Kia and its Korean sister brand Hyundai haven't been quiet about the Ford Ranger-rivalling ute that they have been working on for a while.
What the ute will look like is still unknown, but Kia Australia revealed some juicy details about the upcoming vehicle just last week.
According to Kia Australia, the ute will be offered in a range of single-cab and double-cab body styles with both petrol and diesel engine options.
Earlier this year, COO Damien Meredith mentioned that the ute could hit Australian showrooms as early as 2021 "If we were lucky", and the ute would push Kia sales out to 100,000 total units that year.
He also mentioned that the brand would have to find other markets alongside Australia to sell the ute in, but there's no question as to if its going to be sold Down Under or not.
Late last week Meredith spoke about the ute at the Seltos launch in Korea, revealed the business plan surrounding the ute's launch.
"When a light commercial range does arrive in Australia I’d be pretty confident that… about 220,000 [utes are sold in Australia] a year, so we’d be looking around that eight per cent, 10 per cent market share in that range."
Upon being asked about the development process, Meredith mentioned the possible specs.
"Work has begun. We’re talking about a pick-up, dual-cab, single-cab. What we’ve requested is the full gambit of a ute, diesel and petrol."
While there isn't any question about whether a Kia ute is coming or not, the biggest challenge for the brand will be getting it on sale before its Hyundai counterpart hits showroom floors.
"We’d hope we were first, but it doesn’t really matter — it’ll be close."