Kia ute aiming for 20,000 sales per year

KIA Australia is going to be late to the ute party, but the brand is planning to show up and be seen by everyone already attending.

The brand has confirmed it has a ladder-chassis, body-on-frame ute with 4x4 capability in the works, and that it will be launched in Australia in “24 to 36 months”.

Kia Australia executives have confirmed that the brand is aiming its ute range squarely at the new Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok as benchmarks in terms of development and product quality, and the sales targets are lofty, too - 20,000 vehicles is what Kia is aiming to sell, which would effectively represent a 20-25 per cent sales increase for the brand more broadly.

Newly promoted Kia Australia CEO, Damien Meredith, confirmed that the brand has told its dealer network about the new Kia ute, and that the reception has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We did announce to the dealer network that it’s happening, two Fridays ago. And we’re confident that within the next 24-36 months it will be in Australia,” he said. “There’s still a bit of work to do in regards to a host of things. But probably within the next 24-36 months we’d be confident it will be landed in Australia.”

Mr Meredith said that this product will be built in and shipped from the brand’s home country of South Korea, and while there isn’t a whole lot of specific details that can be offered at this stage, the brand acknowledges that it has been a long time coming.

“It’s been a bit of a moving target in regards to specification and design, pricing. Those things are always churning away in the background, but we think we are getting closer, and we’re pretty happy about that.

“We said at the beginning, all those years ago - what was it, 2018 or whatever - with where we were taking the brand, where we’re developing the dealer network, we believe we are still confident we could get 10 per cent of that LCV (ute) market. That hasn’t changed, that’s been a common figure I’ve been saying for five years,” he said.

Based on supply-constrained 2022 figures, 10 per cent of the single- and dual-cab ute market would equate to more than 22,234 vehicles in a full year.

That’s a large target considering it’s almost equal to the combined sales of the Mazda BT-50 and Nissan Navara for that year (23,463 between them).

“It’s a lot. That’s very important to us, no question,” said Mr Meredith. “The market – since GST – has been basically 1-1.1 million units. So, for us to enter a segment, we’re going to have to work hard to get that number. That’s really important.

“We’ve been able to do that with what’s come through in the last years with great product, but we believe and we’re confident we can do that again with the LCV when it arrives,” said Mr Meredith.

Full details and specifications are still a long way from being announced, but it would appear feasible that the brand will offer diesel engines and four-wheel drive, and dual-cab body styles will be the primary focus.

To the end of May 2023, the 4x2 segment accounted for 12,026 sales, while 4x4 models are more than six times higher, year to date (73,938).

The newest ute models on the market currently include the just launched VW Amarok and the ute its based upon, the Ford Ranger. However, between now and the potential launch date of the new Kia ute, it is expected we will see a new-generation Triton, Navara and HiLux.