much as possible, influence the development to suit our market. Australia’s position is being seen as a very important one.”

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What will the new Kia ute look like?

While hard data on specs and powertrains wasn’t forthcoming, Kia Australia is aiming at the top of the tree when it comes to benchmarking its new baby.

We do know that it will be built in Korea – not Thailand, as some have speculated – on an all-new platform that, according to chief R&H engineer, Graeme Gambold, leans into the expertise Kia already has in the area of LCVs.

“The challenge will be to make it as good as the prime benchmark,” Gambold says, “and that means doing some pretty tough work to get a heavy ladder-frame, high centre-of-gravity vehicle to be as good as what we can see in current offerings.”

One of the challenges Kia faces is just how quickly the LCV space, and particularly the dual-cab ute market, has evolved in the last few years – and how it will continue to do so in the coming years.

The concerted redo of the sales-topping Ranger by Ford, in particular, has no doubt resulted in a revision or two back in Namyang, as has the unprecedented rush towards electrification in the industry as a whole – but this isn’t unusual, according to the executive team.

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“We're well aware of how long the common life of the LCV is,” says Rivero. “It has to have longevity and it's got to be suitable to the market.

“The flexibility in how we develop our ordering specs can be tweaked until the six months before production.”

Rivero also pointed out that two of its biggest rivals have been built to 2022 ANCAP safety regulations, and intimated the Kia product would be more developed than that.

“We know what’s coming down the track,’ he says.

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What about a high-performance version of the Kia ute?

The evolution of the high-end, pseudo-performance dual-cab – think Ranger Raptor, think Walkinshaw-fettled Amaroks, think Navara Warrior – has accelerated over the last five years, and Kia is keen to be a part of it.

“Raptor has been around for a while,” says Rivero. “You're always looking at who are the main benchmark, and the Ranger is a major benchmark.”

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As we’ve previously discussed, Kia has a few options on the table when it comes to performance powerplants, and Rivero confirmed that the 272kW/510Nm twin-turbo six-cylinder Lambda II petrol engine is still “part of the family”… and this would be the perfect foil for the Ranger’s 292kW/583Nm twin-turbo 3.0-litre six-potter.